Book Review
The Tragedy of Fidel Castro
by João Cerqueira
About the Author
João Cerqueira was born in Portugal in 1964 and lives in Viana do
Castelo. He has a PhD in art history from the University of Oporto. He had four year research sponsorship grant awarded by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), within the field of history of art. He covered the Porto 2001 European Capital of Culture for Arte Ibérica magazine.
João is the author of seven books, including the novels Blame It on Too Much Freedom, Devil's Observations, and The Tragedy of Fidel Castro, and the nonfiction books Art and Literature in the Spanish Civil War (published in Portugal and Brazil), Maria Pia: Queen and Woman, José de Guimarães (published in China by the Today Art Museum), and José de Guimarães: Public Art. His novels satirize modern society and use irony and humor to provoke reflection and controversy.
João Cerqueira was born in Portugal in 1964 and lives in Viana do
Castelo. He has a PhD in art history from the University of Oporto. He had four year research sponsorship grant awarded by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), within the field of history of art. He covered the Porto 2001 European Capital of Culture for Arte Ibérica magazine. João is the author of seven books, including the novels Blame It on Too Much Freedom, Devil's Observations, and The Tragedy of Fidel Castro, and the nonfiction books Art and Literature in the Spanish Civil War (published in Portugal and Brazil), Maria Pia: Queen and Woman, José de Guimarães (published in China by the Today Art Museum), and José de Guimarães: Public Art. His novels satirize modern society and use irony and humor to provoke reflection and controversy.
Book Description
When God receives a request from Fátima to help prevent a war between
Fidel Castro and JFK, he asks his son, Jesus, to return to Earth and
diffuse the conflict. On his island, Fidel Castro faces protests on the
streets and realizes that he is about to be overthrown. Alone,
surrounded, and aware that the end is fast approaching, he plays his
last card. Meanwhile, Christ arrives on Earth and teams up with Fátima,
who is convinced she can create a miracle to avoid the final battle
between JFK and Fidel Castro and save the world as we know it. At the
end, something really extraordinary happens!
Humorous, rich with metaphor, and refreshingly imaginative, The Tragedy of Fidel Castro was chosen as the book-of-the-month and book-of-the-year by Os Meus Livros magazine.
Humorous, rich with metaphor, and refreshingly imaginative, The Tragedy of Fidel Castro was chosen as the book-of-the-month and book-of-the-year by Os Meus Livros magazine.
Our Book Review
This is one of them books, for me personally, that I realised as soon as I read the prologue that the book was on one of my favourite subject areas and if it was as good as I thought it was going to be that I wouldn't want it to finish and be left wanting more.
Even though the author states in his prologue that his characters are not the real, JFK, Fidel Castro, God and God's son Jesus, I think this is the author sense of humour which is strongly evident throughout, it's hard not to relate the characters to the real people.
In order to prevent conflict between JFK and Castro God sends his son to earth to solve it.
The author's knowledge and research shines through the characters and the way they think. A struggle of ideologies of two different people who wanted to achieve the same goal for the best of their people, one through a dictatorship and the other through democracy.
This booked had me hooked from page one, the descriptions and thoughts of the characters give the readers real food for thought .The author uses very clever examples of how one mans actions
can make you think about your beliefs and are they the right or can you change them for the better.
As the story developed the writers humour really comes through on a par with Tom Sharpe .The author places Castro in some excellent situations which both challenge and explain his reasoning and beliefs.
This is an excellent and enthralling read and I really hope that I can obtain or purchase the authors other publications.
This is one of them books, for me personally, that I realised as soon as I read the prologue that the book was on one of my favourite subject areas and if it was as good as I thought it was going to be that I wouldn't want it to finish and be left wanting more.
Even though the author states in his prologue that his characters are not the real, JFK, Fidel Castro, God and God's son Jesus, I think this is the author sense of humour which is strongly evident throughout, it's hard not to relate the characters to the real people.
In order to prevent conflict between JFK and Castro God sends his son to earth to solve it.
The author's knowledge and research shines through the characters and the way they think. A struggle of ideologies of two different people who wanted to achieve the same goal for the best of their people, one through a dictatorship and the other through democracy.
This booked had me hooked from page one, the descriptions and thoughts of the characters give the readers real food for thought .The author uses very clever examples of how one mans actions
can make you think about your beliefs and are they the right or can you change them for the better.
As the story developed the writers humour really comes through on a par with Tom Sharpe .The author places Castro in some excellent situations which both challenge and explain his reasoning and beliefs.
This is an excellent and enthralling read and I really hope that I can obtain or purchase the authors other publications.
Our Rating
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I read the title and thought I was going to see a story based on historic events. Then I read your review and saw that this is a completely different. Love it when an author takes a backdoor approach to something serious. Totally unique for sure.
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic, and great review!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a wonderful book. My daughter is learning about the whole JFK/Castro history in school right now. It was a scary time.
ReplyDeleteI spent a lot of time researching Fidel Castro and his revolution in preparation for writing my own novel "Rebels on the Mountain". Fidel is a tragic personality, but the tragedy belongs to Cuba and its people. I will certainly add this book to my TBR pile (which is threatening to inundate me soon). Thanks for the heads up...
ReplyDeleteSound interesting and another one to put on my list of must reads.
ReplyDeleteI can't decide whether I want or dont want to read this one. I can tell you this it sure sounds like it would be an interesting read.
ReplyDelete