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Title: Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro's Cuba by Christopher P. Baker ISBN: 0-7922-6422-3 Publisher: National Geographic Pub. Date: September, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.79 (24 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Travel Book of the Year
Comment: I bought this book after reading that it won both the Lowell Thomas Award "Travel Book of the Year" and the North American Travel Journalist Associations' Grand Prize for Excellence. Figured that must mean something!
I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I was so enthralled that I read it in one sitting, although I wish I'd bought the hardback copy, which has colour photographs.
Baker is a fascinating writer with a tremendous ability to make you feel as if you're actually there, on the back on his motorcycle. There are two main themes to the story of his three-month journey, the primary purpose of which is to research a travel guidebook. The first is his exploration of Cuba's sexuality (one senses that the island's sensual ease actually puts the author - who is English - at ease with his own sexuality). Most prominent and interesting is his metaphorical political journey, which begins with his arriving in Cuba as a believer in the Revolution. The deeper he gets into Cuba and the deeper he develops his understanding, his early naive perspectives dissolve, to be replaced by a realization that Castro's communist revolution has been a highly destructive process, although Baker acknowledges the revolution's achievements and is fair-minded and has no obvious axe to grind (some of the comments by other reviewers about the author being too left-wing etc. seem churlish). The more he changes, the more Cubans open up to him and express their anger toward Castro and his government. The book really gets interesting when Baker has what he calls his "epiphany," and the secret police first appear. I won't give the ending away, but the final scene with the arrival of the secret police is the stuff of great movies.
Politics. Sex. It's all here, as the Lowell Thomas judges wrote: "This is a wonderful adventure book... a meditation on philosophy, politics, and the possibilities of physical love. It has the depth of a novel and the feeling of a great love story".
You end up being thoroughly entertained while being provided a fascinating understanding of a complex society and political culture by a true expert on Cuba.
Unfortunately there's no map so it was difficult to follow Baker's journey without referring to an atlas.
Two thumbs up!
Rating: 4
Summary: Mi Moto Fidel
Comment: I used one of Christopher Baker's guidebooks over a year ago during my own 1 month adventure through Cuba. I found it to be an excellent book that was accurate and politically balanced (rare in most guidebooks). While in Havana, one of my friends told me he met Mr. Baker in a bar and that he was quite the "character". Naturally, when "Mi Moto Fidel" came out I bought it immediately. I had to know the story behind the writing of the guidebook and the man who wrote it. Other than Baker's initial political take on Cuba, his impressions were similar to my feelings about the island. He is able to love Cuba and it's people while still recognizing it's problems. He was also very honest about the change he experienced on his view of the current system. He gives a fair and balanced way of looking at the Cuba "situation". He essentially evolves and gains a much deeper understanding of Cuba and himself during his trip. I can understand how some readers might think Baker is a tad arrogant and self-centered, but he also was able to openly and honestly write about his mistakes and misconceptions; and actually grow from this. A rare quality in people. The book is also a great adventure story that will appeal to those who have or have wanted to travel independently. My only criticism is Baker's apparent disdain for most of the other foreigners he meets. I too despise many of the obnoxious package tourists I meet when traveling, however Baker seems to have trouble finding any redeeming qualities in most of the other tourists/travelers he meets. It seems he won't even give most of them a chance. He looks onto a beach and refers to fat, white skinned tourists. I am not sure how one can judge another person without actually speaking with them. Baker doesn't seem to realize that the content of someone's character has nothing to do with whether or not they have a tan or are thin (Although, I must admit, some of the tourists he meets do give arrogance and ignorance a new meaning). At times it seems he has the maturity level of a Southern California "frat" boy. I have no problem with his sexual adventures. After all, he was single and traveling in a very erotic country. But, I am confused as to why he seems to look down on other men who do the exact same as he. Maybe only tan men on motos have the right to enjoy themselves in this manner? I sometimes get the impression that Baker thinks he is "cooler" than other foreigners. Despite all this, I still highly recommend this book. It is well written, entertaining, insightful, funny, and accurate. Baker knows and understands this island better than most. He maintains his deep love for Cuba despite some of his unpleasant revalations during his trip. I look forward to his next book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Author's Response to Political Reviews
Comment: When it comes to writing about Cuba, authors are usually "damned if they do, and damned if they don't." Rigid and ardent political convictions - of both left and right - often preclude fair-minded judgement. Such is the case for "Mi Moto Fidel," which has been attacked by readers from both ends of the political spectrum for author's comments that either praise the Castro government or condemn it.
