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The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey

salman rushdie

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Salman Rushdie went to Nicaragua in 1986, harboring no preconceptions of what he might find. What he discovered was overwhelming: a culture of heroes who had turned into inanimate objects and of politicians and warriors who were poets; a land of difficult, often beautiful contradictions. His perceptions always heightened by his special sensitivity to “the views from underneath,” Rushdie reveals a land resounding with the clashes between history and morality, government and individuals.

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1987
Places
nicaragua, 

This edition

Format
160 pages, Paperback
Published
September 1, 2003 by Picador
ISBN
9780312422783
ASIN
0312422784
Language
English

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About the author

Profile Image for salman rushdie

salman rushdie

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Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent. Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize.
After his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), Rushdie became the subject of several assassination attempts and death threats, including a fatwa calling for his death issued by Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran. In total, 20 countries banned the book. Numerous killings and bombings have been carried out by extremists who cite the book as motivation, sparking a debate about censorship and religiously motivated violence. In 2022, Rushdie survived a stabbing at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.
In 1983, Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was appointed a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in 1999. Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for his services to literature. In 2008, The Times ranked him 13th on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Since 2000, Rushdie has lived in the United States. He was named Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University in 2015. Earlier, he taught at Emory University. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2012, he published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, an account of his life in the wake of the events following The Satanic Verses. Rushdie was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in April 2023.
Rushdie's personal life, including his five marriages and four divorces, has attracted notable media attention and controversies, particularly during his marriage to actress Padma Lakshmi.

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Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
ThePlotDemandsIt
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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3.5/5

"নিকারাগুয়ায়" তিনি বলেন,"প্রত্যেককেই কবি বলে বিবেচনা করা হয়, উল্টোটি প্রমাণিত না হওয়া পর্যন্ত।"
এই কবিদের দেশে সালমান রুশদি ভ্রমণ করেছিলেন ১৯৮৬ সালে, সমাজতন্ত্রী সান্দিনিস্তা বিপ্লবীদের চূড়ান্ত বিজয়ের সপ্তম বর্ষপূর্তিতে। যে দেশটির জীবিতদের বোঝার জন্য, লেখকের মনে হয়েছিলো, মৃতদের দিয়ে শুরু করা উচিত। কারণ "দেশটি প্রেতে পরিপূর্ণ ছিলো।" দীর্ঘ স্বৈরাচারী শাসনের ফলে দেশটিতে জমে উঠেছিলো লাশ আর কান্না। ছিলো অর্থনৈতিক, রাজনৈতিক আর মনস্তাত্ত্বিক নানান সমস্যা। রুশদি তার তিন সপ্তাহের সফরের অভিজ্ঞতা ও পর্যবেক্ষণ বর্ণনা করেছেন বইতে। খুব গভীর কোনো বই না। কিন্তু পড়তে পড়তে পাঠকের মনে হতেই পারে, পৃথিবীর সব বিপ্লব আর বিপ্লববিধ্বস্ত জনপদের গল্প কোনো এক অদৃশ্য জাদুবলে একই রকম হয়ে যায়, একই রকম নিয়তি বয়ে বেড়াতে হয় সবাইকে।

(১৬ মার্চ,২০২২)
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andymunwan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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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.
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ImSoBored927
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I bought The Jaguar Smile a few years ago after having spent a bit more than a week in Nicaragua visiting a friend. I was a little surprised to see Salman Rushdie writing about Central America, and I think at first I thought it was a collection of fiction stories. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually a nonfiction look at his stay in Nicaragua during the time the Sandinistas were in power in the late 80s. Apparently the book got a lot of flak for being too kind to Ortega and the new government, and he does see many of the improvements that the communists brought to the country over the previous horrible dictatorship. He did spend some time talking about censorship, but it was always in a larger context. His summary of the situation:

"The argument usually ended in the same place. Nicaragua was an imperfect state. But it was also engaged in a true revolution: in an attempt, that is, to change the structures of society in order to improve the lives of its citizens. And imprefection, even the deep flaw of censorship, did not constitute a justification for being crushed by a super-power's military and economic force."

He also spoke to the privileged vantage point he occupied as a visiting observer of the conflict:

"We parted in Madrid, and returned to our separate lives, two migrants making our way in this West stuffed with money, power and things, this North that taught us how to see from its privileged point of view. But maybe we were the lucky ones; we knew that other perspectives existed. We had seen the view from elsewhere."

