#FridayReads: The Domino Diaries: My Decade Boxing with Olympic Champions and Chasing Hemingway’s Ghost in the Last Days of Castro’s Cuba by Brin-Jonathan Butler

The Domino Diaries: My Decade Boxing with Olympic Champions and Chasing Hemingway’s Ghost in the Last Days of Castro’s Cuba by Brin-Jonathan Butler:

A powerful and lively work of immersive journalism, Brin-Jonathan Butler’s story of his time chasing the American dream through Cuba


Whether he’s hustling his way into Mike Tyson’s mansion for an interview, betting his life savings on a boxing match (against the favorite), becoming romantically entangled with one of Fidel Castro’s granddaughters, or simply manufacturing press credentials to go where he wants—Brin-Jonathan Butler has always been the “act first, ask permission later” kind of journalist.


This book is the culmination of Butler’s decade spent in the trenches of Havana, trying to understand a culture perplexing to westerners: one whose elite athletes regularly forgo multimillion-dollar opportunities to stay in Cuba and box for their country, while living in penury. Butler’s fascination with this distinctly Cuban idealism sets him off on a remarkable journey, training with, befriending, and the champion boxers that Cuba seems to produce more than any other country.


In the process, though, Butler gets to know the landscape of the exhilaratingly warm Cuban culture—and starts to question where he feels most at home. In the tradition of Michael Lewis and John Jeremiah Sullivan, Butler is a keen and humane storyteller, and the perfect guide for this riotous tour through the streets of Havana.

BRIN-JONATHAN BUTLER is a writer and filmmaker. His work has appeared in ESPN Magazine, Vice, Deadspin, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, and The New York Times. Butler’s documentary, Split Decision, is Butler’s examination of Cuban American relations and the economic and cultural paradoxes that have shaped them since Castro’s revolution, through the lens of elite Cuban boxers forced to choose between remaining in Cuba or defecting to America.

Spread the love

More Articles for You

Other Inheritances: Scent Memories from a Childhood at Fat’s Pet Shop in East Harlem

Before I ever knew what a perfumer was or that someone could make a living decoding and remixing scent, I …

Spread the love

Ghosts of the Palisades: Threads between memories, places and time

Somewhere tucked away, high on the Palisades, on lovely, dead end street, in the ether of the internet and Google …

Spread the love

Eight Goodbyes: Love, Loss, and the Six Years That Changed Everything

The first to die that year, the year before COVID-19 changed everything, was my aunt, Ruth or “Chin” as we …

Spread the love

How DNA, Haplogroups, and Genetic Markers Reveal Taíno Heritage

The Genetic Echoes of the Taíno People The Taíno people, the first known inhabitants of the Caribbean, have long been …

Spread the love

Unearthing the Invisible in Ben Brisbois’ Banana Capital: Unpeeling the Layers of Capitalism and Racism

The banana. Simple, ubiquitous, and unassuming. Yet, as Ben Brisbois reveals in his forthcoming Banana Capital, it’s anything but ordinary. …

Spread the love

Ditching The Algorithm: Why I Joined Bluesky (And You Should Too)

For years, social media has been both a megaphone and an equalizer, a place where anyone can share art, advocate …

Spread the love