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Before Night Falls A Memoir Reinaldo Arenas 9781852428082 Books

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Before Night Falls A Memoir Reinaldo Arenas 9781852428082 Books

Although this book was first published in 1993, it came to light again recently as a result of the death of Fidel Castro. The author of an article I read recommended it highly as a perspective on the realities of Fidel Castro's Cuba. I have rated this book highly, but I have to admit to a fair amount of skepticism with regard to the factual nature, or lack thereof, of the experiences of Mr. Arenas. The anecdotes range from disturbing to surreal and on to fantastical. I simply don't believe much of what was written actually took place. I have to question if this memoir was actually intended to be taken literally. My political side wants to believe the worst of Fidel Castro as written, but when I question some of this book, I am left questioning it entirely. I have searched the internet for any commentary or discussion regarding this book hoping to find some level of confirmation, but maybe it was out too long ago for such scrutiny to be captured on the internet. However, I have come across other reviews that also question how truthful the anecdotes are. While most of my own skepticism centers on the sexual escapades of Mr. Arenas, other stories are also hard to accept.

I still recommend this book. If only a fraction of what has been written is true, it's bad enough with regard to the true nature of Castro's Cuba.


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Before Night Falls A Memoir Reinaldo Arenas 9781852428082 Books Reviews

I had checked this book out from the library a few years ago. I wanted to read it again and with rereads I always buy them as if they are that good you should own it.
Loved the movie and my recent trip to Havana made we want to read the source material. Glad to find it a a fair price and quick delivery.
After seeing the movie, I was interested in reading the book to get a feel for the writers voice. I'm so glad I did. Written in almost a stream of consciousness, Arenas's telling of a gay writers life under Fidel Castro is far more harrowing that could be depicted on screen. But it's also such a testament to the human spirit, and the quest to break the confines of imprisonment physically as well as artistically and sexually. He relays his story with an unapologetic frankness in regards to his various sexual expolits as well as his bitterness towards Castro. I'm amazed that people manage to survive against so much adversity. After his suicide, we as readers are fortunate there's a body of work that exits, and after reading this biography,the books should be considered all the more precious for the risks it took to get them published.
Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls (Penguin, 1993)

Arenas' memoir of life in Cuba has recently been made into one of the finest films extant by Julian Schnabel. Schnabel did an excellent job with the book; while his interpretation of the text was loose in places, he managed to capture in images the style of Arenas' writing.

In other words, if you saw the movie before reading the book, you're going to be somewhat surprised. Some of Schnabel's more memorable scenes are mentioned in passing (if at all) in the book, and one of the film's central sequences, the balloon escape, gets one sentence. Where Arenas and Schnabel intersect is in the lushness, the ability to find celebration and remarkable beauty inside the ugliness of the Castro regime (and, for a few years' worth, the Batista regime before it).

Arenas' memoir is also likely to shock more than a few in its sexual explicitness (another aspect Schnabel rather shied away from, which I found a tad surprising while reading the book), but so be it. There is nothing gratuitous about either Arenas' promiscuity or his literary descriptions of it; it's no different than using the language of excess to describe the beastliness of a life that involves hand-to-mouth poverty and political censure. And throughout, more than anything (and perhaps this is what makes the book so powerful), Before Night Falls is a celebration, both of Arenas' life and the lives of many other Cuban writers persecuted as dissidents in the latter half of the twentieth century. **** 1/2
This book shocked me, comforted me, saddened me and, at the end, disappointed me. After he spends so much of the book covering this misfortune in Cuba, I felt depressed by the way the book ends (and in the city I live in, no less!).

Definitely an honest, unadulterated account of one author who lived through many things in his life. I highly recommend reading it.
Reinaldo Arenas lived through Cuba's transition from the Batista dictatorship to the Castro dictatorship. As a gay writer resisting Castro's imposition of Communism, he suffered brutal persecution. The book chronicles his attempts to elude the informers and those who would, and eventually did, imprison him for his writings. His attempts to escape from Cuba ended when the Mariel boat lift took hundreds of Cubans to the United States. Living in New York City, Arenas eventually contracted AIDS. He died in 1990.

In "Before Night Falls", Arenas describes the joy his sexuality brought him through the years and how much it meant to be able to share that gift with his partners. There is a lot more mention of his sexual adventures in the book than in the excellent film that was made from the book. This is not erotic writing though - there are no steamy passages describing intimate details of sexual encounters. Sex happened and he describes the circumstances and the excitement and fulfillment it gave him.
Well written memoir of Fidel's Cuba from the point of view of a homosexual who was persecuted beyond imaginingby a heterosexual. Warning I needed to take breaks from reading, but it was worth the discomfort. Liberal Americans tend to think Of Fidel as a revolutionary hero, but he was no better than Mao, whom we also idolized. We didn't know how Fidel starved and persecuted his people, or how racist his regime was, or how poor his economic programs were. Eire also wrote a memoir from the point of view of a upper middle class child in Havana which supports Arenas's findings.
Although this book was first published in 1993, it came to light again recently as a result of the death of Fidel Castro. The author of an article I read recommended it highly as a perspective on the realities of Fidel Castro's Cuba. I have rated this book highly, but I have to admit to a fair amount of skepticism with regard to the factual nature, or lack thereof, of the experiences of Mr. Arenas. The anecdotes range from disturbing to surreal and on to fantastical. I simply don't believe much of what was written actually took place. I have to question if this memoir was actually intended to be taken literally. My political side wants to believe the worst of Fidel Castro as written, but when I question some of this book, I am left questioning it entirely. I have searched the internet for any commentary or discussion regarding this book hoping to find some level of confirmation, but maybe it was out too long ago for such scrutiny to be captured on the internet. However, I have come across other reviews that also question how truthful the anecdotes are. While most of my own skepticism centers on the sexual escapades of Mr. Arenas, other stories are also hard to accept.

I still recommend this book. If only a fraction of what has been written is true, it's bad enough with regard to the true nature of Castro's Cuba.