Cuba is a complex, intriguing country. As Codrescu notes, tourism has definitely influenced the culture - to a point where it divides the country greatly: have and have nots, different currencies, ways of earning money, and a caste system based on skin color. While I'd long wanted to travel to Cuba, it seemed like a dream, a faraway culture that was more foreign than not, just by being out of reach. How could we ever glimpse the substance of this place?

But Codrescu has a magic touch - his writing truly conveys the essence and reality of living in Cuba as he experienced it. His understanding of the Cuban people ("Cubans have always been and remain passionate, musical, and mystical" (p. 22),) is drawn from a lifetime of observation. Perhaps my favorite part of the book - the part that showed me the deep intercultural knowledge that Codrescu has, is about the observer's worldview: