It should not be so hard to write both poetry and fiction. Both arts, after all, make use of the same materials, words and punctuation. Poems...
Continue »
I haven't yet read this book, but I have read Kingsolver's fiction and admire it greatly, particularly "Animal Dreams." My main reason for writing is to correct the first line in the publisher's comments: This is definitely not Kingsolver's first nonfiction book. I recommend the fascinating "Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983" (ILR Press 1989; ILR is out of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations). That book describes in vivid detail how the women in several small Arizona towns sustained the 18-month strike against the Phelps Dodge Copper Corp. in 1983 after their husbands and sons--the miners--were forced to abandon the picket line to find other work to support their families.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(7 of 14 readers found this comment helpful)
When he was a Roman Catholic priest, Charles Hardy was sent to Caracas, Venezuela, to work with the poorest of the poor in 1985. While living among them for eight years in a cardboard shack without sanitary facilities, as well as in the years that have followed, he has witnessed the drama of social and political change under Hugo Chavez that has substantially improved their situation.
In his lucid and conversationally written book, "Cowboy in Caracas," Hardy recounts his often moving experiences while providing a perspective on Chavez's Bolivarian revolution that is far different from that which we in the United States get from our media - the perspective of the 80 percent of Venezuelans who are poor, not of the small but vocal minority who, as I see it, want to reclaim their traditional control of the country's wealth. (That minority runs the Venezuelan news media, which continually maligns Chavez and overtly participated in the failed US-backed coup against him in 2002, as well as a subsequent attempt to strangle the economy in order to force him out; in each case the people literally put their bodies on the line to support Chavez, thwarting those efforts.)
While keeping his focus on the Venezuelans he has met, Hardy vividly illustrates the reality of a country that, UNESCO says, in a year and a half wiped out illiteracy; has opened thousands of schools in rural areas; has created new universities which any Venezuelan can attend without tuition; has provided seed money to farmers and rural women who have started cottage industries; and has substantially expanded cost-free health services.
Don't get me wrong: Charles Hardy is no shill for the government, but he does think it has done many things that benefit the vast majority of Venezuelans. If you want an entertaining and humanistic account of what I see as a dynamic country that has little in common with the menace that Bush administration portrays, give "Cowboy in Caracas" a try.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(9 of 12 readers found this comment helpful)
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.
Don't Miss
Customer Comments
Neill Rosenfeld has commented on (2) products.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver and Camille Kingsolver and Steven L. Hopp
Neill Rosenfeld, May 3, 2007
I haven't yet read this book, but I have read Kingsolver's fiction and admire it greatly, particularly "Animal Dreams." My main reason for writing is to correct the first line in the publisher's comments: This is definitely not Kingsolver's first nonfiction book. I recommend the fascinating "Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983" (ILR Press 1989; ILR is out of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations). That book describes in vivid detail how the women in several small Arizona towns sustained the 18-month strike against the Phelps Dodge Copper Corp. in 1983 after their husbands and sons--the miners--were forced to abandon the picket line to find other work to support their families.(7 of 14 readers found this comment helpful)
Cowboy in Caracas: A North American's Memoir of Venezuela's Democratic Revolution by Charles Hardy
Neill Rosenfeld, March 20, 2007
When he was a Roman Catholic priest, Charles Hardy was sent to Caracas, Venezuela, to work with the poorest of the poor in 1985. While living among them for eight years in a cardboard shack without sanitary facilities, as well as in the years that have followed, he has witnessed the drama of social and political change under Hugo Chavez that has substantially improved their situation.In his lucid and conversationally written book, "Cowboy in Caracas," Hardy recounts his often moving experiences while providing a perspective on Chavez's Bolivarian revolution that is far different from that which we in the United States get from our media - the perspective of the 80 percent of Venezuelans who are poor, not of the small but vocal minority who, as I see it, want to reclaim their traditional control of the country's wealth. (That minority runs the Venezuelan news media, which continually maligns Chavez and overtly participated in the failed US-backed coup against him in 2002, as well as a subsequent attempt to strangle the economy in order to force him out; in each case the people literally put their bodies on the line to support Chavez, thwarting those efforts.)
While keeping his focus on the Venezuelans he has met, Hardy vividly illustrates the reality of a country that, UNESCO says, in a year and a half wiped out illiteracy; has opened thousands of schools in rural areas; has created new universities which any Venezuelan can attend without tuition; has provided seed money to farmers and rural women who have started cottage industries; and has substantially expanded cost-free health services.
Don't get me wrong: Charles Hardy is no shill for the government, but he does think it has done many things that benefit the vast majority of Venezuelans. If you want an entertaining and humanistic account of what I see as a dynamic country that has little in common with the menace that Bush administration portrays, give "Cowboy in Caracas" a try.
(9 of 12 readers found this comment helpful)