Book #6: Three Nights In Havana

Book #6
Title: Three Nights In Havana
Author: Robert Wright
Pages: 296
Grade: C-
Buyability: 2/10
Status: Owned (freebie)

This is another book I got through Harper Collins' First Look program. As noted below, I'm not a non-fiction reader so this one took a bit longer for me to trudge through. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great.

This book was a bit of a paradox for me - meaning I'm still not entirely sure what I thought about it. At times I was bored, at others I was enchanted and interested. To be perfectly honest, I'm not a 'non-fiction' reader in general, unless you count biographies, but I was curious to read Wright's tale of Fidel & Pierre -a relationship I hardly knew existed.

Well after reading this book I am still not sure it really existed. There were many questions I kept on asking myself as I read it:

- I have minimal background on a lot of the events leading up to Trudeau's visit to Cuba - but would the average reader picking up this book really want to trudge through the extensive historical background provided in the book (assuming they DO know more about the political climate of the era)?

- Is the book really about Fidel & Pierre or is it about Cuba & Canada (and to a degree the US)?

- Why would you write a book on the premise of Trudeau's visit causing so many shockwaves both personally and politically if the evidence to support either claim is relatively flimsy and speculative?

Ultimately I had to question what Wright's ultimate purpose was in writing this book, and although I applaud his research and the ability to put things in perspective - in particular Trudeau's critiqued foreign policy with Cuba in contrast with the US' policy during that time and since - I found it almost chore-like to make my way through the book at some points.

Overall I think this book has some merit if you are particularly interested in either one of the politicians or the cold war that is detailed in this book. That being said, Wright almost tries to cover too many things at once and therefore doesn't cover anything completely enough to satisfy what I would presume to be a typical reader of his book.