"The Jaguar Smile" is Salman Rushdie's diary of his three-week visit to Nicaragua invited by the Sandinista government in 1986. Ronald Reagan was still president in Washington, and his administration was financing the Contras, who were trying to overthrow the revolutionaries in Managua. The famous writer of Indian origin travels to the four corners of the country, interviews, and seems to take the side of the Sandinistas, even if he regrets press censorship. He meets several poets, including Gioconda Belli, and quotes their texts in his book. Like Belli, he celebrates the beauty of the country and the generosity of its people, but, by necessity, his account is less profound and intimate.
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I discovered this in the Latin America section in Stanfords, quite unaware that Salman Rushdie had written it, and central America was somewhere I have always wanted to travel around.

Rusdie’s trip of three weeks was made at the invitation of the Sandinista Association of Cultural workers and he was there at the seven year anniversary of the Sandinista’s rise to power. While there he conversed with the President, Daniel Ortega, ministers (most of whom are poets) the owner of the recently closed La Prensa newspaper, aid workers and a midwife and her cow.

Nicaragua, which Rushdie clearly falls in love with, is portrayed very much as the little guy standing up to the big ;un (The US under Reagan) as the revolutionary government is besieged by the Contra and it’s backers. It’s always hard to tell just how truthful or unbiased narratives like this are. But to be fair to El Escritor hindu, as he is known, he does not shy away from asking fairly probing questions where he can, and presses the government on it’s closure of La Prensa numerous times, and he admits failings in the book of people who he didn’t get to interview.

It’s a slim book. Rushdie articulately mixing in facts with bits of his journeys around the country and his conversations with those in power and those without. The Jaguar Smile should be seen as a postcard, a snapshot of a time and a place, a place that I myself long to go.
(blog review  here)

I wasn't really sure what this book was going to be about. but it was a nice surprise to discover Nicaragua through Rushdie's depiction of the place and the people. politics aside, this book really helps to feel the Nicaragua of the time. although I suggest balancing this reading with further material, since Rushdie has a clear political stance towards Sandinistas and while he is transparent about it, there is also a bias inherent to it.

An interesting insight into Nicaragua, with the author bringing the optimism and fears in the country oost-revolution to live, but with sometimes a lack of journalistic detachment
It was like returning back to normal, but normality here was of a violent, exceptional type.

Salman Rushdie narrates a trip to Nicaragua in 1986. It is a country in full turmoil, with three generations of dictators just ousted and the revolutionary government being sanctioned by the US. Only three million people live in a country as large as Wales and England together.
The CIA budget under Reagan was annually USD 400 million to destabilize the country, led by its FSNL government.

In short sections a clear love for poetry becomes apparent and the people of the country seem genuine in their want for change and in their good intentions. But dark undertones of press censure are definitely present and not glossed over by the author.
Also the economical hardships are very clear, with the country importing three times more than exporting, making the economic sanctions of the US devastating, leading to 500% inflation and a 40% black market economy.
Just do as we say, and all your troubles will disappear is the summarised stance of the US, but the governors and ministers in their early 30s, propelled by the revolution, are not keen to back down.

The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey is a book that very well captures a time and a spirit of both apprehension and hope for the future. In the end developments didn't turn out as utopian or dystopian as feared, and it is fair to surmise that the common man in Nicaragua is not much helped in the end by grand visions of revolution and socialist change.

4/B

Interesante descripción política de la Nicaragua sandinista salpimentada con escenas cotidianas además de referencias culturales y literarias que dan vidilla al ensayo. No obstante, en esta edición las erratas y los fallos en la traducción reducen la calidad de la lectura.

