Rating: 
Summary: A gritty, realistic look at modern Cuba
Review: All I can say is Wow! I'm blown away. This is a disillusioning book on life in modern Cuba that tells it exactly like it is. It's raw, engaging, and daringly unbiased in its analysis. Forget everything you've ever heard or read about Cuba. This one undermines it all, and does so with incredible detail. I felt like I was right there in Havana, hanging out with the Buena Vista Social Club, buying rice in the black market, and meeting the people in the book face to face. As a fine arts professor and Latin arts trader, I've been to Cuba four times in the past year. I have a voracious appetite for anything Cuban. However, nothing has managed to spin my head around like this book. I couldn't put it down, and many things I thought I understood about Cuba have been shattered. I hate you Corbett!
Rating:
Summary: Lifting the veil
Review: Anyone who harbors romantic notions about Fidel Castro's Cuba might be disturbed, perhaps even angered by Ben Corbett's book, for he shows very clearly how it is that the so-called Revolution is little more than an old-fashioned Latin American dictatorship hiding behind a veil of outworn platitudes. Anyone who has had to live there--not as a foreigner, but as a Cuban--will applaud this book, and recommend it with enthusiasm. Relying on his own experiences and on ordinary people that he met while living in Cuba, Corbett paints one of the most realistic portraits of life on that benighted island that have ever been published in America. Corbett convincingly argues that the economic strangulation of the Cuban people has been caused by the policies of Castro's oppressive regime rather than by the U.S. embargo. He does this by focusing on the details of daily life in present-day Cuba, and by highlighting the many ways in which individual initiative is crushed in the name of impossibly paradoxical utopian ideology. All of this is done with prose as spare as it is elegant. Corbett wears his heart on his sleeve, and in this case it is a very good thing, for he turns into an eloquent champion of human rights, lifting the veil on a ruthless dictatorship that has been masquerading as a humanitarian experiment for far too long. This should be required reading for anyone who is thinking of visiting Cuba or buying a Cuban cigar.
Rating: 
Summary: This Is Corbett's Cuba
Review: Ben Corbett has written a good book, flawed in some important ways but also full of new, illuminating insights into Cuba - - both the Cuba of reality and of imagination.Corbett's "outlaw culture" is a Cuban reality. Irony of ironies, the Revolution has produced both a socialist state and economy and a chaotic, energetic entrepreneurial street culture. It's the latter that Corbett investigates, and investigates pretty well - - from illegal Chorizo vendors to tattoo artists. To be honest, I found his portraits of these "outlaws" a bit repetitive - -they all seem to say the same thing in the same way: the Revolution has failed, the Revolution is hypocritical, etc. Perhaps that's because Corbett tends to rely on a couple of key native-informants - - he keeps returning to this select group with its own take on contemporary Cuba and the Revolution. On the other hand, I found Corbett's contextualizing work very helpful - - explaining the backdrop to the "Special Period" or Cuban schools or tourist company "ownership" of Cuban property. Here, Corbett does a real service. More troubling is Corbett's sometimes screedy invocation of the free market as the solution to Cuba's ills. He nods to the Embargo but doesn't in my opinion really grapple with the disasterous and profound effects of the Embargo on the Cuban economy, society and culture. I got a little tired of his repeated invocations of the free market as Cuba's miracle drug. For instance: "Personal independence and private enterprise is [sic] the best incentive for Cubans, who seem to have a natural entrepreneurial bent." The Cuban future and past seem too complex to be safely wrapped up in this nostrum. Ultimately, Corbett's vision of Cuba is tantalizing, his report is captivating - - but his own ideological perspective tends to both limit his insights and make his writing less adventurous, exciting, and energetic than it might be.
Rating:
Summary: An intriguing story of Cuba's social issues
Review: Ben Corbett is a freelance journalist who has literally spent years researching and writing almost exclusively about Cuban culture and politics, so it's no surprise his latest travelogue This Is Cuba blends in current affairs and social issues of that country. Personal stories gathered by Corbett reflect the daily lives and concerns of Cubans commonly portrayed as outlaws by Castro's regime. This Is Cuba is an intriguing story of Cuba's social issues and evolving society on the other end of Communism.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit apologetic, but a good first-hand account
Review: Ben Corbett's "This is Cuba" is a frustrating read, at least for a Cuban-American with family still living on the island. On the one hand Corbett lived in Cuba, lived among the people, and contributes an undeniable first-hand account of life there. On the other, he refuses to make a clear judgment about the sociopolitical system he recounts.
The book's thesis is that Castro's regime has so perverted incentives, that every Cuban, in one way or another, breaks the law every day. That in order to survive, Cubans must be outlaws. But rather than condemn such a system, Corbett sheepishly asserts that this is only the result of misapplied socialism, and that if only things were done better, it would all work out.
The book is also riddled with incorrect translations from Spanish that make you wonder about the rest of the book's foundations. It also contains many inaccurate cultural references, such as calling La Virgen de la Caridad Cuba's "patron saint"; she is the Virgin Mary. It is frustrating that most American readers will not catch the mistakes.
Despite these criticisms, however, I would still recommend this book. Corbett lived in the island, saw what went on with his own eyes, and such an eyewitness account is very valuable. Even if he sometimes equivocates, his descriptions of crumbling buildings, unscrupulous block snitches, and the resilient character of everyday Cubans is good.
One important theme Corbett draws out in this book is how the Castro regime has become completely dependent on the tourism trade and has made the Cuban people completely subservient to that interest. First-person stories of this development are key to understanding today's Cuba.
