r-THE POOK I-1E1 ••••■ ■■ 0V •••••• ■■■ 7 4 •••■•■•• ■ ■■■ • -■••■■ • -7C • • • Chief Performer in Plusuit, The fart Is that Catitro of the has talked so much av Irn- presarin and chief perfor- mer no Cuban television that his style has at least Ti:71(1e.1 Castro momentarily awatoped history itself. In an almost. BY itfillEgT Jai RSCH sighing tone, Prof. Halper- arms ono trifle in writes, "'to untangle the Probably the one point Dr. Halperin. a political moods and motives that about which Marxists arid scientist and economist, a shaped Fidel's behavior on any given occasion can he anti-Marxists could agree Marxist though not dog- in discussing recent Cu- matic, seems an occasion an enormously complicat- ed matter." ", . • The sin- ban blatory Is that Fidel bemused by his subject. After all, a man who elder character of the Cu- Castro is unpredictable., plays baseball, and has the ban Revolution . . . is an- the Perk's Bad By of the locker room sense of hu- other way of saying the revolution. The question mor to go with it, who set charaCter of. ; up a five-hour televised for it must he clearly un- or personality and Its in- derstood that his personal- fluenre on Communist or- free- for - all conference with the prisoners cap- ity, style and leadership thodoxy has always been a tured at the Bay of Pigs, have dominated the Cuban knotty one; dialectical 2nd kept his cool while Revolution se profoundly materialiarn rinearint seem one prisoner accused him as Louis XIV molded the to offer much room for the of having "salted away destiny of 17th-century lot of money in Swiss Franc e," Dr, Halperin vagaries of character, the writes.. hanks," but who fell out Titns. the Mans, the Che with. virtually all his old I do not wish to leave the. Guevara& comrades of the revolution impression that Dr: Hal- , But of all Idkasyncraciee, and imprisoned or exiled perin's study is slight or Castm's seem deepest; his them, is not easily solely light-hearted. There, m a r athon performances summed up. are many serious and on television, his unex- The author is frank to• some surprising matters p e elect pronouncements, say that his experience in: covered in deep detail. But his Pirandello improvisa- was disillusioning. always there is the puzzle.: tions. It is no accident that The promise of Castro's. re- - - Zoniaits Told in THE RISE AND DE- volution, sold by his "tar- CLINE OF FIDEL CAS- The narration, fni exam- nished but unflinching ple, of TRO: An Essay in Con- charisma" would turn to the contacts be- temporary History (Uni- tween Castro and Pres- disappointment and fail- ident versity of California Press: Kennedy, and later- ure. After President Johnson, seek- $1295; i l t n s trated) by a half-dozen Prof. Maurice Halperin, years of close, personal ob- ing a possible easing of re- • Castro is compared to Je- servation in Cuba lations between the two ' , Dr. Ha.17 countries, is both interest- .kylI and Hyde, Don Quix- perin found himself "intel- ote, as well as Louis XIV ing and informative. But and Simon Bolivar, The lectually and morally t h e n, characteristically, ' stranded." Castro kept Jean Daniel, range of such similes can a be summed up in the ques- This may color his feel- French reporter who went tion, "What next?" which. ings about Castro but it to Cuba with a message Halperin says, was asked from President Kennedy, does not affect his efforts waiting for three weeks in Cu ha, in the United • in Sta:es aial in Russia, after to he fair and objective. In On the night be- the missile crisis of 1962. the event, he has produced fore Daniel was to a portrait which seems as left, Castro suddenly visit-have Frustrated Effort accurate as any we have ' ed his hotel room .and Though this volume had, and immensely use- talked to him from 10 in covers the first five years ful for American readers the evening until 4 in the. of Fidel Castrn and the whose confusion a hou t morning! • Cuban Revolution (with Castro Is the product of The implication is that if some projections into the the extremes of propagan- we are ever to settle the following years—a second da which first made hint a • differences between volume is planned cover- kind of liberating hero and America and Cuba, we'll ing 1)64-63), the question' then a mischievous villain. , need a Henry Kissinger Is still being asked. The irony is that his char- ! who Is'a baseball player, At the core of this'book acter is so variegated that practical joker, a drama..a by Dr. Hal perin, who he provides evidence for critic and a master psy- spent six years. from 1.0.6.11i any eeriea t ure. chologist. to 1963, teaching at the , it profound and sometimesa' frustrated effort to ask the real Fidel Castro to stand up