| Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba.and Then Lost It to the Revolution  |  | Author: T. J. English
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $15.99
Buy New: $10.87
You Save: $5.12 (32%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 643061
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0061712744
Dewey Decimal Number: 364
EAN: 9780061712746
Publication Date: June 1, 2009 (In 145 Days)
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Product Description
In modern-day Havana, the remnants of the glamorous past are everywhere—the old hotel-casinos, vintage American cars, and flickering neon signs speak of a bygone era that is widely familiar and often romanticized, but little understood. In Havana Nocturne, T. J. English offers a riveting, multifaceted true tale of organized crime, political corruption, roaring nightlife, revolution, and international conflict that interweaves the dual stories of the Mob in Havana and the event that would overshadow it, the Cuban Revolution. As the Cuban people labored under a violently repressive regime throughout the 1950s, Mob leaders Meyer Lansky and Charles "Lucky" Luciano turned their eye to Havana. To them, Cuba was the ultimate dream, the greatest hope for the future of the American Mob in the post-Prohibition years of intensified government crackdowns. But when it came time to make their move, it was Lansky, the brilliant Jewish mobster, who reigned supreme. Having cultivated strong ties with the Cuban government and in particular the brutal dictator Fulgencio Batista, Lansky brought key mobsters to Havana to put his ambitious business plans in motion. Before long, the Mob, with Batista's corrupt government in its pocket, owned the biggest luxury hotels and casinos in Havana, launching an unprecedented tourism boom complete with the most lavish entertainment, the world's biggest celebrities, the most beautiful women, and gambling galore. But their dreams collided with those of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and others who would lead the country's disenfranchised to overthrow their corrupt government and its foreign partners—an epic cultural battle that English captures in all its sexy, decadent, ugly glory. Bringing together long-buried historical information with English's own research in Havana—including interviews with the era's key survivors—Havana Nocturne takes readers back to Cuba in the years when it was a veritable devil's playground for mob leaders. English deftly weaves together the parallel stories of the Havana Mob—featuring notorious criminals such as Santo Trafficante Jr. and Albert Anastasia—and Castro's 26th of July Movement in a riveting, up-close look at how the Mob nearly attained its biggest dream in Havana—and how Fidel Castro trumped it all with the Cuban Revolution.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 Very Entertaining January 6, 2009
As someone with a mild curiosity about mob-related nonfiction, I picked up Havana Nocturne simply because it seemed like an interesting topic. I had little knowledge of T.J. English's writing or the role of the mob in Cuba beyond the pop culture portrayals. I was pleasantly surprised that English has put together an informative yet entertaining account of a very unique period in Cuban history.
This is no cliffhanger. The title of the book and basic history forewarn you that the Castro revolution was the end of American mob involvement in Cuba. English's descriptive narrative style, however, kept my attention as he tracks the rapid waxing and waning of mob power in an exotic locale that was all about gambling, sex and entertainment. The sophisticated distribution of power among the criminal bosses and the interplay of politics and money provide striking examples of a truly one-of-a-kind situation in history. It's pretty obvious how a compelling movie like The Godfather II was based upon the exploits of Meyer Lanksy and his cohorts.
When the end comes, it comes quickly, and I couldn't help but want more about the legacy of the Havana Mob beyond the summaries included at the end. Still, the story is fleshed out well with details much darker and sexier than I expected from a nonfiction work. To my relief, English doesn't delve into the overly dramatic morality schlock you normally see in crime writing. I will definitely give some of his other books a try after reading this.
 Excellent read but has it's limiiations December 30, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a situation where this book deserves two ratings. One is a 5 for purely the writing, excitement, and entertainment value. it is extremely well written, reading more like a crime novel than a true historical account of the events leading up to the Cuban Revolution. Here lies the problem. As a historical account it has serious limitations. To be brief only a few examples will be given here.
