Synopses & Reviews
This edition includes a new Preface by the author to the 1997 paperback edition. In this portrait of the people, the politics, the land, and the poetry of Nicaragua, Rushdie brings to the forefront the palpable human facts of a country in the midst of a revolution. Rushdie went to Nicaragua in 1986, "harboring no preconceptions of what he might find." What he discovered was for him 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. Rushdie came to know an enormous range of people, from the Foreign Minister--a priest--to a midwife who kept a pet cow in her living room. His perceptions always heightened by his special sensitivity to "the views from underneath," Rushdie reveals a land resounding to the clashes between history and morality, government and individuals. In
The Jaguar Smile Rushdie brings us--as few Americans or Europeans could--the true Nicaragua, where nothing is simple, everything is contested, and struggles to the death are daily fare.
Salman Rushdie is the author of the novels Grimus, Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses, The Moor's Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, and Fury. He has also published a play, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, and a book of short stories, East, West. His nonfiction works include The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands, The Wizard of Oz, and Mirrorwork (co-edited with Elizabeth West).
In this portrait of the people, the politics, the land, and the poetry of Nicaragua, Rushdie brings to the forefront the palpable human facts of a country in the midst of a revolution. Rushdie went to Nicaragua in 1986, "harboring no preconceptions of what he might find." What he discovered was for him 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. Rushdie came to know an enormous range of people, from the Foreign Ministera priestto a midwife who kept a pet cow in her living room. His perceptions always heightened by his special sensitivity to "the views from underneath," Rushdie reveals a land resounding to the clashes between history and morality, government and individuals. In The Jaguar Smile Rushdie brings usas few Americans or Europeans couldthe true Nicaragua, where nothing is simple, everything is contested, and struggles to the death are daily fare. This edition includes a new Preface by the author to the 1997 paperback edition.
"Salman Rushdie's extraordinary book . . . is a masterpiece of sympathetic yet critical reporting graced with his marvelous wit, quietly assertive style, odd and yet always revealing experiences . . . To say of The Jaguar Smile that it is a work of art is to take full note of its literary allusions, its uncompromising sensitivity to death and destruction, its ready political eye for the funny and grotesque, and above all its understated and gripping eloquence."Edward Said
"A vivid and probing introduction for perplexed outsiders trying to make senses of Nicaraguan dilemmas."Dan Cryer, Newsday
"Stirring and original . . . It gives us a picture of the country in bright, patchwork colors unavailable in your usual journalistic dispatches."The New York Times
Review
"Salman Rushdie's extraordinary book . . . is a masterpiece of sympathetic yet critical reporting graced with his marvelous wit, quietly assertive style, odd and yet always revealing experiences . . . To say of
The Jaguar Smile that it is a work of art is to take full note of its literary allusions, its uncompromising sensitivity to death and destruction, its ready political eye for the funny and grotesque, and above all its understated and gripping eloquence."--Edward Said
"A vivid and probing introduction for perplexed outsiders trying to make senses of Nicaraguan dilemmas."--Dan Cryer, Newsday
"Stirring and original . . . It gives us a picture of the country in bright, patchwork colors unavailable in your usual journalistic dispatches."--The New York Times
Review
"Stirring and original. . .it gives us a picture of the country in bright, patchwork colors unavailable in your usual journalistic dispatches." --
The New York Times"A masterpiece of sympathetic yet critical reporting." --Edward W. Said
"A vivid and probing introduction for perplexed outsiders trying to make sense of Nicaraguan dilemmas." --Dan Cryer, Newsday
Synopsis
This edition includes a new Preface by the author to the 1997 paperback edition. In this portrait of the people, the politics, the land, and the poetry of Nicaragua, Rushdie brings to the forefront the palpable human facts of a country in the midst of a revolution. Rushdie went to Nicaragua in 1986, "harboring no preconceptions of what he might find." What he discovered was for him 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. Rushdie came to know an enormous range of people, from the Foreign Minister--a priest--to a midwife who kept a pet cow in her living room. His perceptions always heightened by his special sensitivity to "the views from underneath," Rushdie reveals a land resounding to the clashes between history and morality, government and individuals. In
The Jaguar Smile Rushdie brings us--as few Americans or Europeans could--the true Nicaragua, where nothing is simple, everything is contested, and struggles to the death are daily fare.
About the Author
Salman Rushdie is the author of seven novels:
Midnights Children (winner of the Booker Prize);
Shame;
The Satanic Verses;
The Moors Last Sigh;
The Ground Beneath Her Feet;
Haroun and the Sea of Stories; and
Fury. He has also published a collection of short stories,
East, West; and two volumes of essays,
Imaginary Homelands and
Step Across this Line.