Nonetheless, "Mi Moto Fidel" has received glowing praise from all quarters. "Hilarious... hair-raising... an entertaining and thought-provoking tale... this account of a marvelously eccentric trip is a very engaging read," wrote Publishers Weekly. "Mi Moto Fidel is a satisfying and complete portrait of Cuba," commented best-selling author Tim Cahill. The Denver Morning Post reviewer wrote: "There are two ways to eat a wonderful pastry. You can wolf it down as you leave the bakery... or take it home, brew a nice cup of coffee, and eat it leisurely, savoring each bite and prolonging the rapture. Readers can approach Christopher P. Baker's book in the same way, devouring his delicious prose at breakneck speed, or reading it slowly and enjoying... the flavors that make up this fascinating travelogue." And Richard Bangs (author of the award-winning The Lost River, and former editor-in-chief of Expedia.com) wrote that "Mi Moto Fidel should be in the briefcase of every man in midlife. The erotically charged adventure through the forbidden island by a man on a motorcycle in his 40s is a fantastic fantasy realized. With its edgy candor, it captures a whole receding time and place with prickly cinematic takes, and makes a map of a hidden world, and of the anima of its soul."
Most significantly, "Mi Moto Fidel" won BOTH major national book awards for travel literature in 2002. The judges of the Lowell Thomas Award found the book so meritorious that they named it "Travel Book of the Year," while the North American Travel Journalist Association gave it the Grand Prize in the Awards of Excellence. "This is a wonderful adventure book," commented the Lowell Thomas judges, "...a meditation on philosophy, politics, and the possibilities of physical love. It has the depth of a novel and the feeling of a great love story."
Unfortunately, as Wayne Smith (author of "Portrait of Cuba") wrote, "Cuba has the same affect that the full moon used to have on werewolves." As the Elian Gonzalez affair demonstrated, even the most apolitical issue becomes divisive and vitriolic when the issue is Cuba. The author has done his best to remain unbiased, describing the good and the bad in equal measure. His goal as a journalist, as he sees it, is "to regulate imagination by reality and instead of thinking how things may be to see them as they are" (Samuel Johnson). Alas, a significant number of leftists, clinging to an idealist's vision of post-revolutionary Cuba, find anathema in my critical words about the Castro government; while the most vociferious of the right-wing, Miami-based Cuban exile community have attacked "Mi Moto Fidel" for its words of praise for the many fine accomplishments of Castro's revolution.
Potential readers of "Mi Moto Fidel" are forewarned to read critical reviews of the book with an understanding of this contentious milieu.
Likewise, the charges that the author is being boastful in describing his sexual adventures in refuted by the numerous words of praise for his honesty in attempting to describe and analyze a truism about contemporary Cuban society - its promiscuous nature, or, as Argentinian journalist Jacobo Tinerman wrote, "the free expression of a high-spirited people confined in an authoritarian world." A female teacher wrote to praise the author's "rapture and sensitivity" and "picaresque quality reminiscent of the beats but less egoistic." And the Winnipeg Free Press wrote that "For all his dalliances, Baker is neither dilettante nor libertine," understanding that his descriptions are metaphors used to demonstrate and analyze the deeper nature and meaning of sexuality in Cuba, and the greater meaning of this for a writer born and raised in the parochial Methodist world of northern England.
Buy this book and hopefully, like the judges of the Lowell Thomas Award, the ultimate accolade in travel literature, you'll be enthralled.
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