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    Our Woman in Havana: Reporting Castro’s Cuba
    Unavailable
    Our Woman in Havana: Reporting Castro’s Cuba
    Unavailable
    Our Woman in Havana: Reporting Castro’s Cuba
    Ebook367 pages4 hours

    Our Woman in Havana: Reporting Castro’s Cuba

    By Sarah Rainsford

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    It was only when I reread Our Man in Havana that I realised I shared a street with the hapless spy hero of Graham Greene’s novel. My office was just a short distance from the fictional vacuum cleaner store run by Jim Wormold… A piece of paper strapped to the swirling, rusted window bars announces that the lower floor flat is for sale. I wonder if the owner’s selling up to leave Lamparilla and the ‘ruins of Havana’, like Wormold.

    Sixty years ago, Graham Greene watched as the Cuban revolution unfolded and Batista’s regime collapsed. Now, as the Castro era comes to a close, Sarah Rainsford, formerly the BBC’s ‘woman in Havana’, reports on the lives shaped by Fidel’s giant social experiment and the feelings of a nation as his brother Raul steps down.

    She encounters entrepreneurs full of hope and the disillusioned still looking for a way out. She meets a boxing legend who credits everything he has to the revolution and the dissidents caught on surveillance cameras every time they set foot outside their homes. 

    She also discovers the trailblazing work of Ruby Hart Phillips, New York Times correspondent in Havana 1937–61 – and a rare woman journalist in a macho world – who reported every step of the revolution and came face to face with Fidel himself.

    Through these stories and those still being told, Our Woman in Havana weaves an enthralling, atmospheric portrait of this enigmatic country as it teeters, once more, at a historic crossroads.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOneworld Publications
    Release dateSep 6, 2018
    ISBN9781786074003
    Unavailable
    Our Woman in Havana: Reporting Castro’s Cuba
    Author

    Sarah Rainsford

    Sarah Rainsford has worked for the BBC for twenty years, beginning her reporting in Russia where her team’s coverage of the Beslan school siege won a SONY Gold Award. She has since been posted to Istanbul and Madrid before heading for Havana in 2011. She is now the BBC Moscow correspondent. This is her first book.

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    Reviews for Our Woman in Havana

