Miami 1980: Two Versions
<p>I found it elegantly written — a fast-paced read — but I was surprised how much it left out. Not counting indexes and notes, it’s a mere 260 pages, including epilogue. That’s seems astonishingly short, in my humble opinion, for an exceptionally complex year that included the McDuffie riots and the Mariel boatlift, both of which had far reaching implications not only for Miami, but for the whole country, reverberating even today through Black Lives Matter and the continuing debate about immigration.</p>
<p>A bunch of times I found myself searching the index for things that weren’t there or were brushed off in a footnote. The editors seem to be blame. Griffin thanked them in an acknowledgement for “their wise, heavy edits that turned this book from an unwieldy behemoth into a slimmer beast.” I’ll bet I would have liked the “behemoth” better, which may reveal more about me than about him.</p>
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