Customer Reviews

Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littin (New York Review Books Classics)

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I found this a diverting read, but, unlike most reviewers, only two-dimensional in its pleasures. The reason is that we aren't told anything about the contents of what Littín filmed, or much even about Chile during that era, other than that the police were perhaps nicer to (those whom they believed to be) foreigners than Littín might have expected. Also contrary to some other reviewers, I found the preface by Francisco Goldman to be very helpful for putting the book into context: After the 1973 coup in Chile, García Márquez had vowed not to write fiction until the junta fell. But he had misjudged Pinochet's longevity in power, and in 1979 GM announced that he had begun work on a book of short stories -- a capitulation that actually disappointed many of his fans, resulting in some bad PR for the writer. After Pinochet had embarrassed GM for staying in power so successfully, and after GM had become "el Nobel" in 1982, this 1986 book was GM's way to embarrass Pinochet as "an act of personal revenge and protest."

This personal purpose is the source of the book's limitations. GM focuses most on showing how Littín was able to fool the junta's security apparatus -- getting in and out of Chile a couple of times and even shooting documentary footage in the presidential palace. At the time this nose-thumbing story may have been a sufficiently electrifying justification for a book, but to a reader today interested in what was happening in Chile it is a little frustrating. Even considering the book as drama rather than history, while GM does engage us with the pain and comedy of Littín's life in disguise, there are too many other characters of whom we're told almost nothing: such as Elena, a plaid-skirted young woman in the underground who posed as Littín's wife, or the pretty nun who appears more than once in intrigue-drenched circumstances. These characters aren't developed not only because the book is based solely on a couple days' interviews with Littín, but because their backstories weren't necessary for achieving GM's aims. Featuring cloak-and-dagger tactics, many close shaves, and even its own Rollin/Paris (and, briefly, Cinnamon) characters, the book is fun in the way that an old fake-out-the-dictator episode of Mission Impossible is fun -- and thanks to the way GM chose to tell this true story, it's almost as fluffy as one of those scripts, too. Nonetheless, a good choice if you're in the mood for something light.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, famous for his books, 'A Hundred Years of Solitude' and 'Love in the time of Cholera' puts on his journalistic hat again, and produced this summary of 18 hours of interview with Miguel Littín, a famous Chilean film director who had returned to Chile during Pinochet's regime of terror to film the condition of the country and the effects on the people. Miguel Littín had fled Chile after Pinochet toppled Allende in the coup and remained in exile, being on Pinochet's list of 5000 people forbidden to enter the country.

Littín spent 6 weeks in Chile disguised as a Uruguayan businessman. Precise and detailed planning with 3 European film crews who were unaware of each other for security, filming different sections of Chile, was necessary and made possible only with the assistance of the underground resistance. In order to escape detection, Littín had to stay in character the entire time he was in Chile, keep an eye out for the carabineros paying attention to him, avoid calling on friends and family, make sure his teams were kept safe, the film footage smuggled out of Chile into Italy, and that they all get out before the game was up.

His adventures were very cloak and dagger, meetings were a series of complicated passwords and his guardian angel was clearly working overtime because he had some incredible luck in getting out of more than a few potential dangerous situations where his disguise could have been uncovered.

This is the fascinating, true story of Chilean film maker, Miguel Littin, who after a 12-year exile, returns (in disguise) to his home country. He risks his life to do so. He is secretly accompanied by foreign film crews, and together they manage to document life in Chile under the dictatorship of Pinochet. After hearing of Littin's experiences, author Gabriel Garcia Marquez put it in writing.

Combine Gabriel Garcia Marquez's extraordinary writing with a heart-stopping adventure story and a first hand look at Chile under Pinochet, and you end up with this unforgettable read. Highly recommended.

This is the story of how a truly underground film was made. Twelve years into the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, Miguel Litten, whom the elected President, Salvador Allende, had appointed to head Chile Film, snuck back into the country to make a documentary. Litten would have been executed by Pinochet's army in 1973 but for a film buff soldier who allowed him to escape.

Had I not known who wrote this book, I'd never have guessed from the text. Garcia Marquez, writing from his 18 hours of interviews with Litten, successfully uses the film director's voice and not his own.

The logistics of this operation were impressive. Litten's disguise, carefully constructed by make up artists and a team of psychology, speech and gesture trainers, even fooled his mother. Several crews of various nationalities were sent to different places of the country under the guise of filming promotional material (in all 4 seasons) for a new perfume. Elena, a long suffering confederate (she has to put up with Litten's intentional and unintentional security breaches), posed as a spouse and pulled permits and made interview appointments. Others prominent on the clandestine group included Frankie who served as an all purpose fixer and Ugo, a daring photographer. There are scenes, password codes and evacuation plans straight out of James Bond.

