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Castro was kept up all night by ‘Dracula’

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A new documentary about Fidel Castro reveals stories about the Cuban revolutionary as told by the luminaries who’d met him. The documentary ‘Anecdotas Sobre Fidel,’ or ‘Fidel Anecdotes,’ which has screened at the Havana film festival, features conversations with Harry Belafonte, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, filmmaker Sidney Pollack, author Alice Walker and more.

Writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez says that Castro complained he never had time to read when leading the country, so after he stepped down, Marquez returned, prepared. The Associated Press reports:

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On a subsequent visit, the Nobel Prize-winning author says he decided to bring his friend what he called ‘best-sellers,’ the first of which was Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula.’ The following day, Castro showed up bleary-eyed, saying ‘that book won’t let me sleep.’

Coming from a guy who faced Khrushchev, Kennedy and death threats, that’s saying something.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

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