All in all, I was impressed by this little time capsule that opened a small window to the history of Nicaragua.
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Jinjun
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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In 1986 maakte de Indiase schrijver Salman Rushdie een reis naar Nicaragua. In dit boek doet hij daar verslag van. Hij heeft met veel mensen gesproken, zowel met boeren en andere burgers als met leidende figuren. Dit is mijn eerste kennismaking met het land. Mijn indruk is dat het een land van tegenstrijdigheden is, dat vanuit revolutionaire achtergrond op zoek is naar democratisering – er is een hoofdstuk gewijd aan de totstandkoming van de grondwet – en afstand probeert te nemen van de vs. Aan het eind is een hoofdstuk, waarin de nadruk valt op het thema censuur; het blijkt dat je ook daarover genuanceerd kunt denken. Rushdie geeft een redelijk veelzijdig beeld, zij het niet vanuit het gezichtspunt van de zogeheten contra’s, die in 1986 nog steeds in een guerillastrijd verwikkeld waren met de Sandinisten. Zeer veel namen passeren de revue, zo, dat het mij duizelt.
Dit is reisliteratuur die, anders dan de meeste reisboeken die ik heb gelezen, niet zozeer een toeristische en/of landschappelijke benadering heeft, maar een politiek-sociale invalshoek kent. Waardevol om aan de hand van een geïnformeerde buitenlander op de hoogte raken of eigenlijk een introductie te krijgen van Nicaragua. JM
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Shah_Studios
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Mike's review on 06/18 is right on the mark. Rushdie, obviously has written this book after having very little exposure to the Sandinista government of the 1980's. Taking into consideration the red carpet treatment he got for the 3 weeks he was in Nicaragua, it's understandable why he may have come to the ill-informed illusions regarding the Sandinista that he puts forth in this novel.

Disregarding Rushdie's bias, this book is a well written behind the scenes look at the country of Nicaragua during the Sandinista regime. Considering most Americans could not even pick Nicaragua off a map of Central America (that number becomes significantly smaller if you produce an entire globe), and the only information they posses is what they see on the nightly news, this book is a welcomed counter view point to what occurred in Nicaragua during the Contra war.

Overall, The Jaguar Smile is an easy and enjoyable read. As I'm reading, I can feel myself back immersed in the Nicaraguan culture again. While I might not agree with many of Rushdie's opinions/assertions, I do appreciate that he shares them in this book. That by writing this book he has shared with us an experience that few people outside of a world renowned author could have garnered during this tumultuous time in Nicaraguan history. This is where the value of this book lies.
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swordfish-san
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Some Interesting Thoughts, but Can't Take it Seriously Based on Only Three Weeks In-Country

I started this book because I wanted to learn about Nicaragua, but I despaired when the author mentioned in the first page that it was entirely composed of his experiences from visiting the country for only three weeks in 1986. I find it rather insulting to think that someone would think they had enough to write about a country and its moment in history with that minimal exposure to the place and its people (I feel the same way about Joan Didion's "Salvador.") I finished it because it was short, but didn't consider it all that valuable beyond an admittedly well-written travel log with cameos from several important Nicaraguan historical figures, including Daniel Ortega. Because of the author's apparent and admitted lack of familiarity with the subject matter, I don't feel I can rely on his assessment too much and thus can't give more than 2 stars.

A few observations I found interesting:
-"One didn't have to like people to believe in their right not to be squashed by the United States. But it helped. It certainly helped."
-"Conservative estimates of the CIA's planned 1986-87 budget against Nicaragua suggested a figure somewhere in the near vicinity of $400 million, four times the aid allocated to the Contra forces. Add to that the $300 being spent by the Reagan Administration to try and 'buy off' Nicaragua's neighbors, and you had a grand total of $800 million being spent on dirty tricks and destabilization to bring to heel a country of under 3 million people."
-When referring to the Sandanista censorship and press attacks, one government official said, "'If a mother has a sick child, very sick, she takes it to the hospital without first putting on makeup.' 'So, are such matters as the freedom of the press just cosmetic?' 'Cosmetic! That's the word, yes!"
-"You've got to understand that for Americans Nicaragua has no reality. To them, it's just another TV show."
-"The divisions in the (Catholic) Church in Latin America had now gone so deep, that the Vatican must be getting nervous. There was a very real possibility of a second reformation. A second breach with Rome."
-"If the opposition were correct and the Sandanistas were so unpopular, how was it that the government could hand out all these guns to the people and be confident that the weapons wouldn't be turned against them? There wasn't another regime in Central America that would dare to do the same; not Salvador, not Guatemala, not Honduras, not Costa Rica. While, in tyrannical 'Stalinist' Nicaragua, the government armed the peasantry and they, in turn, pointed the guns, every one of them, against the counter-revolutionary forces. Could this mean something?"
-Rushdie also commented on the constitutional challenges arising from a communist leadership in a Catholic country wrestling what to do with "abortion, adulthood (e.g., military service almost always began at age 16), and God."
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spaceboydom
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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3.45/5 stars rounding down. I read this book twice, about ten years apart. I remembered liking it and decided to pick it up again. I found parts of it interesting, but Rushdie's skilled fiction prose rarely rears its head in this nonfiction book. His politics here make sense and are mostly reasonable, but there's little scenery other than him hobnobbing with politicians and poets (many of whom are also politicians in revolutionary Nicaragua). Still, the book is worth reading if you would like to read a great novelist's takes on a 1980s conflict in which an embattled country tries to carve out a space free from American interference. And there are a few interesting scenes, scarce though they are.
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