Maria Gilmore>...could Michael Pugliese please tell me if any of the texts he mentioned actually present a view of what life is really like for the average Cuban?
Yes. The recent book by Maurice Halperin, "Return to Havana: The Decline of Cuban Society under Castro, " Vanderbilt University Press, is a good place to start. "Castro's Final Hour?, " by Andres Oppenheimer too. "Mea Cuba, " by
Books I have not read or skimmed, others recommend. Sam Dolgoff, anarchist, "The Cuban Revolution. A Critical Perspective." Marta Harnkecker, "Cuba: Dictatorship or Democracy?" Apologetic. Arthur MacEwen and Frank Frank Fitzgerald's books from Monthly review Press look good as does Susan Eckstein's. For conservatives see Georgie Anne Geyer's bio of Fidel, the collection edited by Irving Louis Horowitz and the bio of Che by Daniel James. http://www.worldsocialist-cwi.org/publications/Cuba/cubibliog.html Cuba: Socialism and Democracy By Peter Taaffe http://www.worldsocialist- cwi.org/publications/Cuba/cuapp2.html http://www.worldsocialist-cwi.org/publications/Cuba/cu5.html Michael Pugliese