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jeruen 's review for:
It Would Be Night in Caracas
by Karina Sainz Borgo
Oh this was a powerful book. It was very intense, and at times I needed to take a break, just to breathe.
I don't know much about Venezuela, aside from what I see in the news typically. I know that things are not rosy there, and that life is difficult for its citizens. It is not a country I want to visit any time soon. So for one reason or another, this book caught my attention, and so I put it on my queue. And now I am glad to have read it.
This book is a fictional account of how it is to live in anarchy in Caracas. It starts with a burial: Adelaida Falcon, the main character, is burying her mother, who recently died. As this is Venezuela, things are slightly complicated. And it only gets worse from there: in the span of about 220 pages, Adelaida battles paramilitary groups, burns another dead body, and plans her escape from Venezuela. Life is tough in perhaps the world's most violent country that at war.
Sometimes I wondered how a bad situation can further escalate. Well, in this book, there is always a way to escalate something bad. It is anarchy at its finest. And for someone who didn't grow up in a war zone, sometimes it was a little bit hard to digest. As mentioned above, I couldn't just sit down and read this book. I had to take some breaks to clear up my head as it just got intense sometimes. But nevertheless, this was a great and powerful piece.
I know that I shouldn't take a single book as a representative of a country, but in any case, this provides me some picture about what Venezuela is like. Do I want to visit this country? Not at the moment. But this book in any case provides a glimpse of what life could be like in there, at the moment. I give this 5 out of 5 stars. This is not easy reading, but it is definitely worth a try.
See my other book reviews here.
I don't know much about Venezuela, aside from what I see in the news typically. I know that things are not rosy there, and that life is difficult for its citizens. It is not a country I want to visit any time soon. So for one reason or another, this book caught my attention, and so I put it on my queue. And now I am glad to have read it.
This book is a fictional account of how it is to live in anarchy in Caracas. It starts with a burial: Adelaida Falcon, the main character, is burying her mother, who recently died. As this is Venezuela, things are slightly complicated. And it only gets worse from there: in the span of about 220 pages, Adelaida battles paramilitary groups, burns another dead body, and plans her escape from Venezuela. Life is tough in perhaps the world's most violent country that at war.
Sometimes I wondered how a bad situation can further escalate. Well, in this book, there is always a way to escalate something bad. It is anarchy at its finest. And for someone who didn't grow up in a war zone, sometimes it was a little bit hard to digest. As mentioned above, I couldn't just sit down and read this book. I had to take some breaks to clear up my head as it just got intense sometimes. But nevertheless, this was a great and powerful piece.
I know that I shouldn't take a single book as a representative of a country, but in any case, this provides me some picture about what Venezuela is like. Do I want to visit this country? Not at the moment. But this book in any case provides a glimpse of what life could be like in there, at the moment. I give this 5 out of 5 stars. This is not easy reading, but it is definitely worth a try.
See my other book reviews here.