BOOK: "Capitalism, God, and a Good Cigar," edited by Lydia Chávez (Duke University Press, $21.95)
TARGET AUDIENCE: People who want to see today's Cuba, vicariously and legally.
Here are 15 takes on 21st-century Cuba written by newspaper reporters and other journalists who have traveled among Cubans of various professions, religions and locations. They find that Cuba is not all despair -- some things, such as health care, occasionally work rather well. But neither is there unqualified optimism. "There is a kind of paralysis," Chávez writes in her introduction, "borne from a mix of loyalty, fear, and indoctrination -- as they grudgingly wait for him to die." The "him," of course, is Fidel Castro.
"This is the land of magical realism," says an engineer, supplementing his meager income by renting rooms to tourists. "Incredible things happen every day so that people can go on. People invent." Hackers invent ways around official restrictions on Internet use. The legendary cigar factories (F. Castro, Proprietor) become crucibles where socialism is tested against 21st-century reality. And when the government fails, sometimes the churches -- Catholic, Evangelica, Santería -- fill the gaps. One cannot help but be inspired.
-- Jerry V. Haines
