Fidel Castro ANNOTATION
Here is the making of a revolutionary, vividly narrated in a masterful new biography of the charismatic leader who for more than three decades--and over eight American presidencies--has managed to sustain a communist regime in the western hemisphere. Photographs.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
For a boy growing up in the Oriente countryside dangers lurked everywhere. Parents and nursemaids cautioned children to beware of "lost souls" wandering the earth, seeking to catch mortals and compel them to take their places. Fidel Castro always slept fitfully. To fall asleep was to be alone, defenseless, off-guard. Years later, as a rebel commander in the Sierra Maestra, he kept himself awake at night, reading, walking about, talking the hours away with his tired comrades. And as Cuba's Maximum Leader he insisted on meeting his visitors at odd hours long after midnight when they were edgy and most vulnerable. In this masterly new biography Robert E. Quirk paints a portrait of the charismatic leader who for more than three decades - and over eight American presidencies - managed to sustain a communist regime in the western hemisphere. Fidel Castro emerges as a rebel from his earliest years. Born into a family of wealth, he nonetheless lived in an atmosphere that was crude and uncultured. Sent away to school at age five, the boy felt deserted in an alien city. He fought often, rebelling against the priests' authority. He demanded recognition and assurances of his worth. He had to be the first, the best, in everything, to captain the team in every sport. As an adult Castro could not tolerate criticism or opposition. His tantrums were legendary. At the University of Havana, he ignored his studies, immersing himself in politics. But his bid to head the student federation failed. He graduated with a law degree and a residue of resentment against the institution that had thwarted his ambition. He remained a loner, with no deep attachments, even to the women he attracted. In gripping detail, Professor Quirk follows Castro as he forms a small band to bring down the regime of Fulgencio Batista by leading a quixotic attack on an army barracks. Captured, imprisoned, and eventually exiled to Mexico, he recruits other insurgents, including the Argentine medical doctor, Ern
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
One comes away from this major biography with an image of the Cuban dictator as a man who is a leader but not a thinker or innovator. Emphasizing Castro's often wrongheaded impulsiveness, Quirk ( The Mexican Revolution and the Catholic Church ) chronicles how his foreign and domestic crash programs have done Cuba more harm than good. Quirk's richly detailed, psychologically acute portrait reveals more about Castro's unique personality and character than do previous biographies. A thorough examination of the leader's homophobia and difficulties with women, for instance, reveals a life spent being looked after by females without being able to form a lasting sexual relationship with any of them--including the 20-year association with protective lioness Celia Sanchez, which the author likens to that between a son and doting mother. Quirk's concluding assessment of the Maximum Leader is harsh: Castro, he argues, has become a caricature of his earlier self. History, far from absolving him, has simply passed him by. Photos not seen by PW . (Sept.)
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