Fidel Castro

For a boy growing up in the Oriente countryside dangers lurked everywhere. Parents and nursemaids cautioned children to beware of "lost souls" wandering the earth, seeking to catch mortals and compel them to take their places. Fidel Castro always slept fitfully. To fall asleep was to be alone, defenseless, off-guard. Years later, as a rebel commander in the Sierra Maestra, he kept himself awake at night, reading, walking about, talking the hours away with his tired comrades. And as Cuba's Maximum Leader he insisted on meeting his visitors at odd hours long after midnight when they were edgy and most vulnerable. In this masterly new biography Robert E. Quirk paints a portrait of the charismatic leader who for more than three decades - and over eight American presidencies - managed to sustain a communist regime in the western hemisphere. Fidel Castro emerges as a rebel from his earliest years. Born into a family of wealth, he nonetheless lived in an atmosphere that was crude and uncultured. Sent away to school at age five, the boy felt deserted in an alien city. He fought often, rebelling against the priests' authority. He demanded recognition and assurances of his worth. He had to be the first, the best, in everything, to captain the team in every sport. As an adult Castro could not tolerate criticism or opposition. His tantrums were legendary. At the University of Havana, he ignored his studies, immersing himself in politics. But his bid to head the student federation failed. He graduated with a law degree and a residue of resentment against the institution that had thwarted his ambition. He remained a loner, with no deep attachments, even to the women he attracted. In gripping detail,Professor Quirk follows Castro as he forms a small band to bring down the regime of Fulgencio Batista by leading a quixotic attack on an army barracks. Captured, imprisoned, and eventually exiled to Mexico, he recruits other insurgents, including the Argentine medical doctor, Ern