The jaguar smile : a Nicaraguan journey

by Salman Rushdie

Paper Book, 1987

Description

"I did not go to Nicaragua intending to write a book, or, indeed, to write at all: but my encounter with the place affected me so deeply that in the end I had no choice." So notes Salman Rushdie in his first work of nonfiction, a book as imaginative and meaningful as his acclaimed novels. In The Jaguar Smile, Rushdie paints a brilliantly sharp and haunting portrait of the people, the politics, the terrain, and the poetry of "a country in which the ancient, opposing forces of creation and destruction were in violent collision." Recounting his travels there in 1986, in the midst of America's behind-the-scenes war against the Sandinistas, Rushdie reveals a nation resounding to the clashes between government and individuals, history and morality.… (more)

Status

Available

Call number

917.28504/53

Genres

Publication

New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : Viking, 1987.

Media reviews

New York Times

"Rushdie winds up writing a great deal of admiring drivel at the knees of various Sandinista commanders who have been more interestingly interviewed elsewhere . . . [But] Rushdie's effort is worth a second look because it is also an account of the confusion any one of us might feel if we visited

Nicaragua and gave it a chance to affect us . . ."

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User reviews

LibraryThing member Tinwara

Interesting travelogue, though a bit outdated. In the 1980's Salman Rushdie was invited to Nicaragua by the Sandinista regime. He spent 3 weeks in the country, and on this basis alone he wrote this entire book. I would say that 3 weeks is not a lot to fully get to know a country or get a grasp on

its political situation. It is easy to be charmed by poets and writers who have become politicians and by ladies who keep a pet cow in their home.

Luckily Salman Rushdie is a good writer so this book is well written and a pleasure to read. The observations are sharp and sometimes funny. What I also liked about it is the continuous doubt inside the author about a regime which on the one hand claims to be a true democracy but on the other shut down a newspaper. Which on the one hand had to fight for survival against a very mighty enemy but on the other hand seemed to misuse its own power against its native Amerindian inhabitants.

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LibraryThing member soylentgreen23

A magnificent short piece of travel writing and political reportage, with the celebrated writer visiting Nicaragua on little more than a whim to see what the reality of the situation was. Brilliant stuff.

LibraryThing member dbsovereign

A personal journey into a politically explosive land. Rushdie gives us his take on things happening in Nicaragua - an extremely complicated situation. Introducing us to real people embroiled in this situation, helps us avoid the oversimplification many times attibuted to investigative journalism.

LibraryThing member questbird

I knew very little about Nicaragua before I opened this book and now I know a little more. It is a portrait of the country at a particular time, after the sandinista revolution but before its outcome was known. In 1986, the USA under President Reagan defied the International Criminal Court and

continued to fund Contra counter-insurgents in Nicaragua. Rushdie was a guest of the Sandinista government and he was charmed by a country led by poets whose revolution seemed anything but a dictatorship in the making. There were problems to be resolved but at that time war with the USA seemed a real possibility for the Nicaraguan people. A fascinating snapshot of a country in the making.

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