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Before Night Falls: A Memoir | |||||||
 
| 80% Recommended by our customers. Publisher: Serpent's Tail Catalog: Book Release date: 2001-06-15 Media: Paperback Number of pages: 317 Ean: 9781852428082 Book Isbn: 1852428082  Tip: compare prices with similar booksAuthor:
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| Professional Review: |
| Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas describes his poverty-stricken childhood in rural , his adolescence as a rebel fighting for Fidel Castro, and his life in revolutionary Cuba as a homosexual. Very quickly the Castro government suppressed his writing and persecuted him for his homosexuality until he was finally imprisoned. Arenas eventually took flight from Cuba via the Mariel boat lift and settled in New York. Unable to really reconcile himself to life in America away from the beloved country of his birth, Arenas committed suicide in 1990 at the age of 47, already dying from AIDS. |
| User Reviews: |
 Written on April 20, 2003 Summary: AMAZING!!! Very simply...this is an amazing book. Both informative and compelling, Arenas draws you in like few can and doesn't let you go until long after you've devoured the last page. I couldn't put it down!!! Written on April 2, 2003 Summary: Negotiating Identity Reinaldo Arenas' autobiographical novel, Before Night Falls, is a fusion of reality and impressionism in which he negotiates his own identity in the face of violent political repression. In a country in which homosexuality it not illegal, Arenas explores a culture that demands public conformity but permits private deviation. The novel interweaves his personal journey from his country home through his revolutionary teenage years to his subsequent political persecution and imprisonment and his eventual escape from Communist Cuba in the Mariel boat-lift of 1981. His description of his childhood paints a portrait of open sexuality in which no partner, neither relative nor animal, is exempt from sexual exploration. Leaving his country home as a young adolescent, Arenas moves to Havana where he finds himself swept up in the revolution and joins a circle of writers and artists. The parallel excitement of his intellectual and sexual growth is both restrained and intensified by the political repression that threatens to end them both. The most striking element of Arenas' narrative is the Cuban conception of both sexuality and homosexuality. Living under a government that brutally represses those it considers deviate, Arenas suggests that he had sex with as many as 5,000 men while still a young man. Arenas himself classifies four sides of homosexuality in Cuba: the dog collar gay, the common gay, the closet gay, and the royal gay. From his adolescence until his daring escape from Cuba to America, Arenas encounters many masculine appearing and masculine-identified men who wanted him to play the active role in the relationship, and yet he continues to identify as the passivo. This is just one example of the way in which Arenas constantly negotiated his own self identity, as is evident when Lt. Victor "erases" him while in prison only to be recreated later Arenas was an incredible writer, and the richness and complexity of the Cuban culture is evident in the wonderful imagery used throughout the novel, especially during his time in hiding. More of a series of scenes than a continuous story, the novel presents a detailed look at the way in which all Cubans, not just homosexuals, negotiated both a public and private identity. There is a gay machismo in the tone of Arena's prose; every trip to the beach, every walk down the street is a chance for sex. Arena clearly reveals the erotic and the literary are intertwined, as the vision of beauty and subsequent destruction is a constant throughout the novel and is reflected in his personal life as well. Written on March 30, 2003 Summary: before night falls I have just discovered this book as a result of viewing the dvd adapted from it. I note that your review rating is four and one half stars. This is well short of an accurate rating. It should be five out of five stars or if it was possible better. The author states that after finally reaching Florida his proposed to set up a publishing house for Cuban writers was not taken up by wealthy Cubans living there. This was very short sighted as this man's work should have been openly avaible to the world as early as possible. Maybe, I have not looked hard enough but it is only just now I am discovering writers like Reinaldo. It is a great loss that Mr Aneras passed away and that the world does not continue to receive his contributions however I, at least, can read his books that I have not already read. Written on April 12, 2002 Summary: To The Public: To the public: My name is Lázaro Gómez Carriles. I am the heir to Reinaldo Arenas' Estate. I once regarded Julian Charles Schnabel with the utmost respect for having depicted cinematically, in the film, Before Night Falls, Reinaldo Arenas' literary screams of terror committed against the Cuban people. The whole world stood up crying, and applauded Julian's heroism: his contribution to Cuba's fight for freedom. Now, I am morally stricken with grief, but I am responsible to you, as well as my fellow Cubans still living in terror, to state the truth: Julian Charles Schnabel is a fraud! And I stand by my words firmly, as we know Reinaldo has always done in moments like this, despite of the consequences that, undiscerningly, Julian Schnabel is attempting against my person. Apparently, Schnabel has misinterpreted the integrity of my long time friend, Reinaldo. I have wrote two poems, Soneto Para Una Dama Opulenta, and Como Picasso, for my book of poetry, entitled, Intuición Campesina, and these poems, one dedicated to Julian Schnabel, and the other to Olatz Schnabel, along with my paintings, and a documentary made about my work, entitled, Membranofonismo, Birth of a Movement, has infuriated Julian so: he has fired me, canceled my family's health insurance, and has refused to speak to me, and the only way I can have any further communication with Julian Schnabel, is through his lawyers. And now, I have very few months left to enjoy the peace of my home, because he has generously extended me four months, to vacate the domicile where I now reside, provided that I never write anything about him again. I am about to lose everything I ever owned, again! But I am tired of having to start over, and over, every time my poetry angers someone. Among all the people in the world, Julian is the last person I could think of, being the recipient of the "Human Spirit Award", that would want me to spend the rest of my life regretting, that I used my privilege to write a poem. But he gave me so much inspiration, that I could not ignore such gifts. Please Julian, I am begging you: you don't have to like my poems; you don't have to like my paintings, but do not make me regret my bad taste in art. Make me regret that I have stated that you are a fraud. Written on February 24, 2002 Summary: Loved the movie and LOVED the book! I saw the movie first and decided I'd read the book that it was based on. I'm so glad I did. The book, of course, goes into much more detail and is very rich in its description. The author gives us a vivid account of what it was like growing up under the Castro regime as a gay man. It is sad to see how such a talented writer was treated, all because of his sexual orientation. I want to read more of Arenas' books as this one has only whet my appetite for his works. I recommend this book highly. Read it and then enjoy the movie too. Javier Bardem's performance is incredible (and he received an Oscar nomination for it). |
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 Before Night Falls: A Memoir |
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| Catalog | Book | Book | Book | Book | Book |
| Release date | 2001-06-15 | 1987-07-07 | 2000-07-03 | 1994-09-06 | 2004-04-01 |
| Media | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback |
| Number of pages | 317 | 448 | 240 | 204 | 320 |
| Ean | 9781852428082 | 9780140066364 | 9780140094442 | 9780802134059 | 9781555838539 |
| Book Isbn | 1852428082 | 0140066365 | 014009444X | 080213405X | 1555838537 |
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