After a brief historical background of Cuban presidents retiring to Miami after being ousted from power, Didion turns her eye on the Miami and Florida of the mid-1980’s, to write about American covert (or not so covert) interference in Cuba in the 1960’s to Nicaragua in the 1980’s, and how this flows from the need for “issues” in Washington.
Being a British reader, I had only an awareness of the Cuban and Nicaraguan conflicts being discussed, and although the specifics now appear historical, the political story of Washington is as relevant as ever.
Based around essays written for The New York Review of Books, this work has dated more than Didion’s Salvador (1983), but is equally stylish in drawing out the stories to be told, and then leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions.
For example quoting a Miami Cuban called Carlos Luis talking about Albert Camus (but intended more generally):
“As time goes by I think that men who were unable to make choices were more right than those who made them. Because there are no clean choices.”
Completing this quote after two pages of Didion’s considerations: “There are no choices at all.” ( )

In memory of lost family, Didion late great journalistic observations of Miami culture. Sociology style reporting with an index at back. ( )

It took me some time to navigate Didion's true focus for Miami. I was expecting an overarching, historical portrait of a city in Florida which is rich in culture and diversity, today and yesterday. Instead, Miami started out as a tirade about how Cubans in Miami are often ignored (when they aren't being misunderstood). Cuban ethnicity is left out of the equation when Anglos describe Miami. The naive gringos err on the side of stereotypes or misconception when trying to describe or name something that is uniquely Cuban. I wasn't expecting this us against them narrative. It is more accurate to say Didion's Miami is about the Cuban Exile Community, past and present. Didion moves the reader directly into the eye of a political hurricane which is in a nutshell government conspiracies and corruptions, the underbelly of wheeling and dealing like failed and successful assassinations. Organized crime and car bombs that go boom in the night. Bay of Pigs. Watergate. Ronald Reagan. Nightmares in the light of day. Sunny Miami.

I am distracted easily. Put in front of me a sentence that is too long winded and my mind starts to wander and my eyes jump all over the page, forgetting what I just tried to read. Miami is full of crazy long (in my mind run-on) sentences that drove me to distraction. ( )

Marvelous exposer of American under-the-table deals. The whole time during Castro we pretended to help the Miami Cubans get their country back, we had already made a deal with the Russians to leave Fidel alone. Didion is a great digger: knows how to get into a group and get the truth like she did with Slouching Towards Bethlehem. ( )

Everything Didion writes is gold. ( )