Just finished reading “Before Night Falls” by Reinaldo Arenas, I felt compelled to read the book after seeing the movie of the same title. It’s the memoirs/autobiography of the Cuban author and poet Reinaldo Arenas. I thought the story was an excellent reading of what life was like during and after the rise to power of Fidel Castro (not that I have any idea about what it’s like). It’s especially clear how much of a threat artists and homosexuals are to any dictatorship, this will never cease to amaze me. While I would consider the book explicit both in it’s description of events and sexual encounters I never felt that it was written with the intent of getting a rise out of readers. It reads much more like the telling of one’s life without the self-censorship so many people are born into.