Map Drawn by A Spy
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.74 (817 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B01MQSAIP0 |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 104 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-01-05 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
After being detained in Cuba for four months in 1968, he spent the rest of his life in exile as a dissident. Winner of the 1997 Cervantes Prize and widely considered one of the foremost Cuban writers of the 20th century, Guillermo Cabrera Infante was the author of five novels, four screenplays, and multiple collections of short stories. Born in the small town of Gibara in 1929, Infante was initially a supporter of the Cuban Revolution and se
Found in an envelope in Guillermo Cabrera Infante's house after his death in 2005, Map Drawn by a Spy is the world-renowned writer's autobiographical account of the last four months he spent in his country. Unable to leave the country, denied access to party officials, yet still receiving checks for his work in Belgium, Infante discovers the reality of Cuba under Fidel Castro: imprisonment of homosexuals, silencing of writers, the closing of libraries and newspapers, and the consolidation of power. In 1965, following his mother's death, Infante returns to Cuba from Brussels, where he is employed as a cultural attaché at the Cuban embassy. When a few days later his permission to return to Europe is revoked, Infante begins a period of suspicion, uncertainty, and disillusion. Both lucid and sincere, Map Drawn by a Spy is a moving portrayal of a fractured society and a writer's struggles to come to terms with his national identity.
"Undercover" according to Melanie Gilbert. The phrase, “too little, too late” springs to mind when reading this book. The manuscript was discovered after the death of novelist Guillermo Cabrera Infante, a Cuban exile living in London. It’s done in the man-on-the-street, unfolding style of Isherwood’s “Goodbye to Berlin,” without the timeliness since the revolutionary events it speaks to took place 50 years ago.“Map Drawn by a Spy” has a surreal feel to it – almost a languorously pace despite the tension of a person suddenly finding . A flat narrative of Cuba ca. 1965 that badly needs contextualization Stephen O. Murray It is difficult to evaluate Map Drawn by a Spy. Presuming that the epigrams were attached to the manuscript found after the death of long-exiled Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante (1929-2005), the title was probably his, but there is a complete lack of information about the state of the manuscript, including not even a guess by anyone who knew the writer (like, for instance, his widow, who was not in Havana in the time covered by the third-person narrative that is either a memoir with lots of dialogue or very autobiographical fiction). Sur. "A fascinating glimpse into both the man and the country." according to J. Tant. Those who are familiar with Guillermo Cabrera Infante's earlier works likely need no background. For those who are coming into this book without that background, suffice it to say that in his later days Cabrera Infante became, well, less than enamored of either the Castros or the revolution. This is certainly interesting given his family's involvement with both - his parents were, after all, right there at the founding of the Communist regime. So with this all said, Cabrera Infante's works will have a certain critical perspective of Things Cub
"A geography of disillusionmentCabrera Infante's tone is quiet and melancholicAn exile's plainspoken testimonial, bookending Orwell's Homage to Catalonia in the literature of political disappointment." — Kirkus Reviews"Completed in the 1960s, soon after Cabrera Infante’s last Cuban interlude, this memoir is an engaging sketch of a midcentury man of lettersIt’s also the piercing lament of an exile, who sees his world disappearing even before he departs it." — Publishers Weekly"This book has greatly moved me, not only due to the fondness I have always felt for Cabrera Infante, but also because of what it reveals about his character, the city of Havana, and the era of the Cuban Revolution It is a bare and atrocious testimony of what it means when, gone the euphoria and joy of victory, a revolution transforms into supreme power, that Saturn who sooner or later devours his own children, beginning with those he finds closest, who most often are the greatest." -- Mario Vargas Llosa"To say that I have read Guillermo Cabrera Infante's Map Drawn by a Spy in one sitting, and with great enthusiasm, is to cut myself short." -- Juan Goytisolo, El Pais"The book reads with the same vertigo as that in which it was written Map Drawn by a Spy is the intimate cartography of a farewell." -- Juan Bonilla, El Mundo