    4/5

    17 ratings10 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This was both an interesting look at life in Cuba today and a fascinating look at its history as seen by a reporter assigned to Cuba. While a book that discusses Cuban life today might be interesting on its own, Rainsford makes this book even more interesting by following the steps of Graham Greene (who wrote "Our Man in Havana"). This is where the history comes in with some fascinating contrasts between the Cuba of Greene's time and the Cuba Rainsford experiences. Recommended for anyone interested in Cuba's history and culture. Thank you to Library Thing's Early Reviewer program through which I received a copy of the book.
    • 4/5
      I have to admit that I have not read Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana, but I enjoyed this riff on it anyway. Sarah Rainsford followed in his footsteps, sometimes relating his experiences through his writing and sometimes on her own. My major complaint is that I was not always sure what year she was writing about, especially in the beginning of the book. She took multiple trips to Cuba, and they got muddles in my (puny little) mind. Nevertheless, she gave a good accounting of Cuba then and Cuba now, how the revolutionaries overtook a corrupt government in an idealistic enthusiasm, and how that so badly went astray. It also discussed how things changed under President Obama's terms and how conditions in Cuba are backsliding under Trump.The writing was descriptive without meandering into flowery. I liked hearing about the people, their struggles, their love of music and dance, and the contrasts so common. Quite an interesting book.
    • 3/5
      An OK read. It was good to hear about what Havana was like when she was assigned there. I could have used a little less scouting around old Graham Green's old haunts, but maybe there wasn’t that much else to write about when the government allows very limited access. Her trips around the country were interesting.
    • 5/5
      British journalist, Sarah Rainsford, was stationed in Havana, Cuba as a member of the press corps for several years. After leaving for another assignment in Moscow, she returned periodically, summoned by the seductive appeal of the island, its people, and - more so - its history. Rainsford's book is entitled "Our Woman in Havana" because she uses Graham Greene's time in Cuba and his popular book from 1958 - "Our Man in Havana" as the inspiration for her own musings. Rainsford introduces her readers to the old Havana (pre-Revolution and the days of Batista); the early days of the Revolution; the mysterious, intriguing Fidel; the foreign press corps and the work they did in the country; the Russians coming, the Russians going; the successes and failures of the Revolution; the loosening up of certain restrictions after Raul Castro came to power, and a current-day look at tourism - what it has done for Cuba, pro and con. The reader is eating well on one page and starving on the next. One despairs at the condition of old, historic buildings and yet is drawn to them on the next page (if they haven't yet collapsed). Listening to street vendors and local workers, one wonders how they have survived all these years of sacrifice, but turning the page tells of some of the successes of the Revolution, and the reader - not unlike the author -is once again torn between whether the Revolution was a good happening or a bad happening. Old Havana in the Batista days, although corrupt, is made to sound appealing, yet so is the Revolution and its results . . .in a way. There is a tremendous pull between the old and the new, the scorned and the accepted, the reality and the dreams. Fidel Castro, as in many writers' books, is still both admired and loathed, missed, memorialized, and remembered. Charismatic, clever, and visionary, he was the architecture of the modern Cuba. One can say that he did not destroy the country or the spirit of its people. The question still lingers: what if the US had accepted Fidel's government? What if there hadn't been an embargo? What if free trade had continued between the two nations? What if tourism's dollars had remained a viable way for the new government to maintain its infrastructure? It is impossible now to say "What if?" yet any reader of Rainsford's book will say those two words often as they turn the pages of her most absorbing book.Rainsford traces old landmarks from Graham Greene's novel as well as personal haunts of the man himself. She looks for famous buildings only to find them turned into parks or piles of rubble. Certain popular bars and nightclubs have reopened under the new, freer, more open Cuba, but since socialism doesn't do capitalism well, Rainsford finds most of these revived places to be lacking in history, memory, and feeling. Yes, one can still go to a bar that was popular with tourists in the 1950s, but all one will be getting is a trip to a location, not an experience back in time. Rainsford visits other parts of Cuba outside Havana, as well, and she speaks with just about anyone who will speak with her. Perhaps because she is British and not American, people seem to trust her. Informal conversations with folks indicate that many are still afraid to criticize the government, but the quiet, side comments indicate that no one is happy. Of course, if one were interviewing random Americans, the result might be similar. Americans are rarely afraid to criticize their government, but, like Cuban workers, most are not happy. Music appears to be the savior of the people in Rainsford's book. Cubans seem to turn to music and dance for just about everything: happiness, solace, escape. Rainsford has done an admirable job conveying a sense of the importance of music in the culture. Although music has changed greatly over the decades, it is still music that gets Cubans through everything from hurricanes to rationing.For anyone looking for a modern-day view of Cuba along with some historic background and a journalistic perspective, Rainsford's book is highly recommended. Although much has been written about Cuba through the years, Rainsford's work is the latest and perhaps the best compilation of Old Cuba/New Cuba. Her work leaves one wondering: what will happen next to this most interesting country? Will the US end its embargo? Will diplomatic relations improve? Will tourism strengthen? If one can finish Rainsford's book without crying for the fate of all the historic old buildings or feeling anger at the poor infrastructure within the country, that would be one strong (or detached) reader. Rainsford shows that Cuba is more than just its politics, its people, and the way it is perceived internationally. It is a collection of memories, buildings holding stories, and a wild, tropical history crying out in some way for clarification.
    • 4/5
      This book is a compelling look at day-to-day life in Cuba. BBC journalist Sarah Rainsford lived there for several years and reports on various aspects of Cuban life, politics, religion, and culture. She also attempts to put the country in context by harking back to the work of another transplanted author, Graham Greene, who wrote Our Man in Havana. I've always wanted to visit Cuba and found this a very satisfying way to learn about it. The book also includes pictures which are a little dark, I was sorry they weren't printed in color.
    • 5/5
      Fascinating glimpse of Cuba from the 1950s to present time. The author both describes life in Cuba as she experienced it while living and visiting the country. And she goes searching for the stories of writers and reporters who spent time in Cuba and compares and contrasts the times pre-Castro, times during his governing, and what has changed since his brother took over. I liked learning how the economy is working today and the stories of how ii dividuals are surviving today. I highly recommend this to everyone at all curious about this island nation.
    • 4/5
      This is a look at Cuban life from the mid-50's, prior to Castro, to now although the author only lived there for 3 years starting in 2011, visiting several times after 2014. Her descriptions of Cuba before her arrival are taken from Graham Greene and the reminisces of people she interviewed. The book gives a colorful picture of Cuba which even handedly presents both the good and the bad of country's history.
    • 5/5
      This book provides an excellent picture of what Cuba was like in the fading years of Fidel Castros leadership. Rainsford breathes life into the culture, politics, and world of the Cuban people.
    • 4/5
      *I received this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers.*I'm mildly fascinated with Cuba and this book, written by a BCC journalist who spent a few years reporting from Havana, offers a good perspective of where Cuba is today and the problems that face those living on the island. Filled with plenty of references to Graham Greene, whose iconic novel Our Man in Havana, captured the essence of pre-Castro Cuba in the 1950s. I actually liked the author's tidbits about Ruby Phillips, a New York Times reporter based in Havana during Castro's rise, much more and almost wish I could find a biography of this fascinating woman. Over, this was an enjoyable and informative read - perfect for anyone who wants to understand the current situation in Cuba.
    • 3/5
      Fairly standard travel-writing fare from the BBC's one-time "woman in Havana", Sarah Rainsford. It's greatly enhanced by a continuous thread running through the book, namely tracing the footsteps of Graham Greene. I was quite surprised that so much of the narrative was given over to this, and other historical parallels, and not so much detail assigned to telling the story of daily life as a foreign correspondent in such a tightly controlled country. I would have expected more of this, given that Ms Rainsford spent three years in Havana, and at such a historic time for Cuba and Cubans. You do get the sense that the country is on the threshold of significant change, but the author doesn't paint a very compelling portrait of what that might mean for ordinary Cubans. One other bugbear: the pictures throughout the book are too dark to make out much detail, and the lack of captions only further obscures why the photo is included in the text. It's enjoyable enough and faithfully delivers its stated objective "to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Graham Greene's classic". But it won't give you much more than that. Those interested in Castro, Cuba and Communism will enjoy this book, but it won't tell them much that they didn't already know. A lost opportunity. Disclosure: I received an advance copy of 'Our Woman in Havana' in return for an impartial review as a part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.