Next Year in Havana is an astounding read by Chanel Cleeton. I admit my knowledge of the Cuban Revolution was cursory at best. This novel does an amazing job of capturing the people and the culture that were impacted when Fidel Castro overthrew the government of Batista in 1959. Her descriptions of the country and the people were wonderfully written. I appreciated that she approached the book as an open minded approach by Marisol Ferrera during her first visit to the country she considers her home. The love of the Cuban people for their country is captured in the characters in the book. It is hard not to feel the emotions and the struggles the Perez family felt in the late 50s and those that Marisol faces in the modern era.
Cleeton tries to reflect both sides of the situation from the perspective of the exiled and those who remained and live there in current times. She acknowledges that change does not always come about as planned nor is the opening of the country to mass tourism the answer to the Cubans problems. They are a proud people and just want to be able to be free and make an honest living in their own country. The book highlights a feeling that the citizens of Cuba feel as though they are tourists in their own country and cannot enjoy the country and the culture as much as a visitor is able. She talks of the laws that prohibited citizens from staying in hotels and the fear of speaking out against the government still today. This is something that we as Americans do not have to struggle with and we should remember that although things may not be perfect here in our nation, they are far worse elsewhere in the world.
I feel as though I was invested in this book even more because my son is considering attending the University of Miami for college and we have recently spent time there on a visit. I look forward to more Cuban culture exposure if he should go there. I hope to someday have the opportunity to visit the country of Cuba and see the wonderful beauty of the country and its people- my parents were fortunate to visit on a cruise when things first opened and Americans were allowed to visit briefly. Hopefully that will come back sooner than later. I am looking forward to reading When We Left Cuba as it focuses on Beatriz Perez and her life in exile.
Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
stunning portrait of being a Cuban
This book is an amazing portrayal of the conflict many Cuban exile families must feel having left their country. I appreciate the story also reflects the perspective of those who remained. The novel balances history with romantic relationships and love as well as loss. I look forward to reading her other works
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Challenge Prompts
The Challenge Prompts I will use this for are:
- Library Love #LibraryLoveChallenge Book #21
- Literary Escapes #LiteraryEscapes Cuba
- AtoZ #2022AtoZReadingChallenge #AlphabetSoupChallenge N
- 2022TBR #2022ReadingChallenge #8 Book Set in a Country you'd Love to Visit
- Virtual Mount TBR #VirtualMountTBR2022 Book #23
- Back List Reader #Backlistreader Book #14
- Historic Fiction #histficreadingchallenge Book #4
- 52 Book Club #the52bookclub #24 Addresses a specific topic
- Around the Year in 52 Books #52. A book with a time-related word in the title
- BooklistQueen #booklistqueenreadingchallenge2022 #46. Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick
- Beat the Backlist #BTB2022 #19 picked by a celebrity book club
- Bookworm #42 Read a Dystopian
- Nerdy Bookworm #NerdyBookwormChallengeXO #2 A Reese Witherspoon BOTM pick
- Nancy Drew #37. The Clue in the Old Stagecoach (1960) - read a historical book
- Nerd Daily #NERDREADING2022 #2 debut author
- OWLS 22 #10 Mad Eye Moody: A book with multiple points of view
- PopSugar #popsugarreadingchallenge #6. A book by a Latinx author
- Pick your Poison #99 a book about a social movement
- Beyond the Bookends Historical Fiction
- 52 books in 52 weeks #11 Myths, Monsters, and Imagination
- Unruly Reader Bingo #19 time capsule
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