Product Description

This shocking personal and political memoir from one of the most visionary writers to emerge from Castro's Cuba recounts Arenas' stunning odyssey--from his poverty-stricken childhood through his suppression as a writer and imprisonment as a homosexual to his flight to America and subsequent life and death in New York. A New York Times Best Book of 1993.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #169138 in Books
• Published on: 1994-10-01
• Original language: Spanish
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780140157659
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

From Publishers Weekly
In this powerful memoir of passions both personal and political, Cuban author Arenas ( Hallucinations ) describes his voyage from peasant poverty to his oppression as a dissident writer and homosexual. His voracious sexuality pervades the book (numerous encounters are described), and Arenas suggests that the gay worldis instinctually non-monogamous, though he was celibate in the "monstrosity" of prison. The young Arenas, in the early days of Fidel Castro's revolution, gained his literary education working at the National Library; he then joined a fervent literary cricle. The Castro regime, however, banned his first novel, The Ill-Fated Peregrinations of Fray Servando , and Arenas had to evade security police to smuggle manuscripts abroad for publication. Protesting Castro's support of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Arenas suffered forced labor in the sugarcane fields, spent more than two years in prison after being prosecuted as a homosexual counterrevolutionary and managed to gain exile along with many other gays during the 1980 Mariel boatlift. Having appended a fierce denunciation to this book of those seeking dialogue with Castro, the 47-year-old Arenas, who was suffering from AIDS, committed suicide in New York City in 1990.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This celebrated Cuban writer ( The Doorman , LJ 5/15/91; Singing from the Well , LJ 7/87), a victim of AIDS, committed suicide in New York in 1990. His autobiographical memoir is a fascinating and frightening tale of growing up extremely poor in rural Cuba, of varied personal and political relationships, of rebelliousness, homosexuality, suppression, and persecution. In the picaresque tradition, the narrative is earthy and at times raw; the frequent sexual escapades are presumably true accounts. The description of life in Havana's El Morro prison makes the skin crawl. As an author who was not only antiregime but also gay, Arenas was compelled to smuggle his work abroad for publication. More than a personal story, this memoir is an insightful analysis of the idiosyncrasies of an authoritarian regime. Recommended for literature collections.
- Charles E. Perry, East Central Univ., Ada, Okla.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
From Cuban novelist Arenas (The Doorman, 1991, etc.), who, ill with AIDS, committed suicide in 1990 shortly after completing this book: an extraordinarily powerful autobiography that's both a poignant personal memoir and a damning political indictment of the Castro regime and its supporters. The only child of a mother whose lover deserted her, Arenas was raised in his peasant grandparents' home. Living in the countryside (whose superstitions and rituals the author vividly evokes here), the large family barely grew enough to feed themselves. As a teenager, Arenas worked in a factory, but, bored, he joined Castro's rebels, whose battles against Batista turned out to be more propaganda than reality--the real killing began, Arenas says, once Castro was in power. Selected for further education, he was sent for accountant's training in a remote camp where Marxist- Leninist texts and dogma were taught by Communists. By now, Arenas, disenchanted with Castro's totalitarian regime, had begun to write. His work soon attracted attention and he moved to Havana, where he wrote two novels that, though unpublished, won prestigious awards. Shortly afterward, the harassment began that would lead to the smuggling abroad of his writings, which were published overseas to critical acclaim; to brutal imprisonment and torture; and, finally, to exile with the Mariel boatlift. A homosexual--Arenas is very frank here about his experiences and feelings--and political dissident, the author had been doubly vulnerable in a state where homosexuals were routinely imprisoned. Exile proved little better: New York was ``soulless,'' and for ``Cubans who have suffered persecution for twenty years in that terrible world, there is really no solace anywhere.'' Unable to ``write and to struggle for the freedom of Cuba,'' Arenas said in a letter intended for posthumous publication, ``I am ending my life.'' A last testament that resonates with passion for the freedom of the human spirit and for the author's beloved Cuba: a distinguished addition to the literature of dissent and exile. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

A bold memoir of oppression and defiance
"Before Night Falls," the autobiography of Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, is an astonishing book. Arenas notes that he dictated part of the book into a tape recorder, and it was later transcribed by a friend. This format probably accounts for the book's intimate tone; I could imagine Arenas sitting in front of me and telling the whole story over coffee. The book has been translated into a forthright English by Dolores M. Koch.

"Before Night Falls" begins with Arenas' childhood in rural Cuba. It details his life as a writer, his many sexual exploits as a gay man, and his sufferings under the regime of Fidel Castro. It is amazing to read how Arenas had to struggle to exist as a writer in a police state; he tells how he was forced to hide manuscripts and how friends smuggled his writings out of Cuba for publication in foreign countries.

The book contains many shocking and painful episodes, such as his accounts of his own imprisonment and exile. But his life story also contains moments of humor and hope. Particularly interesting are Arenas' accounts of his friendships with other gay Cuban writers, such as Virgilio Pinera and Jose Lezama Lima. Overall, the tone of the book reflects Arenas' many moods: sensuous, angry, joyful, outraged, wry, melancholy, and--above all--defiant. His writing is rich in colorful personalities and fascinating anecdotes.

An interesting companion volume to Arenas' autobiography would be the book "Eminent Maricones: Arenas, Lorca, Puig, and Me," by gay Colombian-born writer Jaime Manrique. Manrique knew Arenas personally, and "Eminent Maricones" contains an account of Arenas' last days as he worked to complete "Before Night Falls" while dying of AIDS-related complications. Having read that book made me appreciate Arenas' achievement even more.

At one point Arenas recalls advice given to him by Jose Lezama Lima: "Remember that our only salvation lies in words: write!" Reading this book, I get the sense that Arenas achieved his own personal "salvation" through his literature, and in particular, through this autobiography. "Before Night Falls" is an amazing human testament that moved me deeply. If you are interested in Latin American literature, gay studies, the art of autobiography, or human rights issues, I strongly recommend this book to you.

Going back
It is most reassuring to see that a film based on Arenas' extraordinary book "Before Night Falls" is gaining the kudos and exposure this underrated (in this country at least)author deserves. I first read this book when it was translated and released in 1993 and seeing the film only made me hasten to return to the original book. Time has aged the eloquence of this memoir but has not marred the impact of the brilliance of the writing. Arenas wrote with a degree of truth and keen observation that makes his moments of antics with his characters like comic relief in a Shakespearean play. For obvious reasons the film (brilliantly directed by Julian Schnabel and acted by Javier Bardem as Arenas) could not dwell on some of the elements that make the book so unique: the extended description of life in Cuban prisons is only touched on. But the single most significant rediscovery in reading "Before Night Falls" again is Arenas' poetry. He had a gift of distilling Magical Realism, transforming even the radical ugliness of Castro's Cuba into the topical paradise so beloved by Cubans everywhere. See the film, but let that experience introduce you to the rich literary output of one of the most exciting writers of the last century.

Different than, but equally as good as, the film
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