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India Press Store - Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and Then Lost It to the Revolution
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List Price: $27.95
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Manufacturer: William Morrow
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.106097291
EAN: 9780061147715
ISBN: 0061147710
Label: William Morrow
Manufacturer: William Morrow
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2008-06-01
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: 2008-06-03
Studio: William Morrow
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Awakening of facts
Comment: For those not aware of the relationships between The Mob and Batista, this book is an excellent account of the "two trains on a collition" where one of them would survive being the successful entry of the Revolution on January 1, 1959. The details of the Mob entry into Cuba gambling investements and control and the link to the corruption of Batista reflects the frustrations of the mayority of the Cuban people who desired a change from the dictatorship of Batista and the elimination of Cuba's 1940's constitution. At that time ANY new entry into the Cuban political scene removing Batista would have been a welcomed entry. Unfortunately Castro was not the promised savior from the Batista corruption that the Cubans had visioned and instead became another dictator wrapped in a then hidden cloth of Communism. The book is a never ending detail account of individuals from the 1940's to the first years of the 1960's ranging from The Mob, the Revolution individuals and Cuban and American political and entertainment figures who all provided wood for the burning fire of corruption, greed and abuse of the Cuban population only to serve the financial appetite of a select group consisting of all these groups. Although the outcome of the book story is well known, the paths leading to the culmination at the end kept this reader in full interest to the point of having read the book in less than a week utilizing any and all spare and available time.
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Summary: (4.5) "The Little Man had gambled everything- and lost."
Comment:
English's Havana fairly reeks with the aroma of cigars, tropical perfume and the scent of money, mob figures from American crime families finally realizing their dream post-World War II, their heyday 1952-1959. All the swaggering figures are here; Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Albert Anastasia, Santo Trafficante, the tough guys who made their fortunes during Prohibition, breeding plans for wealth distribution based on the corruption of an island government, exploitation of union pension funds, public utilities and financial institutions, spreading the wealth among crime families, the emerging Havana Mob based in Cuba. But none of this would be possible without an insider to grease the way. Thus El Presidente Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar, a brutal, pragmatic dictator who gains control through a bloodless coup, becomes coconspirator in a grand adventure, at least for the mob and its beneficiaries, the cream of decadent society who harvest the fruits of criminal enterprise, gambling, narcotics and murder all dressed up in flamboyant hotels casinos, nightclub floor shows, resorts, fast cars and women.
Celebrities flock to Cuba, beautiful women adorning the arms of hard-core murderers in expensive suits, the hypnotic beat of the mambo drowning out the cries of the poor and dispossessed. In the paradise English describes so beautifully, the images are stark, the glamour and glitter of money and excess contrasted with devastating poverty and neglected social programs endured by those Cubans not caught up in the magic of power and profit. Is there no one to speak for them? Of course there is: the revolutionary voice of Fidel Castro. The Havana Mob isn't the driving force behind Castro's revolutionary zeal, but it certainly offers fertile ground for discontent, an easy target for the rag-tag army determined to wrest their country back from a corrupt government and the American plunderers who dance under the stars, assassinating one another in the dark of night.
Like moths to flame, enthusiastic celebrities gather to partake of Cuba's notorious nightlife, racetrack and gambling venues, George Raft, Errol Flynn, Eartha Kitt, Ava Gardner and mob sycophant Frank Sinatra. Even John F Kennedy enjoys a Havana romp, thanks to the generosity of the mob. Dressed to kill, the quasi-nobles of graft live out their dream, at least for a few lucrative years, the usual competition breeding discontent in an organization ruled by ambition and violence. English builds his case, a corrupt economy ultimately brought down by guerilla fervor, the glitter and beauty vanquished by rampaging crowds, crime bosses left bleeding in the streets, others scattering to rise another day in other locations, indestructible as roaches. Newly purified, Cuba incorporates remnants of the past, classic cars, a few still elegant hotels and a people's government that delivers a different kind of repression. The truth more fascinating than any movie's fictionalized account, the island comes to life in Havana Nocturne, if only for a while. Luan Gaines/ 2008.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable, informative -- but I found the writing pretty poor.
Comment: Enjoyed the book, learned from it, buzzed through it pretty quickly. But I found some of the writing pretty poor:
"He was like a Cheshire cat, his countenance without emotion" -- Though Lewis Carroll's cat didn't give away much, its predominant feature is a gigantic grin.
"there is no known photo of Lansky and Batista together, or any documents signed jointly by them. Their partnership seems to have existed on a near mystical plane, with each man knowing intuitively what the other required to manipulate the levers of power and create opportunities for personal remuneration." But they are known to have spoken to each other, which makes the relationship a touch less mystical.
