Ligaya Mishan
In Learning to Die in Miami, [Eire] once more channels the voice of his younger self—chatty, cocky, hyperbolic, ardent—without imposing an adult's guile or sentimentality…Eire is a tremendously likable narrator, honest about the limitations of memory, always wearing his heart on his sleeve…those who remember the exuberant kid from Waiting for Snow in Havana—launching a lizard into outer space on the back of a firecracker, chasing after beautiful blue clouds of DDT—will be moved by the man he becomes.
—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
A stranger in a strange land, Eire (Waiting for Snow in Havana), one of 14,000 children airlifted out of Cuba in Operation Peter Pan in 1962, describes the classic American immigrant experience in Miami, Fla., with a mix of insightful observation, humor, and heartfelt emotion. With his older brother, Tony, the 11-year-old boy compares the Yankee environment, which he describes as "so advanced and so wealthy," to the oppressive "Castrolandia and its fascination with Soviet backwardness." Despite the absence of his biological parents and enduring uncaring foster homes, Eire conquers the English language, survives crass holiday consumerism, and excels at academia and the American dream. Easily one of the more impressive memoirs on the thorny issue of immigration, this book provides a winning formula for immigrants "finding themselves at the bottom of the heap and knowing that they will climb their way back to the top, no matter what." (Nov.)
From the Publisher
"The history of a conversion, from skeptic to believer….The Cuban identity sticks throughout, for Eire spikes his text with Spanish, but a spiritual quest overrides nationality….At this point, he transcends the crowded field of the Cuban American memoir subgenre and, quite effectively, transcends.”
—The Miami Herald
“…Irreverent, deeply affecting.…rich with smile-inducing pop-culture references and childhood pleasures. Eire loves Marilyn Monroe; models his speech after Andy Griffith and the Beverly Hillbillies; and revels in swimming pools, matinees, the public library, Halloween and, at long last, the mythical snow he finally experiences in Illinois….above all, a story of resilience.”
—The Seattle Times
“[Eire] writes with both levity and wisdom about the tension between Carlos the Cuban and Charles the American, describing his process of maturing as ‘learning to die’—or, more prosaically, to let go of worldly attachments such as his childhood memories of life in Cuba. With each move, unrequited schoolyard crush or achievement in his adopted language, he sheds a former self. Eventually he embraces this continual reinvention as itself something distinctly American.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“[A] vivid, affecting memoir of survival and coming of age….An engrossing Cuban-American story that will leave readers wanting more.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Eire is a tremendously likable narrator, honest about the limitations of memory, always wearing his heart on his sleeve.…those who remember the exuberant kid from Waiting for Snow in Havana…will be moved by the man he becomes.”
—The New York Times Book Review
Library Journal
Eire (T. Lawrason Riggs Professor of History & Religious Studies, Yale) takes readers on his personal journey, beginning in 1962 when he and his brother arrived in Florida as part of Operation Peter Pan—an evacuation of 14,000 Cuban children whose parents arranged for their relocation to the United States, away from Castro. Eire's prose engages us throughout as we learn of the challenges he faced as he assimilated to his new world. He often carries us back to Cuba, where his parents remained. He longed for his family traditions, even as the United States became his "real world"—a world lit up with color. The reader becomes a part of Eire's assimilation journey, which although at times provides humor, was more often simply difficult. Eire interlaces Spanish appropriately, thus illustrating how he still thinks in one language but speaks another. VERDICT Eire shows how strong and deep are the personal impacts of emigration, yet he met his challenges head-on and succeeded. Readers of memoir and immigrant stories will appreciate Eire's journey and celebrate his accomplishments.—Susan Montgomery, Rollins Coll. Lib., Winter Park, FL
DECEMBER 2010 - AudioFile
Gifted narrator Robert Fass exploits all the ironic humor and sadness of two young Cuban brothers who are adjusting to their new country, new language, and new school—without their parents. In an airlift few remember, Carlos and Tony arrived in Miami as refugees from the increasingly oppressive Castro government of the early 1960s. The younger brother records his painful memories of racial bullying, mayonnaise sandwiches, and huge rats. As they become bilingual, the boys’ raw thoughts in their native language act as hilarious dramatic asides. Fass’s sandy, taciturn voice makes addictive a story that everyone who was once a child will appreciate. He has total control of the three languages spoken: English (mostly), Mexican Spanish, and Cuban Spanish. He even sings “O Tannenbaum” in Austrian German. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
In a follow-up to his 2003 National Book Award–winningWaiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy, Eire (History and Religious Studies/Yale Univ.) describes his early years of exile in the United States.
In 1962, at age 11, the author and his older brother, Tony, were among 14,000 children airlifted from Castro's Cuba to Florida. This vivid, affecting memoir of survival and coming of age traces Eire's experiences living in several places through 1965, when his mother finally came to the United States. In this period of "death and rebirth," the author tried to blot out memories of a repressive Castrolandia and thrilled to a Miami where everything was "so new, so free of ghosts, so wide open." While his brother was sent elsewhere, Eire was taken in by a kind Jewish family, learned English and Yiddish, and began calling himself Charles, hoping to fit in, even as he desperately missed his parents. His father remained and later died in Cuba. Within the year, the brothers were reunited in yet another Miami home, this one ruled by strict foster parents and overrun by mice and roaches. While Cuban exiles trained for war in nearby fields in the wake of the Bay of Pigs, Carlos felt "wholly and truly American," engaging in food fights and Halloween pranks. He also discovered a portal to a much larger world on the shelves of a local public library. Finally, in 1963, he and Tony happily joined the family of an uncle and aunt in the Midwest. There his experience of a "presence" on Holy Thursday helped him better understand the lessons of Thomas a Kempis's manual of devotion,The Imitation of Christ—a parting gift from his parents—and set him on a course to become a teacher and historian of religion.
An engrossing Cuban-American story that will leave readers wanting more.
