finalgirlfall's review against another edition
rating omitted due to the fact that the whole work seems to have functioned, in essence, as arenas's suicide-note-cum-manifesto, and i think to rate such a work would be at least a little weird.
i read this book for a class i'm taking this semester on gender and sexuality in latin america. the parts of the memoir that were really graphically sexual that took place before castro came to power seemed stranger and less "normal" to me than the graphically sexual parts that came after after castro's rise to power. blah blah sex and violence and Sexual/ized Violence. what ever.
also, i am rotating the way he talks about the assorted women in this work in my mind.
juliana_aldous's review against another edition
4.0
Sex was alive and well in Cuba according to the memoir of Reinaldo Arenas. But so was totalitarianism, homophobia, torture, betrayal, and poverty. Despite those things there are also friends, community, and a love of poetry and literature. No matter what happened to him Arenas kept writing--hiding his manuscripts in his roof and smuggling them out of Cuba to be published abroad.
His story is a triumph but his end tragic--he died in New York in 1990 by his own hand after suffering from AIDS. His goodbye note though,
left some hope, "I want to encourage the Cuban people out the country as well as on the Island to continue fighting for freedom. I do not want to convey to you a message of defeat but of continued struggle and of hope. Cuba will be free. I already am."
After reading this book, I have added his work to my wishlist.
"I will tell my truth like a Jew who has suffered from racism, a Russian who has been in the Gulag, or any human being who has eyes to see things as they are: I cry out: therefore I am."
--Reinaldo Arenas
His story is a triumph but his end tragic--he died in New York in 1990 by his own hand after suffering from AIDS. His goodbye note though,
left some hope, "I want to encourage the Cuban people out the country as well as on the Island to continue fighting for freedom. I do not want to convey to you a message of defeat but of continued struggle and of hope. Cuba will be free. I already am."
After reading this book, I have added his work to my wishlist.
"I will tell my truth like a Jew who has suffered from racism, a Russian who has been in the Gulag, or any human being who has eyes to see things as they are: I cry out: therefore I am."
--Reinaldo Arenas
bookgirl0925's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars
WTF did I just read??? I find half of the book unbelievable. I have a hard time believing all the sexual encounters and I'm not sure why they all had to be included in this book. Would have been better if it focused more on political aspects and his writing than his sexual escapades.
WTF did I just read??? I find half of the book unbelievable. I have a hard time believing all the sexual encounters and I'm not sure why they all had to be included in this book. Would have been better if it focused more on political aspects and his writing than his sexual escapades.
kellylkennedy's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
This was an amazing story of perserverance, love, loss, persecution, ingenuity, adventure, & community in Castro’s Cuba.
toroyaguila's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
3.0
Como testimonio de un hombre homosexual en la Cuba castrista me parece muy valioso: hay lujo de detalles de toda la represión brutal de la homofobia de estado. Me deja dudando la falta de matiz del autor sobre las mujeres lesbianas (muy poco mencionadas) y su tendencia a la caricatura de casi todas las personas que le rodean, menos de unos cuantos muy contados.
Y hay un punto en donde parece mentir (y esta no es una novela): la inmensa cantidad de sus encuentros sexuales y las condiciones de muchísimas anecdotas sexuales del autor y de sus conocidos (algunas, muy grotescas).
Para mí lo más valioso de haber escuchado esta autobiografía fue tener una idea sobre sus procesos de escritura en regímenes autoritarios, represivos y conservadores.
Y hay un punto en donde parece mentir (y esta no es una novela): la inmensa cantidad de sus encuentros sexuales y las condiciones de muchísimas anecdotas sexuales del autor y de sus conocidos (algunas, muy grotescas).
Para mí lo más valioso de haber escuchado esta autobiografía fue tener una idea sobre sus procesos de escritura en regímenes autoritarios, represivos y conservadores.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Murder, and Pedophilia
robshpprd's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting at times for its insights into life under Castro as a gay man, but aside from that, not a very good book. Some of Arenas exploits seem to be more than a little embellished.
audjmo91's review against another edition
4.0
This is a very detailed and very harrowing memoir of Arenas' time growing up in (and ultimately escaping) Cuba under Castro's regime. I admit, the paranoia and stress Arenas was feeling gave me nightmares that I was being hunted myself!
It saddens me that he never truly felt at home (both in Cuba once "his" Cuba no longer existed, and in the paradox of living in exile/as a refugee), but only once free could he have written his life story.
This is more like a 3.5 book that I'm rounding up - I can't explain why this felt a little like a slog to get through. Perhaps because it can veer into repetitive territory or because, once in Havana, the pressure on the adrenaline gas pedal doesn't let up until which made reading very tense. Ultimately, I'd like to see what Arenas does with fiction.
It saddens me that he never truly felt at home (both in Cuba once "his" Cuba no longer existed, and in the paradox of living in exile/as a refugee), but only once free could he have written his life story.
This is more like a 3.5 book that I'm rounding up - I can't explain why this felt a little like a slog to get through. Perhaps because it can veer into repetitive territory or because, once in Havana, the pressure on the adrenaline gas pedal doesn't let up until