T.J. English, HAVANA NOCTURNE and Marisa Silver, GOD OF WAR
September 23rd, 2008
Francesca talks with journalist T. J. English about the Mafia’s Cuba experiment, the parallels between the Mob and legal capitalism, and the role Mob activities played in spurring the Cuban Revolution into being. His bestselling book is HAVANA NOCTURNE: How the Mob owned Cuba…and Then Lost It to the Revolution.
Also, Marisa Silver tells us about her haunting novel, THE GOD OF WAR. Set in the arid landscape by the Salton Sea of California, GOD OF WAR is a powerful coming-of-age novel about a boy who confronts the need to balance his responsibility to his family with his emerging sense of self.
“Marisa Silver’s The God of War is a novel of great metaphorical depth and beauty. It stays with you like a lesson well and truly learned.” — Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls
Read an excerpt from GOD OF WAR
Tags: California coming of age novel cuba Fiction god of war havana history journalist mafia Marisa Silver mob Nonfiction Podcast Richard Russo Salton Sea t j english T.J. English
October 4th, 2008 at 6:07 am
[...] Fans of The Godfather, Part II probably have a vague idea that Cuba was used as a playground and offshore bank by mobsters in the 1950s. The fascinating details of how the Mob essentially bought itself an island with the complicity of a Cuban strongman, and then lost it to the revolution led by Fidel Castro, are revealed in Havana Nocturne, a fascinating new book by crime historian T.J. English. There’s plenty of salacious stuff about threesomes with John F. Kennedy and a pair of hookers, but there’s also plenty of convincing evidence that the Mob’s use of Havana as a giant casino and money-laundering operation, combined with the greed of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, fueled rage throughout Cuba that helped spark Castro’s revolution. Here’s a Daily Show interview with English and a Writer’s Voice podcast. [...]