In the City of the Disappeared: A Novel [Hardcover]

Tom Hazuka (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 2000

A 23-year-old Peace Corps volunteer confronts love and conscience in revolutionary Chile.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hazuka takes an earnest and sometimes compelling look at life in Chile shortly after Pinochet's ascension to power, through the eyes of a 22-year-old American Peace Corps volunteer who comes to Santiago in 1978. After Harry Bayliss just misses making the cut for a professional baseball team, he is recruited to coach youth softball in the Chilean capital. Once there, he befriends other young volunteers: Lewis, a self-deprecating African-American Yale grad; Ray, a macho, athletic lothario; and Jean, an unpretentious California girl. Harry's also introduced to a tight-knit community of leftist Chilean artists and intellectuals, all of whom are bitterly opposed to Pinochet's ironfisted authoritarianism. Harry befriends Lalo Garcia, a fiery, politically radical painter, and Lalo's one-time girlfriend, the beautiful and sharp-witted Marisol. Harry and Marisol eventually become lovers, but Harry is not so lucky with his pencil-pushing administrator, who insists that Peace Corps volunteers cannot get involved in local politics. Hazuka (The Road to the Island) tells Harry's story with both economy and focused vigor. His depictions of the Peace Corps ethos, the Chilean leftist underground and Pinochet's own police and armed forces all ring true, thanks largely to Hazuka's own tenure in Chile in the late '70s. Burning brightly with raw fury over Pinochet's flagrant abuse of human rights, the book never lapses into sanctimoniousness. Although Hazuka also wants to present a complex love story, he is more successful in his unflinching look at a corrupt regime than as a delineator of character. Harry and his compatriots seem like shallow, one-note constructs, not flesh-and-blood individuals. Still, this gripping narrative conveys the essence of Chile's dark years under Pinochet's rule. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Santiago, Chile, is the eponymous city of the disappeared, and the time is the late 1970s, well into the terror of the Pinochet regime. In this coming-of-age tale, Harry Bayliss, newly graduated from St. John's University, is a Peace Corps volunteer sent to teach children the fine art of baseball. Harry is young and naive but quickly learns what life under Pinochet is all about. Following the breakup of his brief affair with another Peace Corps volunteer, Harry becomes romantically involved with Marisol, a widow and mother eight years his senior. Through Marisol, Harry befriends Lalo and becomes involved in Santiago's dissident movement while continuing to coach baseball. Although Hazuka seems to have gone out of his way to bend if not break stereotypes, most of the Americans, especially the people Harry meets in passing, are ugly intruders--a sad commentary on the provincially superior American outlook. The book's power is in its depiction of Chilean society--the authorities, the resistors, and the people caught in the middle. Frank Caso
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Bridgeworks; 1st edition (April 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882593316
• ISBN-13: 978-1882593316
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,339,717 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, August 2, 2005

By 

Joseph Clifford (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the City of the Disappeared: A Novel (Hardcover)

There are some books that stick with you long after you've turned that final page. "In the City of the Disappeared" is one of those books. The story centers around Harry Bayliss, a twenty-two year old American Peace Corp volunteer in Chile during the Pinochet regime. Hazuka perfectly captures the internal turmoil of a man coming of age in time and place when moral convictions aren't easily expressed, posing deep questions of individual wants versus the needs of the many. Dealing with such weighty themes as "oppression" and "brutality" is tricky stuff. Somehow, the novel never gets bogged down with editorializing or casting judgement. At its heart, it is the story of a boy becoming a man. Well traversed ground, true, but that is why this book is so remarkable. It takes something universal and renders it unique. Hazuka balances a compelling and believable love story, layers elements of political strife, and turns it, ultimately, into a piece about the dire need for heroes. Beautifully written, romantic without being sentimental, hard to put down, and an all around joy to read. The best book I have read in a long, long time.