In 1962, at the age of eleven, Carlos Eire was one of 14,000 children airlifted out of Cuba, his parents left behind. His life until then is the subject of Waiting for Snow in Havana, a wry, heartbreaking, intoxicatingly beautiful memoir of growing up in a privileged Havana household — and of being exiled from his own childhood by the Cuban revolution. That childhood, until his world changes, … his world changes, is as joyous and troubled as any other — but with exotic differences. Lizards roam the house and grounds. Fights aren’t waged with snowballs but with breadfruit. The rich are outlandishly rich, like the eight-year-old son of a sugar baron who has a real miniature race car, or the neighbor with a private animal garden, complete with tiger. All this is bathed in sunlight and shades of turquoise and tangerine: the island of Cuba, says one of the stern monks at Carlos’s school, might have been the original Paradise — and it is tempting to believe.
His father is a municipal judge and an obsessive collector of art and antiques, convinced that in a past life he was Louis XVI and that his wife was Marie Antoinette. His mother looks to the future; conceived on a transatlantic liner bound for Cuba from Spain, she wants her children to be modern, which means embracing all things American. His older brother electrocutes lizards. Surrounded by eccentrics, in a home crammed with portraits of Jesus that speak to him in dreams and nightmares, Carlos searches for secret proofs of the existence of God.
Then, in January 1959, President Batista is suddenly gone, a cigar-smoking guerrilla named Castro has taken his place, and Christmas is canceled. The echo of firing squads is everywhere. At the Aquarium of the Revolution, sharks multiply in a swimming pool. And one by one, the author’s schoolmates begin to disappear — spirited away to the United States. Carlos will end up there himself, alone, never to see his father again.
Narrated with the urgency of a confession, Waiting for Snow in Havana is both an exorcism and an ode to a paradise lost. More than that, it captures the terrible beauty of those times in our lives when we are certain we have died — and then are somehow, miraculously, reborn.
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This is one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking, nostalgic, and poignant books I’ve ever read. Eire captures the essence of being Cuban in a relatable manner–his writing evokes a range of emotions from laughter to tears. I grew up hearing stories about my grandparents’ life in Havana and reading Eire’s memoir brought those stories to life again …
Read 8.16.2021
O M G. This was a horrible book. H O R R I B L E. First, the narrator SUCKED. Totally. And then let’s talk about the story itself. It is also HORRIBLE. What a whiny annoying kid the author was. I was expecting to learn more about Cuba and the revolution, but all I got was an American-obsessed kid who couldn’t see the privilege he …
I enjoyed learning about the beginning of the Castro era. I really had no idea!
Understand one man’s view, and it will help you understand the world .. cultures, viewpoints, ups and downs.
I did not like it. The author is way too verbose.
A fascinating memoir by a gifted writer about his growing up rich, privileged, and innocent in Cuba under Batista until Castro wins and he escapes to Florida leaving his parents behind.
This is the story of the author’s childhood in Havana. He lived there from 1950 when he was born until 1962 when he and 14,000 other children were taken out of the country and sent to the United States as refugees. He left behind his family and everything he knew because Fidel Castro had made it too dangerous for him to stay.
Carlos speaks …
This was a most charming memoir of a Cuban childhood interrupted by Castro’s revolution. The author was part of Operation Peter Pan which air-lifted unaccompanied children out of Cuba. Castro then closed the border and the parents were not allowed to follow their children. The author then continues his story with a second book that I recommend …