Havana: A Subtropical Delirium by Mark Kurlansky: book review

Havana: A Subtropical Delirium (2017) is about the capital of Cuba.

Kurlansky begins with descriptions of Havana from different perspectives, in which the capital city of Cuba is described as ‘diabolically beautiful’ athough the harbour – ‘once the most perfect harbor in the Caribbean’ is now ‘a bit dated.’ It’s a city of ‘open windows’ but ‘in Havana every splash of light has its dark spot.’

He discusses books about Havana, such as Cirilo Villaverde’s Cecilia Valdes (1882), Our Man in Havana (1958) by Grahame Greene, and Inconsolable Memories (1965) by Edmundo Desnoes. He describes the heat and the sweat that governs the lives of the people of Havana, the Habaneros.

Not only is the city beautiful, but so are the women. Greene describes their beauty as ‘to live in Havana was to live in a factory that turned out human beauty on a conveyor-belt.’

He writes of Hemingway and the Havana Hilton, Fidel Castro’s May Day speeches and fishing – and the ‘most ego ever squeezed into a single picture frame’ – a photograph of the young Castro and the aging Hemingway.

From music to movie stars, from cuba libre to food, from art to architecture, from history to politics, and from baseball to the revolution, Kurlansky covers a broad spectrum of topics, exploring the blended cultures and vibrant, intense lifestyle of the city: talking, arguing, debating, writing, singing, playing music, cooking.

Kurlansky’s writing is an evocative descriptive experience, not from the streetscape, but from a bird’s eye panoramic sweep, from harbour to home, that dips into the pockets of his 35-year memory of living in Havana. He relives everything that Havana means to him, without swathes of detail, but with a rapid brush as if recoating, rather than restoring, a painting – and a beautiful one at that.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...

Apes go to the movies - and remember the scenes

Apes remember major events in movies, even after a single viewing. That’s the findings of primate research in Japan (New Scientist, September 17, 2015). Researchers at the Kyoto University in Japan conducted experiments with two species of apes – chimpanzees and bonobo primates – to test their memory and recall. Instead of using food to test memory, they used films. The researchers made two short movies to show to the apes. Fumihiro Kano and his colleague, Satoshi Hirata, starred in the films with another person dressed as an ape. They wanted to have strong dramatic scenes to see if the apes remembered them. In the first 30-second movie the character ape bursts through a door on the right hand side (there is also a door on the left hand side) and attacks the two researchers (characters) 18 seconds after the start. After 24 seconds a human character choses one of two weapons next to each other and launched a revenge attack on the ape. In the second 30-second movie t...

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Suda...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog