Back Cover: From the naked child who eats the ground in an old farmhouse in Holguin Cuban exile who, at forty-seven patients , killed himself in New York, the existence of Reinaldo Arenas is guided by the visceral conformist who dared to take risks. Vibrant
testimony on the abuses of the Castro dictatorship, Before the night is a literary work composed with full fury and poetry. It is crossed its main themes of choice: a frantic search for beauty, even the moon, always the sea, and unbridled sexuality as a manifestation of absolute freedom and in his case, resistance.
filmed by Julian Schnabel, Before Night Falls was awarded the Grand Special Jury Prize at the 2000 Venice Film Festival.
Notice JB:
Thus ends, as agreed, the trilogy "Babel" ...
Before Night is an autobiographical novel recounting what was the eventful life of a novelist Gay Cuba, since his childhood under Batista and Castro in his youth until his death in exile in the United States in 1990.
Succinct historical reminder: In 1940, Batista was democratically elected president. In 1952 and with the support of the army, he seized power again in a coup d'etat. Cuba was then a relatively prosperous country "in town" (the emergence of a middle class, literacy rates acceptable, etc, etc ...) or the press and culture enjoy relative freedom. The other side of the country is more grim: poverty "in the country, widespread corruption, etc., etc. ... The United States is ubiquitous (controlling most of the local industries and land) and thousands of American tourists spent their holidays in Cuba, where everything is done to distract (Casino, Nightclubs, etc., etc. ...).
Unable to unite his own camp and betrayed by its allies, Batista is struggling to maintain its influence and pressure from the guerrillas committed by Castro and Guevara, he eventually left the country in 1959.
followed by a period of uncertainty (say 1959-1961) when the world (or rather the USA) are waiting for the direction that Castro wants to give to Cuba (I guess having unofficially supported that is a minimum). Following its commitment to becoming more assertive to make Cuba a socialist state, the U.S. decided to "break" the regime from within (financing dissidents, landing in the Bay of Pigs) and external (crisis missiles, etc., etc. ...). True
forward base for the Soviet Union, Cuba will benefit throughout the Cold War Soviet support.
Areines spent his childhood in the family home (her Combray) in the country under the dictatorship of Batista. Fairly quickly, he becomes aware of his homosexuality, he will live almost orientation perpetually in broad daylight and that earned him many problems. Teenager, he decided one day to go and join Castro's guerrillas in the semi-hero into a real little soldier and then he joins the socialist Havana. The anti-homosexual and quality "anti-revolutionary" in his novels he will know the public repudiation, prison and finally exile.
The book is primarily an anti-Castro pamphlets burning. This is the "film" of a Cuban youth torn by two revolutions (the 70 and the "revolution" Socialist) that the power will gradually divest its culture, its distractions and its freedoms. Gradually everything is rationed, counted and sorted. The opposition has no right of citizenship. Homosexuals, artists who do not fall into line are forced to format or go to the next 30 years to life in prison. Under the guise of "revolution," Castro will gradually suppress the population, up to forbid her to swim or to leave the island.
"This is what is really happening in Cuba" is an unofficial subtitle of the book. Areines denounces not only those in power, but especially those who support slides (There are quite a violent diatribe against Garcia Marquez in particular, in the 60s, making Cuba by Castro is welcomed in a rather positive "left" is an international no idea or do not want to make, from hell that Cubans living in daily life). Finally, it is likely that the author fails to support, not jail or beating, but that international indifference, the "loss" of his friends writers (they start to write propaganda official or die literally) and see the culture of his island crumble (On many occasions, he refers to "earth", he also begins his story by telling the taste it had when he ate as a kid).
The book is divided into many small topical chapters, sometimes long, sometimes short, as if the author did not forget anything (without spoiler quite logical when you read the first pages of the book or the one knows the story of the author). The autobiographical helping, you are immediately immersed in the action, characters, places, feelings, and the phases of introspection and descriptive being perfectly alternating. The author was able to strike a difficult balance between the hardness of the subject and the finesse with which he approaches it, one feels a real talent, a real sensitivity.
To read or not? :
A very big yes, really. For me it is a mini masterpiece, I loved it. A fictionalized life with exciting talent in the 500 pages of this book. Let's finish this review with a quote very appropriate for Mr Fidel Castro: "The Cuban model does even more for us", "the state plays too large a role in the economic life of the country." Beautiful ...
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