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1) English comes to general conclusions which simply don't fit the complexity of what happened in Cuba. One example is his bold statement that Castro became a Communist during his tenure in Mexico City. There is simply nothing that supports this assertion. Antonio de La Cova in "The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution" (a much better historical account of the events that led to the Revolution and Castro himself) cites examples of Castro's day of imprisonment on the Isle of Pines that leads to the conclusion that his conversion to marxisim (if such a conversion actually existed) occurred much earlier. Nonetheless if English is correct it only shows once again that it is only myth that US policy turned Casto to Marxism. English does a good job of showing that the opposite is true. From Mathews article in the New York Times to Castro's fundraising visits to US cities, it is clear that Castro owes much of his success to the US.
2) The greatest disappointment is that English falls into the trap of using tired and old cliches to describe the Cuban exile community. He seems to insinuate that the mass exodus that occurred in 59 and into the early 60s were primarily "Batistianos". Again, where is English getting his statistics from? Many of those that left Cuba during that time had supported the revolution and wanted Batista removed. They left because the biggest "deceiver" in this tragic story was Castro.
English (again just an old cliche) refers to the pandering of the Cuban voting bloc. Perhaps we should also call then "pandering" when politicians from all persuasions look how best to serve the needs (votes?) of specific minority groups. English also mentions,"the celebration evoked the early days of 1959, when Cubans reveled over the fall of Batista" in referring to the festivities in Miami that followed the announcement that Castro was seriously ill. One can only conclude that English must be delusional on this subject to compare such completely different events. Again he then makes the general statement, without any backing, that "exiles, who continue to dream of the day when they would return to Cuba and reclaim all they had lost...". Let me remind Mr English, and others, that the revolution occurred 50 years ago this year. Can he explain to me which of those exiles is still living who dream of going back. Most of that generation is now gone, never having returned to their beloved island and extremely loyal to the United States. They have raised children that may or may not return, AS VISITORS, to the "Pearl of the Antilles". If they do it will not be to "reclaim all they had lost".
3) That last example is Mr. English's statement that the average Cuban wage was 12 dollars a month. Again I have no idea where or how he came up with this figure.
In summary, this is an excellent read, from a purely crime novel perspective. It should not be read as an accurate potrayal of the Cuban tragedy.
 Decent but incomplete overview of the Mob's reign in Cuba December 26, 2008
I enjoyed this work about how the mob basically ran Cuba during the last few years before Castro. English paints a clear picture about how the corruption fostered upon the Cuban people by the mafia and a few elites in the Cuban government paved the way for 50 plus years of the Castro dictatorship. What is very interesting is the role that the United States played in not only propping up the Batista dictator ship but at the end forcing him out without a viable alternative to go to. Truly this is one of the most pathetic stories in U.S. diplomatic history.
The focus of the story is on Myer Lanskey and if there is one weakness to the book it does try to set an atmosphere and can't really pull it off. We are supposed to try and smell the scent of the tropical air combined with the allure of the big name celebrities and exotic acts and it just doesn't come together. Rather, this at times reads like a cross between a crime novel and something about the fall of a big business. Still it is well worth the read and I suggest it to all who enjoy true crime.
Maybe the mob wasn't so bad after all... November 22, 2008
And, then there was my neighbor Mrs. Brown who sat mesmerized before her television-they had antennas back then- rejoicing that Castro put bad folks against the wall and shot them..until she discovered he was a dogless communist and reversed her opinion. English frames the story left out of your No Child Left Behind histories suggesting maybe the Mafia, that J. Edgar Hoover said did not exist, was not involved in prostitution and drugs in Cuba and that gambling was the real mother lode. This revelation would make them as morally swell as say the governor of the Land of Taxes. Maybe the same good fellows whacked the Kennedys. Maybe most of them lost it all when Castro took down gambling. Maybe the U.S. government enlisted their aid in plots to assassinate Fidel. Over all, an interesting account of Cuba as a U.S. fiefdom, organized crime's collusion with Bastita, capitalism run wild, the fruits of colonialism, and a really entertaining tourist trade. Complete with an extensive bibliography and index.
I never knew revolutions could be so boring. November 16, 2008
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
The author went into excruciating and often pointless details about every two-bit mobster in who ever set foot in Cuba, while telling us nearly nothing about the larger picture.
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