"Lansky, age forty-four, was trim and tanned, as usual. His 5-foot-4-inch stature had earned him the nickname 'little man.' It was meant ironically: in his chosen profession as an underworld entrepreneur who specialized in gambling, Lansky was anything but little." but that's not really irony...
"commonly known as gangsterismo (gangsterism)." -- yes, I could have figured that out myself.
"When Batista heard this news, Smith detected a slight irregularity in his breathing, as if the Cuban dictator had been kicked in the testicles." What?
I felt that I came across poor similes, awkward phrasing, overblown description, odd/unnecessary translation etc. every couple few pages. Still enjoyed the book, but wish that it had been worked on a little more.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable but needs perspective
Comment: This is an enjoyable and eye-opening book about the mob's presence in Havana's tourism and gambling operations that ended with the revolution. English has clearly done his homework on the mob and he has captured the characters and personalities of the mobsters; but at the same time the mob has captured English. He clearly has, to some degree, become enamored with their escapades and seems less skeptical than he should be about some of the stories they tell (for example, he expresses no doubts when some old mobsters infer that they assassinated JFK). As a result, he vastly overstates the importance of the mob in relationship to the Batista regime and downplays the importance of the other industrial enterprises in Cuba (for example, he doesn't make the obvious connection that the reason the revolution targeted sugar and petroleum rather than the casinos was that the former were far more important than the latter). But these are relatively small criticisms; the book is interesting throughout and brings to life a chapter in history that is now only remembered through the lens of Godfather II.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting, important, and overblown
Comment: Everyone knows the mob was involved in Cuba if only because of The Godfather, Part II (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition). People also know that Kennedy and the CIA tried to use the mob, angry over losing Cuba, to kill CastroThe Castro Obsession: U.S. Covert Operations in Cuba, 1959-1965. This book tries to take us back to the days just before the revolution and the Cuba 'that was' in order to reveal the immoral cesspool that sparked the revolution.
The book focuses on Meyer Lansky, a brilliant mobster and his relationship with Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban leader, and how together with other mobsters they 'owned Cuba'. Indeed that was the perspective from Havana where the night life never ended and prostitution was rampent. It was no surprise that Castro declared a war on prostitution when he retook Havana, if only because he saw it as a form of racism with Cuban women being sold to the highest bidder from the U.S and Europe. The book gives many up close and personal looks at this underside. But the book inflates the role of the mob ot epic proportions, as has been done in movies, ignoring the rest of Cuba. Perhaps this was Batistas real crime, he ignored the rest of the country. But does this mean Cuba has deserved 50 years of dictatorship with the same isle of pines used for political prisoners? Prostitution is back today in Cuba with women traded themselves for cans of food from European foreigners. The real tragedy apparently was that Cuba could not have some in-between between Havana nights and the daily toil of the countryside.
Seth J. Frantzman
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Editorial Reviews:
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In modern-day Havana, the remnants of the glamorous past are everywhere—the old hotel-casinos, vintage American cars, and flickering neon signs speak of a bygone era that is widely familiar and often romanticized, but little understood. In Havana Nocturne, T. J. English offers a riveting, multifaceted true tale of organized crime, political corruption, roaring nightlife, revolution, and international conflict that interweaves the dual stories of the Mob in Havana and the event that would overshadow it, the Cuban Revolution. As the Cuban people labored under a violently repressive regime throughout the 1950s, Mob leaders Meyer Lansky and Charles "Lucky" Luciano turned their eye to Havana. To them, Cuba was the ultimate dream, the greatest hope for the future of the American Mob in the post-Prohibition years of intensified government crackdowns. But when it came time to make their move, it was Lansky, the brilliant Jewish mobster, who reigned supreme. Having cultivated strong ties with the Cuban government and in particular the brutal dictator Fulgencio Batista, Lansky brought key mobsters to Havana to put his ambitious business plans in motion. Before long, the Mob, with Batista's corrupt government in its pocket, owned the biggest luxury hotels and casinos in Havana, launching an unprecedented tourism boom complete with the most lavish entertainment, the world's biggest celebrities, the most beautiful women, and gambling galore. But their dreams collided with those of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and others who would lead the country's disenfranchised to overthrow their corrupt government and its foreign partners—an epic cultural battle that English captures in all its sexy, decadent, ugly glory. Bringing together long-buried historical information with English's own research in Havana—including interviews with the era's key survivors—Havana Nocturne takes readers back to Cuba in the years when it was a veritable devil's playground for mob leaders. English deftly weaves together the parallel stories of the Havana Mob—featuring notorious criminals such as Santo Trafficante Jr. and Albert Anastasia—and Castro's 26th of July Movement in a riveting, up-close look at how the Mob nearly attained its biggest dream in Havana—and how Fidel Castro trumped it all with the Cuban Revolution.
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