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The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey
The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey
The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey
Audiobook4 hours

The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey

Written by Salman Rushdie

Narrated by John Curless

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this audiobook

"I did not go to Nicaragua intending to write a book, or, indeed, to write at all: but my encounter with the place affected me so deeply that in the end I had no choice." So notes Salman Rushdie in his first work of nonfiction, a book as imaginative and meaningful as his acclaimed novels. In The Jaguar Smile, Rushdie paints a brilliantly sharp and haunting portrait of the people, the politics, the terrain, and the poetry of "a country in which the ancient, opposing forces of creation and destruction were in violent collision." Recounting his travels there in 1986, in the midst of America's behind-the-scenes war against the Sandinistas, Rushdie reveals a nation resounding to the clashes between government and individuals, history and morality.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 1, 2016
ISBN9781501926259
The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey
Author

Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie is the author of many acclaimed novels, including Midnight’s Children (winner of the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), Grimus, Shame, The Satanic Verses, Haroun and The Sea of Stories, The Moor’s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown, The Enchantress of Florence, Luka and the Fire of Life, and Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights—and a collection of short stories: East, West. He has also published works of nonfiction, including Joseph Anton (a memoir of his life under the fatwa issued after the publication of The Satanic Verses), The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands, and Step Across This Line—and co-edited the anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature.

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Reviews for The Jaguar Smile

Rating: 3.4352941105882357 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

85 ratings3 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I knew very little about Nicaragua before I opened this book and now I know a little more. It is a portrait of the country at a particular time, after the sandinista revolution but before its outcome was known. In 1986, the USA under President Reagan defied the International Criminal Court and continued to fund Contra counter-insurgents in Nicaragua. Rushdie was a guest of the Sandinista government and he was charmed by a country led by poets whose revolution seemed anything but a dictatorship in the making. There were problems to be resolved but at that time war with the USA seemed a real possibility for the Nicaraguan people. A fascinating snapshot of a country in the making.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Interesting travelogue, though a bit outdated. In the 1980's Salman Rushdie was invited to Nicaragua by the Sandinista regime. He spent 3 weeks in the country, and on this basis alone he wrote this entire book. I would say that 3 weeks is not a lot to fully get to know a country or get a grasp on its political situation. It is easy to be charmed by poets and writers who have become politicians and by ladies who keep a pet cow in their home. Luckily Salman Rushdie is a good writer so this book is well written and a pleasure to read. The observations are sharp and sometimes funny. What I also liked about it is the continuous doubt inside the author about a regime which on the one hand claims to be a true democracy but on the other shut down a newspaper. Which on the one hand had to fight for survival against a very mighty enemy but on the other hand seemed to misuse its own power against its native Amerindian inhabitants.