Norberto Fuentes, a 66-year-old former Castro associate now living in exile in Florida, gets into the head of the commandant in his startling and surprisingly funny novel, The Autobiography of Fidel Castro.
You actually know Castro. How did your relationship with him affect the story?
I started to talk with him and to travel with him in the beginning of the 1980s, but we knew each other before then. My observations are not only about Fidel, but also the people surrounding him who used to talk to me. I was deeply involved with the revolution, so I know a lot of things about the history and the topic of Fidel. I'm always trying to decipher his thinking, and I'm receiving information [from Cubans] all the time. In Cuba, you have a lot of information and a lot of people talking [about secrets], believe it or not.
In the book, Castro's voice can come across as very funny, though I'm sure it could also be scary. Did you find him to be funny?
He has a great sense of humor—if you read Hemingway, you can find this same sense of humor. The tough guys always have humor like that. In some ways, Fidel lost contact with the real world, but he always had his humor. I'm writing the autobiography of a man who cannot write in a humorous way; I have a freedom he doesn't have. Maybe what you found terrifying was his pragmatic point of view.
The book reads like an actual autobiography—the narrator reminds himself of stories, goes on tangents and revisits ideas. What was the writing process like for you?
It was a challenge for me, and a very emotional thing, to be in his mind, to try to think his thoughts. One thing we know for sure is that he is a very smart person. I would say he's a genius.
You escaped Cuba in 1994. What do you think of President Obama's statement earlier this year that “the United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba.”
He made the first step, but now it is not a priority. In the end, they will have to normalize relations. If you are going to see Fidel as a historical character, you need to learn about him. He is a man who has stayed there for over 50 years and has had I don't know how many wars. And he almost always wins. But I'm a novelist, not a think tanker. And I want to stay that way.
