Nocturno De La Habana: Cómo La Mafia Se Hizo Con Cuba Y La Acabo Perdiendo En La Revolución (Vintage Espanol) (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
"Havana Nocturne" is an excellent, scrupulously-researched, chronicle of how the American Mob attempted to take over Havana in the waning days of the Batista empire in the 1950s. What nobody at the time knew, or at least, acknowledged, was the "waning" part. Author T. J. English has done a fine job in explaining how the Mob (as opposed to the Mafia) took charge in Cuba with the intent of turning it into the headquarters for an international organized crime base, and how that almost Bondian pipedream was thwarted not by a secret agent, but by a ragged, charismatic law student named Fidel Castro. The middle of the book gets bogged down a bit in the minutia of what the mobsters were doing on a day-by-day basis, but overall this is a gripping story of how history was changed by one surprising man with a following, while everyone around him had their collective heads in the sand. Well written and highly recommended. Havana Nocturne was a compelling read. I have had a fascination with Cuba for many years and this book does an amazing job of putting things into historical perspective. It's got everything; the American Mob (organized crime), celebrities, the rise of Batista and then Castro, the Mob's involvement in the Kennedy assasination, J. Edgar Hoover's refusal to admit there was an organized crime syndicate operating in the U.S. Some juicy details, well researched and a page turning read. The disparity between the politically connected corrupt elite and the ordinary citizens is starkly depicted. The sad facts that Cuba has been dominated by one corrupt, self-serving government after another, ever since it became a Spanish colony after Columbus' arrival in 1492 is revealed.
What do You think about Nocturno De La Habana: Cómo La Mafia Se Hizo Con Cuba Y La Acabo Perdiendo En La Revolución (Vintage Espanol) (2012)?
Just finished it, a nice and simple read covering the Mob in Cuba. Well done.
—Siica
Unfettered capitalism births its greatest fear; more inevitable than ironic.
—Neha
Interesting book. Hard to know what and who to believe about Cuba.
—david_cowart
wonderful recount of Havana in the 50's and 60's
—OLGYS
