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iceberg0's review against another edition
4.0
Fantastic, compelling story of a personal experience of Castro's revolution.
uosdwisrdewoh's review
3.0
This autobiographical graphic novel is a laudible work that ends up bizarrely suffering from the sheer talent of its artist Dean Haspiel, who illustrates the (slightly fictionalized, I assume) story of an old family friend, Invera Lockpez. All throughout this book, Haspiel's cartooning is top notch, involving, and dynamic. The writing on the other hand never truly rises above straightforward and unadorned.
The book follows Sonya, who firmly believes in Castro's revolution from the start, to the point where she openly celebrates the firing squads ("Paredon! Paredon! Paredon!") as she casually walks down the street. But as time passes, she slowly falls disillusioned with the regime, with the book's centerpiece a horrifying series of torture sequences in jail. The book hints at the deep wells of cognitive dissonance and tension that comes with living in such a society, but it can be tough to get past the protagonist's stubborn naivety which shades into stupidity (at one point Sonya, a trained doctor, has to be told that her mother is seven months pregnant, and I'm still not certain if this is done to illustrate how single-mindedly she's dedicated to the revolution). There's a way to make a young misguided character sympathetic, but this book never quite gets there.
Still, Cuba: My Revolution is worth a look to get a quick sense of the insanity that was Cuba in the 60s not to mention to enjoy page after page of gorgeous Dean Haspiel storytelling.
The book follows Sonya, who firmly believes in Castro's revolution from the start, to the point where she openly celebrates the firing squads ("Paredon! Paredon! Paredon!") as she casually walks down the street. But as time passes, she slowly falls disillusioned with the regime, with the book's centerpiece a horrifying series of torture sequences in jail. The book hints at the deep wells of cognitive dissonance and tension that comes with living in such a society, but it can be tough to get past the protagonist's stubborn naivety which shades into stupidity (at one point Sonya, a trained doctor, has to be told that her mother is seven months pregnant, and I'm still not certain if this is done to illustrate how single-mindedly she's dedicated to the revolution). There's a way to make a young misguided character sympathetic, but this book never quite gets there.
Still, Cuba: My Revolution is worth a look to get a quick sense of the insanity that was Cuba in the 60s not to mention to enjoy page after page of gorgeous Dean Haspiel storytelling.
dannilmp's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.0
A book I chose for my Storygraph Read Around the World 2023 prompt. I feel the comic style of this novel really helped to get its points across to the reader, especially the use of mainly black and white artwork with little hints of colour here and there. While the book was very straightforward in explaining the author's experiences and giving an insight into the state of Cuba at the time, because of my own lack of knowledge of world history I feel there were some points that I either missed or did not fully grasp. It has sparked my interest to learn more about Cuban history and the revolution.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Torture
misskitty14's review
2.0
It was an okay read. It acks subtly and the artwork isn't especially brilliant. Upon closer analysis I believe it will reveal some interesting insights regarding the female experience.
estocchetti's review
3.0
I had to read this for one of my classes, and I found it a bit hard to get into. I did enjoy it, but I can't say it's my favorite graphic novel I have ever read.
Favorite quote: "This is our fatal flaw . . . an unwillingness to think our heroes are sinners."
Favorite quote: "This is our fatal flaw . . . an unwillingness to think our heroes are sinners."
vivamonty's review
5.0
A very thoughtful reflection on idealism and disillusionment, set against the backdrop of the Cuban revolution and the buyer's remorse of the subsequent years.
naomiha's review
4.0
Really interesting and complicated perspective on the Cuban Revolution. Classically illustrated, pretty graphic.
jeninmotion's review
4.0
Divorced from the historical question of Cuba, this is a very intense coming-of-age story with stark, memorable art. Of course you can't really divorce a story about a disillusioned Cuban revolutionary who eventually flees to Miami from context, can you? So of course the question is how does one put a story like this in context? A lot of people who fled Cuba were the folks who had done their fellow Cubans wrong, but pretending Castro never did any human rights violations is tankie nonsense, much like the health care and literacy gains of the island are real.
But back to Lockpez, it does mean that when you're reading this semi-autobiographical story, you do wonder "is this basically true?" and "is there important context being left out?" and that's kind of where I was left with the book.
But back to Lockpez, it does mean that when you're reading this semi-autobiographical story, you do wonder "is this basically true?" and "is there important context being left out?" and that's kind of where I was left with the book.