Rating:
Summary: Great narrative that lacks great research
Review: Free lance writer Ben Corbett in his recent book This is Cuba provides a fascinating first-person account of life for the average citizen in economically strapped Cuba. His narration is fresh and crisp while illuminating the often blurry images of Cuba that we see in the news. Cubans have found a way to survive the poverty and depletion of the Special Period (the time of economic chaos following the collapse of Cuba's financial benefactor, the Soviet Union in 1991) with amazing dexterity. Corbett interviews everyone from the street hustler (jineteros) to old men who sit at a park and argue over sports teams, to find out their honest and uncensored feelings of Fidel Castro and their "outlaw" country.
This is Cuba does have some deep flaws. Corbett is a free lance writer and not a scholar, so some of his comments on the history of Cuba and its economic policy are clearly wrong or mislead. John Hopkins University professor of history Piero Gleijeses's "Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976" is a distinctively better source of information on Castro and his foreign policy as well as his economic successes and failures. Corbett also seems to let his distaste for Castro's dictatorship allow him to falsely identify some of the factors how and why Cuba is as poor as it is today. The US embargo is severely downplayed, which is a critical mistake. To underestimate the effects of an economic blockade by the most powerful nation in the world on an island nation is not looking at reality. Corbett also fails to fully write about some of the positives of what he most often refers to as the "Castro's regime". Cuba owes its deliverance from the pathetic dictatorship of Batista and gaining it's self-respect (which has been bolstered by Cuba's help in supporting African countries fight terrorists and diamond smuggling rebel movements) to the leadership of its flawed but dynamic leader Fidel Castro. Corbett's lack of balance does not stop this book from being a very useful guide to the real world of 21st Century Cuba.
Rating:
Summary: This is Cuba
Review: From the wealth of descriptive detail and the depth of his insights into Cuban life, it is obvious that Ben Corbett went far beyond the typical American journalist's two-week taxi tour of the island. Corbett has put in the time and the miles to take the reader into the streets, homes and minds of the Cuban people. The book is a cultural immersion that chips away our American preconceptions about Cuba. It presents an extremely illuminating portrait of the island that will probably disturb anyone whose view on Cuba is either glib or set in political stone. The only thing I didn't like about the book was the poor quality of the printing; most of the photos are more like ink blobs than images. Other than that, I highly recommend it. Someone should send a copy to Bush.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent view of a Socialism as seen thorough human eye
Review: I couldn;t stop reading it until I was finished. Excellent. The author describes Cuba as he sees it and as he sees it through the eyes of a Cuban. This book basically shows a day to day reality of a socialistic and centrist government and what it has done to its people. I only wish other centrist leaders take notice of it.
Rating: 
Summary: THIS BOOK IS A WASTE.
Review: I have been to Cuba a number of times and the Cuba I met was unrecognizable from this book. Ben Corbett seems to have taken American middle class expectations with him to judge a poor, third world country. He doesn't seem to understand what Cuba has tried to accomplish. If you read the book (DON"T) you might notice that after he criticizes the Cuban government for something he will then quote a Cuban he has spoken with about the subject. Commonly the Cuban's quote is inconsistent with or even contradicts the point that Ben was trying to make. I know people who lived through the "Special Period" living in the peso economy, even people who could have left had they wanted to. It was a time of subsistence and hardship for them all, but contrary to the assertions in this book it was possible to live in the peso economy during that time. I have never been in a country where people do not complain about their government for something. Cuba is no different. Ben completely ignores things that Cubans take great pride in and doesn't give credit for their accomplishments. Compared to other poor countries Cuba has accomplished much in education and health care. It remains a poor country with significant hardships and criticisms of its limitations on personal freedom are justified. People who dream of the kind of luxuries most Americans take for granted will not be satisfied there. To quote Maria, the prostitute in the book, "I think Castro is a crazy old man. I think what he has accomplished is great, but I am not waiting around for the victory to live the good life. I like nice things, good clothes, good food, not the dog food they sell at the bodega or the cheap clothes on the street." To me it hardly seems like a convincing criticism of the government that Maria's expectations were unmet. The government provided her with food, education, a place to live and basic health care. But until she became a prostitute she couldn't afford the new furniture, electronic equipment and expensive clothes that were in her apartment. Maybe while we are criticizing Cuba for its failings, we should recognize that the Developed world deserves criticism also for its failings
Rating:
Summary: Cuba: Good and Bad
Review: I visited Cuba in March 1997 and have always been drawn back to books that allow me to vicariously revisit the country. Ben Corbett's book manages to walk a fine line between an admiration for Cuba (especially her people) and often stern criticism of the Castro regime. It differs, therefore, from many other books about Cuba. Corbett is no Miami based Cuban exile with a chip on his shoulder but nor is he a naïve promoter of the Communist Party government. In short, Corbett has real credibility. From another angle, Corbett is clearly no blow in visitor who, after a week or two in the country, regards himself as some sort of expert. Instead, Corbett has visited the country on a number of occasions and for considerable lengths of time in each case. He has immersed himself in the country from a variety of perspectives and has clearly travelled widely and met a host of individuals, many of whom he now counts as friends. It seems to me that Corbett has a love for Cuba but a distinct distaste for the regime. Yet for all this, he has no axe to grind. Far too many critical Cuba commentators are allied with the exile communities in Florida. Unfortunately, for all the errors and flaws of the regime, its hasty end may well herald the return of the exiles and a still less than positive outcome. There may be no velvet revolution. I recommend this book to all readers interested in Cuba and its future.
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