Satirizing Modern Society
Noorin Khan
THE TRAGEDY OF FIDEL CASTRO: A NOVEL by Joâo Cerqueira River Grove Books, 2013, 168 pp., $14.95
July 2013, volume 37, No 7

When God receives a request from Fátima to help prevent a war between Fidel Castro and JFK, he asks his son, Jesus, to return to Earth and diffuse the conflict. On his island, Fidel Castro faces protests on the streets and realizes that he is about to be overthrown. Alone, surrounded, and aware that the end is fast approaching, he plays his last card. Meanwhile, Christ arrives on Earth and teams up with Fátima, who is convinced she can create a miracle to avoid the final battle between JFK and Fidel Castro and save the world as we know it. At the end, something really extraordinary happens!

The Tragedy of Fidel Castro is a humorous satire by the Portuguese writer Joâo Cerqueira living in Viana do Castelo, Portugal. The fact that he has a PhD in art history from the University of Oporto is evident in his use of literary and political history throughout the the book. Not that anyone who has not studied history cannot write about it. He is a young author who has published seven fiction and non-fiction books which satirize the modern society with all it mals and uses irony, humour and real life incidents exaggerated to provoke reflection and controversy. This novel is no exception either.

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