সালামান রুশদি নিকারাগুয়ায় গিয়ে পৌঁছুতে পৌঁছুতে বিপ্লবের সাত বছর পেড়িয়ে গেছে। এখন বিপ্লব বললেই তো আর বিপ্লব হয় না। নির্দিষ্ট কিছু প্রচার মাধ্যম আর পরাশক্তি অনুমোদন না দিলে বিপ্লব বরং টাইরানি বলে প্রচারিত হয়। সৌভাগ্যক্রমে রুশদি সেই ধাতের লোক নন। স্বচ্ছ চোখেই দেখেছেন এবং লিখেছেন। কিঞ্চিত অবাক হতে হয় কবি-সাহিত্যিক বলে ভাবুক আর অলস বলে পরিচিত লোকেরা রাষ্ট্র চালাবার হাল ধরেছেন এবং জনগণের সর্বোচ্চ বিকাশের লক্ষ্যে কাজ করছেন। এসব রোমান্টিক কথা। কারণ যখন সাম্রাজ্যবাদী আর উপনিবেশিক শক্তি আপনার অস্তিত্বই সহ্য করতে পারছে না তখন এমন কল্যাণকর-সাম্যের রাষ্ট্র প্রতিষ্ঠার কাজ পাহাড় ঠেলে আগবার চেয়ে কম কঠিন কিছু না। পদে পদে অর্থনৈতিক নিষেধাজ্ঞা বা সশস্ত্র বিরোধী গোষ্ঠীতে মিলিয়ন মিলিয়ন ঢেলে দেয়ার পর এসব স্বপ্ন বরং দুঃস্বপ্নে বদলে যায়। নিকারাগুয়ার সান্দানিস্তা সরকারেরও নাভিশ্বাস উঠে সারে তাতে আর বিস্ময় কি! তবে সাম্যের মিঠা মিঠা কথা না গুঁজে রুশদি বরং নানা মাত্রায় নিকারাগুয়ার মানুষের অতীত-বর্তমান আর ভবিষ্যতের দিকে খানিক আলো ফেলে দেখতে চেয়েছেন। মিঠা কথার বাইরেও বিপ্লবের কষ্ট আর আহত তরুণদেরও দেখেছেন এবং দেখিয়েছেন। রাষ্ট্রীয় সফরে আহত নারী যোদ্ধার বিষাদ লুকিয়ে ফেলার চেষ্টা করেননি। তারচেয়ে বড় ব্যাপার রাষ্ট্রীয় সফরে খোদ রাষ্ট্রীয় লোকজনের উপস্থিতিতে তার সামনে সেই নারী অবলীলায় নিজের ক্ষোভ প্রকাশ করতে পেরেছেন। উদারনৈতিক-গণতান্ত্রিক রাষ্ট্র ব্যবস্থায় কি এমনটা বিরল নয়? তাছাড়া যুদ্ধকালীন পরিস্থিতির বরাত দিলেও স্থানীয় প্রচার মাধ্যমকে নিয়ন্ত্রণের ব্যাপারটিকে কঠোর দৃষ্টিতেই দেখেছেন রুশদি এবং তা নিয়ে অপেক্ষাকৃত তরুণ নীতিনির্ধারকদের সাথে তর্কেও জড়িয়েছেন। তবে এত কম সম্পদ থাকার পরও, মূল্যস্ফীতি বা ধুঁকতে থাকা অর্থনীতিকে সারাই করে এগিয়ে যাওয়ার স্বপ্ন বুকে নিয়ে চলা ওর্তেগা, রামিরেস বা কার্দেনাল শেষ পর্যন্ত আর পারেননি। সোভিয়েত পতনের স্রোতের সাথে সাথে এই স্বপ্নও ভেসে যায়। তবে বলার অপেক্ষা রাখে না পৃথিবীর ছোট্ট একটা দেশের কিছু মানুষ তাদের ক্ষমতার সর্বোচ্চটা দিয়ে চেষ্টা করেছিলেন। নিশ্চয়ই এখানেই ইতিহাসের শেষ নয়।

অনুবাদের ভাষা প্রায় সময়ই অস্বচ্ছ এবং দুর্বোধ্য। তাছাড়া কৃষ্ণ-কৌতুক, শিশুযত্নকেন্দ্র বা পোশাক পার্টির মতন শব্দের অর্থ বাংলা ভাষার মধ্যে বেঁচে থাকা মানুষের কাছে কতটুক অর্থ রাখে তা জানি না।

Rushdie’s journey through a revolutionary Nicaragua back in July 1986 is rigorously documented in The Jaguar’s Smile, where the author’s sensitivity captures the contradictions -and actually dialogues with them- of a revolution that survives in the midst of the US financed contras serving in the neighbor countries. Nicaragua’s context combined with the author’s clever remarks and a sincere interest in the country’s reality results in a timeless must-read book for Central Americans.

so well written + a very interesting history. incredible to get more candid insights and love seeing how many of the politicians were writers/poets

I have enjoyed some fiction works of Rushdie, so his language and storytelling flow here is excellent. It is quite short, as expected, since Rushdie's visit to Nicaragua in the 1980s was brief, so I don't know that this book will leave me with that much long-lasting impact. The main outcome of reading this is that I am inspired to read more about Nicaragua, both about this era, but also more current works. And because Rushdie met with a lot of the literary community during his visit, I have looked up a lot of the Nicaraguan writers he name-dropped and will potentially check those out as well.

This book is an interesting snapshot taken in the midst of the Nicaraguan Revolution and the Reagan-era interventionist political strategy. I was too young to be aware of any of this at the time, so I'm intrigued by the in-the-moment viewpoint. Rushdie definitely has a political perspective that you need to be aware of, and brings in a few comparisons to Indian politics. I also really enjoyed his overview of some of the different regions in Nicaragua. This edition included a little update 10 years later. It has now been another 20 years since the update, and the same president from the 1980s is still president (not consecutively), so the political situation seems to still be very much wrapped up in a lot of the same issues as 30+ years ago. I need to learn more!

Hmm, I am not sure what to think about this book. It's not really a travelogue. It's more the account of Salman Rushdie's visit to Nicaragua, and one wonders why he decided to go to Nicaragua during this time. After all, as a reader, I could somehow read between the lines that the author had some biases of his own, as he came into the country.

Oh well, I suppose everyone has biases. Tourists rarely go to a country expecting nothing. As a reader, however, reading this travelogue in the context of what has happened in Nicaragua in the more recent years, I perhaps find that this book hasn't really aged well. Daniel Ortega is still in power, and some of his allies back in the 1980s have eventually turned into his critics, which he then stripped of Nicaraguan citizenship. Smooth move, I would say.

Power corrupts. Regardless of which party one belongs to, whether it's the Somoza faction or the Sandinistas, power eventually brings the evil out of one. And it felt like Rushdie was quite a fan boy of the Sandinistas, at least that's the vibe I have gotten when reading this book. I wonder how he feels about Nicaragua now.

Of course, it is unfair of me to judge a book (and its author) written in the 1980s with the context of recent events. I suppose as a travelogue, it ain't bad. Though it also doesn't encourage the reader to come and visit Nicaragua. Perhaps one could see this book as a diary, and that would be a more pleasant read. I give this 3 out of 5 stars.

See my other book reviews here.

Since this is non-fiction and the title says 'a Nicaraguan journey', I took it for a travelogue or journal of Rushdie's travels across Nicaragua. :')
However, it is all about politics and revolution and dicators and rebels and governors.