Castro's Cuba, Cuba's Fidel (review)

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS 213 conclusions are quasi-mathematical, quasi-scientific statements ofrelationships among variables. Texts on such subject matters almost always accompany their verbal explanation of factor relationships by graphical representations. Doing so greatly facilitates reader comprehension. As Liska's work relies heavily on the statement of factor relationships, I would have urged him to carry the scientific method analogy a bit further through the effective use of charts and graphs. Similarly, as his theoretical conclusions and historical examples can only be truly appreciated by those readers with a sound grasp of modern and ancient geography, I would have urged George Liska to incorporate maps of the ancient world, 19th-century Europe, and present-day national boundaries into The Ways ofPower. George Liska has obviously poured his soul into The Ways ofPower. To ask him to recast it would be impracticable and an unreasonable demand on his time, which he suggests is already too short to satisfy his eternal quest for knowledge and understanding. Should the book go into a second printing, however, I would hope that Liska might pay heed to some of the suggestions made above; this could even be accomplished through a supplement. I would hate to see this work not receive the scholastic acclaim it merits. For this reason above all, I would urge Professor Liska to take the steps necessary to make TAe Ways ofPower, his masterwork, more accessible to the reading public. If he were to do so, his theories' practical implications for the conduct of foreign relations could be explored—to the benefit of humankind. Castro's Cuba, Cuba's Fidel. By Lee Lockwood. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990. 379 pp. $49.50/Hardcover. Reviewed by Bryna Brennan, M.I.P.P. Candidate, SAISIJournalist. Lee Lockwood's Castro's Cuba, Cuba's Fidel, republished for the third time since 1967, is almost as timely today as it was when it came out in the first decade of communist revolution on that Caribbean island. When the author's 1965 interviews with Castro were originally printed, they offered a glimpse into a closed society run by a fatigue-clad, vibrant leader who said he sought a better life for an exploited people. The fact that he was public enemy No. 1 in the United States, viewed by some as the man who saw red in the region, made him all the more curious. Spawned by similar ideas and ideals, Latin American attempts to duplicate Castro's experiment, most notably in Nicaragua, went down in failure. That, coupled with communism's collapse in Eastern Europe, makes Lockwood's book valuable today as an anthropological study. It reveals a fading breed of revolutionary warrior and an aged lone fighter who, despite his paunch and gray beard, still refers to himself as a guerrilla. The book starts slowly, with an exhaustive tick-tock diary approach. A description of one day, which begins before dawn and ends at sunset with a crowd chanting "Fi-del! Fi-del!" drags on for pages. Like other Castro chroniclers, Lockwood points out that the Cuban leader was indefatigable, once 214 SAISREVIEW awakening the author to get back to an interview, which Castro himselfapproved before publication. Some of the writing is overblown, especially the all-too-frequent weather reports. And some of the prose sets up some unlikely scenes. For example, Lockwood describes a country scene in which Fidel's tent is compared to "an all-male hunting camp anywhere." Then he notes without further comment that among the litter ofcigarette butts and unmade cots were two bottles ofArmenian brandy and a half-dozen "exquisite cut-glass brandy glasses." When Lockwood turns to his interviews with Castro, the story takes on a rhythm of its own. It is then that Lockwood, primarily a photographer, captures his larger-than-life subject in writing in much the same way that he frames his photographs. He serves up slices of life that are filled with texture and color, mostly because Castro's words are presented in interview form. In contrast to most of his commentary, however, Lockwood's rich photos scattered throughout the book do not make any political statements. The author in 1967 described the Cuban revolution...