Customer Reviews

Bridge of Courage: Life Stories of the Guatemalan Companeros & Companeras

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

As someone who has never been able to easily learn from typical history books, I found Bridge of Courage VERY easy to read. Best of all, I actually remember what I learned, and feel that I have a real concept of the life and predicament of the companeros. I have an incredible amount of respect for both the author and the story-tellers, and can't wait to read "Searching for Everardo".

The oral histories will pull at your heart strings and make you look for ways to help the Mayans in Guatemala. The accounts have such vivid nighmare quality images, you will find it hard to put down. The introduction by Noam Chomsky is a little dry, but very helpful in letting the reader know what is really going on with the CIA and Guatemala. If you like this book, you should also look at "Searching for Everado", Harburry's second book about her search for her husband after he is captured by the Guatemalan military.

This book is a good introduction to what happened in guatemala. I do agree with another reviewer who felt that the author was a bit biased but by reading her story it is easy to understand why. It would be good to also read some other accounts to get a better overview. But some of the first-person accounts were so eye-opening. There is a great variety of experiences shared.

I met Mrs. Harbury once ago, right after the publication of this book. After former US President Clinton's official apologies for the US contribution to the repression in Guatemala, I felt nauseated and recalled passages from this book. Usually, the US establishment and its accomplice, the US mainstream media, need to create a hero out of common people. They disregard true heroes like Jennifer Harbury, whose courage transpires through this book. Overcoming literary styles she let the truth shine through every page, reflecting the lives... and deaths of so many Guatemalans struggling for a more just society.

If you want to understand what happened and is happening in Guatamala. Reading this book will change the way you think.

This book needs to be read. The stories of our brothers and sisters in Guatemala are powerful and remind us we are all one.

I usually enjoy first-person author accounts, and especially ones with a political bent, but this one was so fraught with self-serving statements wrapped in a veneer of "doing good for Guatemala," that it was hard not to put it down after chapter one.

I received the impression that Ms. Harbury traveled to Guatemala with a sole mission in mind: to find herself a political cause that would also give her a sense of self-identification. (Being a Harvard lawyer did not hurt. Had Ms. Harbury not been an Ivy graduate, her relationship with a Indian guerrilla would have lost a great deal of its appeal to the U.S. press.) While I have no objection to her political viewpoints on Guatemala -- she is right: the army did most of the killing, civilians did most of the dying, and not much has changed since Guatemala's return to civilian government in the late 1980's -- her smarmy, holier-than-thou tone make this one book I can do without.

Finally, her editor did Ms. Harbury no favor by allowing her to pepper her story liberally with misspelled Spanish words, mixed metaphors and ungrammatical English.

For good books on Guatemala, look elsewhere, starting with David Stoll and Frank Goldman. For wrenching first-person accounts, try The Long March and The Nazi Commander's Wife.