An Innocent in Cuba

September 1, 2005
The latest in Canadian poet McFadden's travel series ("An Innocent in Ireland"; "An Innocent in Scotland"), this work recounts McFadden's 33 day-trip around Cuba by taxi or in his well-used compact rental car. He compares the Cuba of 2004 with that of his Canadian friend "A's" experiences from a decade earlier. It's a distracting gimmick, and one wishes he'd stop mentioning "Fidel" and "Che" as if they were old college buddies of his. Far from being an "innocent," McFadden has a bad habit of interjecting historical facts into unrelated situations. And one must question his supposition that "for the past forty-five years Cuba has been a torture-free zone." As a poet, certainly he's aware of documented treatment of dissenting artists and homosexuals? What works in McFadden's favor, however, is how well he interacts with everyday Cuban citizens and his ability to turn a delightful phrase, making some of the most mundane daily occurrences interesting reading material. A poignant moment is when he relives Hemingway's past in the room where "Islands in the Stream" was supposedly written. Despite its flaws, then, this title is still recommended for large public libraries with devoted travel readers. -Richard Dickey, Dallas

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