Nick Caistor
Author of The Faber Book of Contemporary Latin American Short Stories
About the Author
Nick Caistor is a writer, translator and broadcaster, who has written widely on Latin American culture and politics
Works by Nick Caistor
An Englishman in Madrid 3 copies
Mexico 2 copies
México - Guia American Express 2 copies
The Children 1 copy
Associated Works
Insatiable: The Sexual Adventures of a French Girl in Spain (2004) — Translator, some editions — 140 copies
McSweeney's Issue 46 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern): Thirteen Crime Stories From Latin America (2014) — Translator — 91 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1946-07-15
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Places of residence
- Norwich, England, UK
- Occupations
- translator
journalist
author
BBC Radio presenter - Relationships
- Hopkinson, Amanda (spouse)
- Short biography
- Nick Caistor is an award-winning translator of more than thirty books from Spain and Latin America. He has edited The Faber Book of Contemporary Latin American Fiction and has translated other Barcelona-based writers such as Eduardo Mendoza, Juan Marsé, and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. [from Cathedral of the Sea (translation of Catedral de la mar) (2008)]
Members
Reviews
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 22
- Also by
- 35
- Members
- 121
- Popularity
- #164,307
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 3
- ISBNs
- 32
- Languages
- 3
It must be remembered that Caistor relies on facts available in the public domain to relate this introduction to the 20th century's most contradictory statesman. Castro valued human life but was also ruthless in his extinguishing of any opposition. Like many Dictators, he was a dimensional study in sadistic contradiction. And the latter is what Caistor succinctly brings to the fore.
Ultimately, by the book's end, we are left with the impression that Castro was a glitch in history's Matrix. A tyrant who survived both exterior and interior threats by being politically-definitely not ideologically-amorphous. His greatest achievement, other than surviving the USA's prolonged economical war against him, might be his Latinizing of Marxism to make it more feasible to South America. Otherwise as Caistor relays, he was well aware that his Red God of Communism had miserably failed and he was its last surviving Prophet in a world which had moved on from him.
Castro's greatest failure, as this biography makes clear, was his inability to secure relevance. The USA, his eternal nemesis, not only outwaited him but also 'outprogressed' him; capturing all attention for itself while rendering him the devilish child of outdated ideals and an anti-progressive. The Latin American dictator who had once struck fear throughout the world during the Cuban Missile Crisis was soon forgotten after a few decades until ultimately his name was written out of history. He died a lonely death atop his island atoll with the knowledge that Cuba, like any other nation, would soon move on from his legacy and the future would not be of his design.… (more)