This is a mix of travel writing, history on the fly, and revolutionary idealism. Rushdie acts as a loyal critic, humanizing an oppressed folk and their aspirations, but also pointing out shortcomings and potential pitfalls in the world-building they are undertaking. Unfortunately, the misgivings he voices about whether the Nicaraguan revolution would stay true to itself came to pass. Daniel Ortega, who was the leader in this book published in 1987, is now again the ‘president’ of the country. But this time he is also recognized as one of the world’s most shameless dictators, with no end to his ‘terms’ in sight. At Rushdie’s parting, some of the interviewees ask Rushdie to come back. I would love for him to do so and write another book showing how ‘The Jaguar Smile’ he so feared is now in place. The Revolution devoured Nicaragua.

Because of the fluency in how Rushdie interacts and relates with the people, and some commentary on vernacular, I wondered for a while if Rushdie speaks Spanish. Finally though he lets on that he has an interpreter. He must have depended upon Margarita Clark a lot to get some of the linguistic color he comments on. I’m heartened that he was scrupulous enough to name and thank her in the acknowledgements.

Knyga - S. Rushdie keliones i sandinistine Nicaragua 1986-iais prisiminimai.

I'm surprised how much I appreciated this book. Salman Rushdie trekking through Nicaragua during the tumult of a leftist revolution? I didn't initially expect him to be overly sympathetic to the cause, and thought I was in for a lot more centrist both-sides talk. These days when I see him discussing leftism it's usually on the superficial basis of decrying "woke culture." But it was refreshing reading young Rushdie, back when he was a bit more idealistic and less cynical. His sympathy for the Sandinistas comes through a very astute and balanced analysis of the situation on the ground in Nicaragua, interviewing leaders of the revolution, every day Nicaraguans and also people who oppose the movement.

My contensions with what he has written here were very few. His grappling with the policy of the government's muzzling of the press, even if it was that of largely propagandistic journalism, was mostly in line with my own thinking, though we arrived at divergent conclusions. But I can respect his desire for an absolutist freedom of the press, even if I personally think that sometimes a cause can be so important, involving stakes so dire, that sometimes the suspension of certain discourse can be justified to stymie toxic elements that oppose the greater good. But that matter of my practicality clashing with his ideology was really the only major clash.

I even appreciated his writing style more than I do of his later works. There was no pretension here, just a free flowing journal filled with his wonderful knack for poetic prose. Not once did I have to consult a dictionary, whereas in Fury (which was a perfectly fine book) it seemed I had to consult one every several of pages.

I think I will be picking up more of his older work in the near future.

This is most definitely a snapshot of a moment in time. Rushdie traveled to Nicaragua for several weeks in the mid 80's to figure out the situation on the ground. There are some interesting and moving conversations with Nicaraguans not in power documented. Rushdie, though not a writer I generally enjoy, can craft some great sentences and brings valuable reflections from the lens of someone who less removed than he imagines from his roots in a country made unstable both by colonial rule and by its end. There are also many conversations with people in power, including Daniel Ortega. Though he does not overtly say this is his impression, the Sandinistas come across as wholly unprepared for the task at hand and imbued with a very limited vision for Nicaragua's future, and those who identify as part of the opposition seem equally incompetent and also malignant. (Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, the widow of the former editor of La Prensa who is running the show when the conversation happens.) Everyone in government and in the opposition seems easily corrupted by little tastes of power. And so the campasinos suffer and fight and things stay bad. A slight but nicely crafted document of a moment.

O carte-reportaj despre istoria recentă a unei țări pline de poezie și moarte- Nicaragua.

A work of non-fiction by Rushdie? Yes, this book was based on Rushdie's travel through Nicaragua in the late 1980s. This book highlights Rushdie's journalistic eye to the reality on the ground in the country, a country struggling under the costs of a bitter civil war, fueled by US/CIA funding of the Contras. Rushdie is not entirely sympathetic towards his Sandinista hosts, though. Rightly, he criticizes government leadership for their censorship of opposition newspapers. Overall, this is an interesting read to look at how the foreign policy decisions of Reagan devastated a country, and how a nation, despite war and poverty, can still hold on to humanity through celebration of poetry and prose.

A slim little book about Salman Rushdie visiting Nicaragua 7 years after the revolution. I'm a sucker for writers who are trying to be skeptical about a revolution but sort of fall for it anyway. Recommended reading if you've forgotten how awful the U.S.-backed Contras were.

Segundo libro que leo de este autor, el primero no me acuerdo del titulo porque no lo pude terminar de leer (no me gusto creo que se llamaba "Vergüenza"); este segundo titulo si logre leerlo completo, así que ya vamos bien con este autor, espero que mi próximo reto pueda lograr cautivarme.

Este ensayo o crónica política, realizada por el autor sobre un viaje que hizo a Nicaragua en 1986, por medio de una invitación del gobierno sandinista cuando cumplían 7 años en el gobierno, él recorrió el país y trato de ser objetivo aunque a mi parecer no lo fue; la edición que leí de este libro fue una publicación realizada 10 años después de la primera edición, cuando los sandinistas entregan el poder por medio de los votos a la presidenta Violeta Chamorro.

Quiero compartir un extracto de lo que publico el autor en su primer prologo del libro:

"...Conozco la tendencia de las revoluciones a equivocarse, a devorar a sus propios hijos, a convertirse en lo iban a destruir. Sé lo que es empezar con idealismo y romanticismo y acabar traicionando las expectativas, destruyendo las esperanzas."

Lamentablemente estoy de acuerdo con el autor, porque siento ese mismo sentimiento aquí en mi país Venezuela, 19 años después de la revolución.

I saw the name on the cover and picked this book up immediately. What could be better than one of my favorite writers exploring a subject that I know very little about? In this vivid nonfiction account, Rushdie writes about his own experiences in the turbulent world of 1980s Nicaragua. He humanizes illogical leadership and looks into an improbable society: a uniquely Central American creation facing the pressures of the modern world.

This was an interesting book by Rushdie about his travels to Sandinista-run Nicaragua in 1986 shortly after finishing Satanic Verses. It is an insiders look at this short-lived period of history that eventually led to the Noriega dictatorship and bloodshed. Not an essential part of his canon, it is nonetheless an interesting non-fiction book from Rushdie trying to see behind the propaganda of this particular world spotlight at the time with Reagan preparing to overthrow this socialist regime in the background.

"নিকারাগুয়া ভ্রমণের উদ্দেশ্য ছিল এটা দেখানো যে, পৃথিবীটা কোনো টেলিভিশন কি উপন্যাস কি ইতিহাস নয়। পৃথিবীটা বাস্তব এবং এটাই তার আদত ও মধ্যস্থতাহীন বাস্তবতা।"

কিন্তু জাগুয়ারের হাসিটা?

"আমাদের সেটা দেখে যেতে হবে শুধু।"

Especially meaningful for me because I was in Nicaragua the same year as Salman Rushdie, so he reminds me of much and brings back memories.