Available:*
Library | Call Number | Material Type | Home Location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Library | F1788.22.C3 G48 1991 | Adult Non-Fiction | Central Closed Stacks | Searching... |
| Central Library | F1788.22.C3 G48 1991 | Adult Non-Fiction | Central Closed Stacks | Searching... |
On Order
Summary
Summary
In this biography, Castro emerges as the betrayer of his own people, motivated partly by megalomania and also by extreme anti-Americanism. There are revelations about his personal life: his parents, wife, mistresses, children, and his colleagues in Cuba, the Soviet Union, and other nations.
Reviews 2
Publisher's Weekly Review
Geyer ( Buying the Night Flight ) presents the Cuban dictator as a failure in virtually every category--son, husband, father, friend, revolutionary, statesman--and describes him as ``wholly without human principle.'' At the same time, however, she calls him a genius who has changed the very nature of war. His Machiavellian hand, she argues, has figured in every major U.S. foreign policy crisis of the last 30 years; moreover, he has had a profound effect on the psyche, patriotism and self-confidence of the U.S. Geyer's evidence for such sweeping claims is unconvincing, nor does she support her charges that Castro attempted to subvert black America and that key members of the anti-Vietnam war movement were trained in Cuba. This ambitious if somewhat feverish biography is nonetheless worth reading for its insights into Castro's obsession with the U.S. and revelations about his family, his many amours and illegitimate children. Photos. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
Geyer, a syndicated journalist long familiar with Latin America and intrigued by Castro, has crafted a major biography of this enigmatic and fascinating figure. Her work differs from Ted Szulc's Fidel: A Critical Portrait ( LJ 1/15/87) in that it focuses on Castro's personality, on his personal rather than policy motivations, and offers a detailed psychological portrait. Geyer used some 900 interviews obtained over many years to document Castro's brutal treatment of thousands of Cubans and his fanatic hatred of the United States. The reader is left with a persuasive picture of a paranoid, erratic megalomaniac, whose personal life is a microcosm of his public behavior. Highly recommended.-- Roderic A. Camp, Central Coll., Pella, Ia. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.