ABSTRACT
Alea continued his research for A Cuban Fight against Demons after the completion of Death of a Bureaucrat. One day, however, he read Edmundo Desnoes' Inconsolable Memories and immediately called the author to tell him he wanted to make a film based on it. The action in both the novel and the film takes place in Havana, between two defining moments in postrevolutionary Cuban history: the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Sergio, the protagonist, is an aspiring intellectual from the merchant middle class. When his wife and parents leave for the United States, he sees their departure as an opportunity to try his luck in writing. Instead, he spends his days reflecting upon his past life and looking for love. In the end, Sergio's failure to fall in love with the women he courts parallels his failure to join in the larger social transfmmations unfolding all around him.
