Insider; My Hidden Life as a Revolutionary in Cuba

Toronto: Bantam Books, 1988. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Luciano Franchi de Allaro (Author photograph). 25 cm. ciii, [1], 466 pages. Illustrations. Maps. Index. Inscribed by the author on the title page. A once-high ranking Cuban government official now living in the United States paints a vivid portrait of the Cuban people, their lives under Castro's rule, and his survival and escape from his native country. A harsh look at the Cuban Revolution. At the time of this publication, no other witness has documented the Cuban revolution from the inside, at the highest levels of power over so many years. The author offers a behind-the-scenes portrait of Fidel Castro in his charisma and folly. Here, too, is a vivid look at Cuba under Castro's leadership--the pathos of the average Cuban's life and the corruption of high officials. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: Llovio-Menendez maintains that he returned to Cuba from France, where he was studying medicine, in the 1960s not to join the revolution but to penetrate the system in order to rescue his uncle, imprisoned for counterrevolutionary activity. He failed to save his uncle, but went on to forge a career in the film and sugar ministries and plotted his own escape. At one point, Llovio-Menendez was himself imprisoned. The most dramatic sections of the book have to do with his guise as a `revolutionary persona' and the conflict he felt over his double life. A suspenseful personal story, the credible memoir also provides a look at the Cuban revolution, the `repression, paranoia, and deceit,' plus glimpses of Castro, his brother Raul, Che Guevara and Celia Sanchez. Llovio-Menendez ultimately made good his escape and now lives in the U.S.