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davechua's review against another edition
2.0
I like Didion, but this certainly didn't show her strengths. Most of it felt regurgitated and drained of any power.
heyitschessa's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
2.5
I appreciated this for her experience through the lens of an American visiting El Salvador during a super volitile time. It just felt like... This isn't the book you want to start with if you're looking to understand historical context or a larger view of what happened during the war.
This was written in 1982. Things were not good. If you're American at this time though, and you're seeing newspaper articles and seeing snippets of TV news pieces, and you want to learn more? This is probably a good read. I feel like I lacked the understanding of historical background to "get" a lot of this. Like current day, if I read a similar book about say Ukraine or Palestine, I'd recognize some names or dates or events that would be like "oh right I remember that, so this is what was happening!".
But 40 years after the events, reading this book? It doesn't have the same effect as I'm sure it did in it's time.
Also, annoying, and the reason I rounded a half star down - Didion has a tendency to write looooong sentences. They have many commas, parentheses, semi-colons. Over and over. To the point where I found myself rereading pages because by the time I got to the end of a weirdly long sentence I forgot what it was about. So distracting.
This was written in 1982. Things were not good. If you're American at this time though, and you're seeing newspaper articles and seeing snippets of TV news pieces, and you want to learn more? This is probably a good read. I feel like I lacked the understanding of historical background to "get" a lot of this. Like current day, if I read a similar book about say Ukraine or Palestine, I'd recognize some names or dates or events that would be like "oh right I remember that, so this is what was happening!".
But 40 years after the events, reading this book? It doesn't have the same effect as I'm sure it did in it's time.
Also, annoying, and the reason I rounded a half star down - Didion has a tendency to write looooong sentences. They have many commas, parentheses, semi-colons. Over and over. To the point where I found myself rereading pages because by the time I got to the end of a weirdly long sentence I forgot what it was about. So distracting.
fran_gel's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.0
This would be higher if I knew anything about Central American 20th c. Politics. A harrowing but informative read, lovely prose as always from Didion
jashegerova's review against another edition
5.0
goddess of a woman! probably not the author’s intention but this really made me want to visit latin america more than anything.
bmarchman's review
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Picked this up totally by chance at a used bookstore and read it in a quick sitting. As always, Didion uses her unforgettable and beautiful writing to vividly sketch for us a place and time full of violence and fear. While I am not too familiar with the political situation of the time, some of her commentary on American military involvement could have easily been written about Iraq or Afghanistan.
A short, but deeply interesting read.
A short, but deeply interesting read.