[.uk] The Boys from Dolores: Fidel Castro's Classmates from ...

Cuba/Castro/America:
Recommended for one searching for insights and background to the Cuba of the past fifty years. This is not a straight history, or a policy article, or a personal travel memoir but a combination of all these and more, woven around one Cuban private school and the lives of some of its students, one of whom being Fidel Castro. Patrick Symmes is a talented writer. I am not an expert on the history of the revolution or of the Bay of Pigs, but having been once to Havana the parts of this story pertaining to present day Cuba ring true to me. This book is most relevant as this review is posted. The New York Times reports that Raul Castro has taken over as president of Cuba from his ill brother, Fidel Castro, this very day.

Pretty Good:
When I first started reading this book, I was skeptical about the author because he was of European descent. However, not only did he prove to be an expert on Cuban culture and history but he also had many interesting viewpoints of his own about Cuba pre and post revolution. I enjoyed learning about the stories of all of Fidel's classmates and how they were the people most affected by his extreme socialist policies. I also appreciated the amount of travel the author did to get all his interviews. I recommend it to anyone looking to learn more about Cuba's past and present.

Recent Cuba:
The book began with somewhat of an attitude. One of the exiles "wallowed in history like a boy in a mud bog", another "cackles gleefully", and others "unashamedly shook hands" (why be ashamed to shake hands?). I almost put it down, but I'm glad I didn't. A lot of meat, and some very good writing follows. The book is one part travelog, one part recent Cuban history and one part the story of Castro's classmates at the exclusive Jesuit school. Some of "the boys" supported Castro and his revolution before they fought against him. History is intertwined with descriptions of rations, baseball games and streetscapes. The stories of the "boys" are the stories of the upheaval. Some smelled to coffee right away and left. Others were jolted out as they saw their liberties and property falling away. Some, like Kiki de Jongh remain for reasons that are very unclear. I wonder how this author has slipped in and out of Cuba, as he says, for 11 years. He clearly knows the turf, and can write of the changing moods and landscapes. He has fereted out some oral histories inside of and outside of Cuba that add to the literature available to be sifted by future historians. It seems that Symmes knows some of the interviewees quite well. Presumably he has more extensive tapes and notes that I hope will someday be donated to a research institution. In the final pages Symmes gives some ideas about what could happen after Castro's death. I think a good editor could make this a 5 star book. The first 50 pages or so need some work. Throughout, some phrases could be metaphors or statements, it's hard to tell and some ideas are introduced in a way that you might not catch that the topic is changing (and go back to find what you missed). Pictures, even blow ups from the cover photo, would be a good addition and for the general reader, a map is needed. The title is deceiving. I don't think this book was originally intended to be about the "boys". For instance, the author is given 2 addresses for one alumni, and dutifully mails the envelopes. If this were actually about alums, he would have pursued him and other leads.

Garbage concealed as great literature...:
The Boys from Dolores is perfect for those who know nothing about Cuban history, and the social and political re-engineering that has taken place there in the last 50 years. The book does an excellent job at disgising its revisionist aims, by inserting itself as an object of dialog for New York Times Book Review followers. It passes as a well researched semi-scholarly work relying on the memories of Castro classmates. The problem is that the historical foundations and underlying "ideology" of the book are skewed and in my opinion purposefully deceiving. Do not read this book thinking, as others claim, that you will get a real objective perspective of the historical reasons why Castro and Cuba took the turns and twists they did 50 years ago. The author is a very poor historian, but a good packager and promoter of books!

Cuba as seen by Castro's schoolmates:
Absorbing study of a Jesuit boy's school at which the Castro boys were students. The point of view is that of his fellow classmates and others who attended the school. It's a tribute to a now forbidden school regimen. The book details the post Dolores lives of many of the graduates both in the US Cuba and elsewhere. Of general interest as we approach the post- Fidel era.