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Input: Nelson DeMilleâs new novel  The Cuban Affair  takes us on a hard-hitting adventure through modern-day Cuba and makes some memorable points about todayâs tense political situation along the way. DeMille has an incredible gift for perfectly capturing a characterâs voice and unique personality. His protagonist in The Cuban Affair is 35-year-old former US Army infantry officer Daniel Graham MacCormick  or Mac for short.
Originally from Portland  Maine  we meet  Mac  once  he âs become a charter fishing boat captain in Key West  Florida. We never fully hear about  Mac âs tour in Afghanistan except for some traumatic combat memories  but weâre told  he  has a Silver Star  two Purple Hearts  and shrapnel wounds  so DeMille makes it clear that  Mac  saw heavy action.
DeMille reintroduces Mac into some abrupt  heart-racing action in The Cuban Affair. The story is told from the first-person point of view and is an action-packed  rollicking tale. After heâs approached by a group of mysterious Cuban expats in Key West   Mac  gets talked into a top-secret mission to recover $60 million in U.S. cash and property deeds from a cave in Cuba that were hidden during Castroâs violent overthrow of Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
 Mac  feels like thereâs something fishy about the whole operation  but eventually signs on  enticed in part by a beautiful Cuban-American woman  Sara  who will be his partner for the mission. DeMille showcases his humor throughout the book  such as when Sara is talking  Mac  into accepting the mission. Theyâre out on  Mac âs charter boat and Sara tries to appeal to his sense of adventure and his sense of right and wrong  with mixed results:
âDonât talk yourself out of this   Mac . Thereâs a sayingââ Iâd rather regret the things I did than the things I didnât do.â â
 Mac   of course  ends up taking on the mission and getting  himself  in hot water after traveling to Cuba under the cover of a Yale educational tour then breaking away to get the hidden money. Things donât go as planned and the book ends up taking a few sharp zigs and zags as it rockets to its conclusion  but this refreshing  zany  and cynical sense of humor is a great recurring feature throughout the book.
Demille also doesnât shy away from the hard topics. Heâs uncompromising in his look at the sadness of modern Cuba and the empty rhetoric of its socialist revolution.  Mac  doesnât really care about what happened in Cuba and comes across as basically apolitical: He just wants to get the money and the girl.
There are complications  naturally. The money is buried in a rural cave in a heavily armed police state full of citizen informants and the girl has a boyfriend. Nonetheless  despite his focus on the basics and disinterest in politics   even Mac  starts to feel disillusioned after arriving in Havana and looking around at the state of things. âRevolutions usually replace one group of incompetent autocratic assholes with another  and the real losers are everyone else  â Mac  ponders at one point.
When  he  finds out about the food situation in Cuba itâs even more sobering. Sara explains to  him  that Cuba is basically half starving as they look around an organic farm:
Even as Sara and Mac traverse Cuba and get into big trouble  DeMille keeps the laughs coming. Itâs quite funny that DeMille puts a character called Richard Neville (clearly a humorous stand-in for himself) into the book. Neville is a bestselling adventure author traveling with  Mac âs tour group in Cuba to research a book and Mac notices Nevilleâs highly attractive wife (a real âlookerâ). Not believing she could really be into the grouchy writer   Mac  surmises she must be attracted to Neville for âthe bulge in his pants â his wallet  not his crotch.â
Neville and  Mac  also have a bit of a rivalry for Sara and a competing inside joke about Ernest Hemingway that is hilarious. As Neville takes photos in front of Hemingwayâs house in Cuba:
As  Mac  and Sara work to get the money they run into a citizen informer  or chivato. He tries to buy them off in return for his silence that he suspects they are up to funny business and explains how things really work in the Communist paradise:
In another part  Mac  and Sara walk through the nicest neighborhood of Havana and are shocked at what they see  which is outright hypocrisy:
In the end  The Cuban Affair manages to combine just the right amount of sassy and sad. It doesnât focus all on doom and gloom  nor does it pretend that everything is merely a joke. At its most profound âteachable moment â  Mac  concludes that life is messy and the truth about humanity lies somewhere in between optimism and blackpill nihilism.  He  concludes that human affairs are complex and paradoxical  alternately bringing out the best and worst in different individuals.
In  his  acknowledgements  DeMille mentions that  he  did personally go on a Yale educational tour of Cuba to prepare for the bookâRichard Neville  indeed.  He  also thanks various friends  family  and colleagues who helped and advised  him  on the book. One is especially telling  because it shows that this book comes from the source:
Iâd like to thank a man who I met in Cuba  and who gave it to  me  straight about contemporary Cuban politics  culture  and life. He wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons  but heâs given himself the code name âLola.â Thank you  Lola  wherever you are  and take care.

Nelson DeMille Presents A 'Cuban Affair' To Remember