33 Revolutions
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
About this ebook
A novel of modern Cuba written by Che Guevara’s grandson.
The hero of this mordant portrayal of life in contemporary Cuba is a black Cuban whose parents were enthusiastic supporters of the Castro revolution. His father, however, having fallen foul of the regime, is accused of embezzlement, and dies of a stroke. Following her husband’s death, his mother flees the country and settles in Madrid. Our hero separates from his wife and now spends much of his time in the company of his Russian neighbour, from whom he discovers the pleasures of reading. The books he reads gradually open his eyes to the incongruity between party slogans and the grey oppressive reality that surrounds him: the office routine; his colleagues’ daily complaints; his own obsessive thoughts that go round and round like a broken record. Every day he photographs the spontaneous eruptions of dissent on the streets and witnesses the sad spectacle of young people crowding onto makeshift rafts and leaving the island. Every night he suffers from Kafkaesque nightmares in which he is arrested and tried for unknown crimes. His disappointment and delusion grow until a day comes when he declares his unwillingness to become an informer and his real troubles begin.
33 Revolutions is a candid and moving story about the disappointments of a generation that fully believed in the ideals of the Castro Revolution. It is a unique look into lives of ordinary people in Cuba over the past five decades and a stylish work of fiction about a young man’s awakening.
Canek Sánchez Guevara
Canek Sa´nchez Guevara, grandson of Che Guevara, left Cuba for Mexico in 1996. He worked for many of Mexico’s most important newspapers as a columnist and correspondent, and he wrote a regular newspaper column called “Motorcycleless Diaries.” He was a measured and informed critic of the Castro regime. He died in January 2015 at the age of forty.
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Reviews for 33 Revolutions
13 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another of the little books that caught my eye on my Wichita book buying excursion at Christmas. This one is a beautiful edition -- French flaps, matte cover, nice design. The author is Cuban-Mexican, and I've been meaning to read more authors from this region. The premise -- life in Communist Cuba is like a scratched record -- every day a repetition, over and over and over.
There are not many revelations here about what life is like under a Communist regime -- intellectualism is discouraged, reporting on the activities of your neighbor is encouraged, you can be stopped by police for any reason at any time and have your life thrown off the rails, rations, government control of media. But there are little observations gleaned, here and there. Details that make this a Cuban story and not a Eurasian Communism story. The 33 revolutions -- 33 short chapters -- is a conceit that also separates this book.
Not earth-shattering, but quietly interesting. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I must admit that I only picked up this short novella (so short that it took me less than two hours to read) because it has been chosen for a group read by the 21st Century Literature group. It is a relentlessly bleak and somewhat repetitive description of life in Castro's Cuba, the description of life being "like a scratched record" is repeated so often it is almost a leitmotif. I can't really claim to have enjoyed this much and can't help wondering whether it would even have been translated had it not been written by a grandson of Che Guevara.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This stark novella, written by the grandson of Che Guevara, is almost an epic poem. Just as a vinyl records revolves at 33 revolutions, so does the life of a Cuban, according to the author. Droning, proscribed, and repetitive. Anything unusual is equated to a skip. Even the number of chapters is 33. The protagonist, ironically enough, identifies his love of reading as the source of his demise. Judge for yourself. Again, beautifully written, stark, and troubling!