Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy

Having loved Eire's prior memoir, but wanting to know more because it it ended with Eire as a high school drop-out, without explaining how he got a PhD and ended up as a professor at Yale (identifying the author on the back cover). This book fills in that sizeable gap, while reminding also telling first-time readers of his suffering as a child, sent to America by Cuban parents who mistakenly believed Castro would soon be deposed. This book offers Eire's reflections on his lifetime of (considerable) losses and gains[[ASIN:B005OHSTTS Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy]], starting as a lonely immigrant boy who encounters difficulties--alone--that those of us born on this soil can't imagine. Amazingly, he has emerged as a grateful American. This is the only book I've ever read whose "Acknowledgments" page brought tears to my eyes.

It is also about redemption, great love, great sacrifice , and the miracle that was the USA until a few short years ago.
I was lucky, my parents came here from Cuba in the late fifties, shortly before I was born so we had our family and a stable home always.
My parents ended up in Georgia and thought they had landed in heaven. The neighbors were always friendly and helpful. I don't remember any one ever being ugly to me because we were Cuban. Speaking of the miracle that is the USA, we were nobodies from nowhere and yet we were able to attend and send our children to excellent schools, live where-ever we wanted to live, study whatever we wanted to study, befriend anyone anywhere. This is not possible in most countries around the world.
The only difficult thing about being Cuban in America is having to listen to the constant lies about Cuba, Castro, and Communism from the media and academe. The American press and Schools were and are determined to keep people in the dark about the real story of Cuba and tyranny.
We were poor at first and yet we never felt poor. Even in our modest neighborhood, much like the first home where Mr. Eire and his brother lived, you did not have to lock your doors or your car.
I did not want to read this book because I was so steeped in the sadness of what happened to our family and friends as a child that once I became an adult I couldn't bear to think about it any more. But Mr.Eire had me hooked from the first paragraph. It is sad, but it is also grand. And the end will make you smile.

'Enjoyed' is not quite the right term for this book. The experience it recounts is too painful for that. One would think enough has been written by the Peter Pan-ners for anything new to emerge. This book proves otherwise. What this book reminds us of is that every child of those 14,000 refugees lived through his/her own terrible times - leaving their parents in Cuba, assuming responsibility for their own and often their younger siblings' lives, and confronting the realities of being at the mercy of a system that was often callous and merciless. Only drawback of this book is the author's irritating habit of self-celebration at every turn. But the substance of this book more than makes up for this. Thoroughly recommend it!

Poignant story brilliantly recalled by a sensitive and Spirit-filled man whom I would love to know!

I am not finished reading the book as of yet. The first page did not wow me, and so it was hard to pick up again.

The book itself is in great condition, but it seemed to take a long time to get it--glad my book club is not for several weeks.