"Immersing herself in Havana’s gay culture, Stout, an American anthropologist, gives readers a street-level view of the turbulent changes under way in Cuba, as Cuban society gradually transitions from conformist socialism to a more market-oriented individualism." — Richard Feinberg, Foreign Affairs
"Well written, and informed by an impressive body of interdisciplinary scholarship...required reading for anyone interested in sexual practice and state policy on the island." — Tiffany Sippial, H-Histsex, H-Net Reviews
“As an ethnography, After Love gives a richly evidenced account of how Latin America’s neoliberalization changes the very possibilities for economic and intimate relationships. Focusing on queer identities, Stout’s work is a welcome addition to the scholarship on neoliberalism in the region as it is able to illustrate the complex interplay through which neoliberal subjects constitute themselves through the resistance, re-imagining and embracing new forms of economic transfers through ‘love’ relationships.” — M. Gabriela Torres, European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
"Noelle Stout presents a rich ethnographic description of queer life in post-Soviet Cuba, with an emphasis on the ways in which Cuba’s large-scale changes have transformed intimacy." — Heidi Harkonen, Suomen Antropologi
"In After Love, Noelle Stout provides a refreshing take on a widely-studied topic: sex tourism and hustling in contemporary Cuba. Focusing on a handful of case studies of mostly young habaneros trying to get by in a hostile economy and rapidly changing social and political environment, this is ethnography at its best: powerful portrayals of daily life presented in an engaging and elegant style." — Carrie Hamilton, Journal of Latin American Studies
"Stout's attention to experiences of abandonment, betrayal, and disillusionment adds to the growing scholarship on Cuban sexual identities under neoliberalism and raises important question about populations in Cuba's economies of desire who have reached the outer limits of affective exchanges." — Karina Lissette Cespedes, GLQ
“After Love is a very good book, well written, sympathetic, and insightful. It wears its sophisticated theory lightly, making it both accessible and rewarding to read as much as for the picture of contemporary Cuba it paints as for the more general insights it provides into how people negotiate the contradictions life throws at them.” — Mark Graham, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
"This book is a timely and important contribution to contemporary anthropological accounts of queer sexual politics in Cuba. Beyond anthropologists specializing in Cuba or the Caribbean, this book is of interest to Cuban historians, professors and students of gender studies, scholars working on the intersection of neoliberalism and desire, and those utilizing affect theory. Stout’s debut is an extremely useful contribution to interdisciplinary scholarship on contemporary Cuban sexual culture." — Lisa M. Corrigan, QED
"After Love is a must-read for anyone interested in gender, sexuality, and queer politics in the Caribbean and is
also a good read for those seeking to understand the broader socioeconomic contradictions of Cuba’s postsocialist transition. The engaging and crisp prose, rich with thick description and methodological intuitions, makes it an excellent text for assigning in undergraduate and graduate courses." — Mrinalini Tankha, American Anthropologist
“Beyond its strong contributions to scholarship on Latin America and the Caribbean, After Love is a must read for queer studies and for anyone interested in the ways in which neoliberalism, globalization, and migration impact everyday life. In addition, the book is wonderfully suited for undergraduate and graduate courses on gender, race, and political economy, as well as courses in anthropology or Latin American and Caribbean studies more generally.” — Hanna Garth, New West Indian Guide
"Lusty, warm, wide-ranging, and incisive, After Love takes us on a vivid journey through queer Havana today. It shows us how middle-class respectability, socialist rhetoric, consumer desire, and sexual elasticity both mesh and conflict with an increasingly free-for-all market economy, where sex work, foreign tourists, and the looming collapse of the socialist state have transformed life into a froth of difficulty, uncertainty, and possibility." — Don Kulick, author of Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes
"Noelle M. Stout skillfully examines how love and desire intersect with socialism and capitalism in Cuba. She introduces us to men and women whose intimate choices have emotional and material costs and payoffs. This is essential reading for those interested in political ruptures and their aftereffects—in this case on individuals' economic opportunities, sexual identities, and erotic desires."
— Denise Brennan, Georgetown University