You get the sad feel of Chile as Pinochet's regime wore on. A 10 o'clock curfew has workers nervous. Formerly middle class professionals are now street vendors. Guards, both in the open and in the shadows are everywhere, even checking papers for entry into parks. Filming in the Modena Palace came to a halt as the Pinochet walked nearby.

Interestingly, Salador Allende was overthrown on September 11, 1973.

This is an excellent book on many levels. While I read the 1987 publication, I understand there is a new edition. I hope the film (which is never titled in this book) can be available too. I searched the internet for more on this film and its director, and very little is available. There is not even Wikipedia article in English or Spanish.

It is great to see back in print in the US Gabriel Garcia Marquez's epic "Clandestine In Chile." Marquez is known to most US readers for his legendary works of fiction such as "One Hundred Years Of Solitude" and "Love In The Time Of Cholera," but his works of journalism are equally powerful and unforgettable. While his classic work on the Colombian era of narco terror, "News Of A Kidnapping," has always been widely available, this book has been out of print in English for years and now readers can rediscover not only a great book, but a filmmaker's dangerous journey back to a country ruled by a fascist dictator.

"Clandestine In Chile" follows filmmaker Miguel Littin as he enters the Chile of Augusto Pinchet in disguise, determined to make a documentary capturing life under the fascist regime's iron fist. As Littin recounts his journey he also remembers his time as a film director during the hopeful years of Salvador Allende, the world's first elected Marxist president, and how on September 11, 1973, his world and that of all Chile was shattered by a violent military coup backed by the United States. The book mixes anger with elegance as Littin remembers the past and discovers the present Chile, revisiting familiar spots, seeing familiar faces, all different, all changed by history. With beautiful prose Marquez describes the vast landscapes of Chile, its islands, the epic grandeur of the sea and the Andes. We also get insights into Chilean culture and the various, diverse sectors of society. We meet the upper classes in their fashionable clothing and also the poor, the coal miners who secretly remain loyal to the memory of Allende.

There are light-hearted moments when Littin discovers how modern trends in all aspects, even sexual, are embraced by Chile's young. And while there are moments of comedy, the book also manages to capture the eerie, creepy atmosphere of a pacified country where a dictatorship rules and yet everything seems insanely calm due to the treats and luxuries of free market reforms which create great inequality in the country, but provide enough goodies for much of the population to ignore political reality. This is relevant when we live yet again in an era where the illusion of bountiful economics is once again being shaken.

"Clandestine In Chile" is the best kind of journalism. Like the works of Robert Fisk or Kapuscinski, it brings history to life by capturing the human drama of real events. Marquez is not just documenting Littin's experiences, he is telling a thrilling, haunting story that provides a bigger punch than his novels because this actually happened. We learn about Chile's history as we follow Littin trying to get his shots, trying to avoid informants or the police, even coming close to seeing Pinochet himself face to face while filming in the presidential palace. The book is also a great mix of politics and film, cinema is discussed just as much as politics and with much gusto.

This new edition's only weakness is the preface by Francisco Goldman. Goldman seems driven by a need to water down the book's politics and idealism with post-modern analysis and arguments that can be a real downer for anyone who hasn't read the book before. He seems to want to strip down the book's relevance by using very weak points such as the fact that a democratic movement moved Pinochet out of power a few years after the book was published (although he forgets to mention that Pinochet was made a senator for life and remained head of the armed forces, something Chile is now trying to deal with by arresting former members of the regime), he sheds tears over Marquez being a supporter of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution even after fellow authors such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes converted to neoliberalism. Basically, Goldman tries to make the book seem irrelevant or aged with the same old complaints about how intellectuals of Marquez's generation supported revolutionary causes which yielded some disappointments. But Goldman forgets to mention how relevant a book like this always is because there are always people having to deal with exile and tyranny, just look at Honduras where a US-backed coup overthrew an elected government in 2009. And many of the social debates which took place under Allende can be seen today in Venezuela or Bolivia. Goldman's preface is a disappointing, almost pointless exercise in trying to convince you that while this is a good book, the ideas in it are outdated. But history is never outdated, nor human experience.

"Clandestine In Chile" is brilliant journalism and biography, travelogue and political protest. It is a taste of Garcia Marquez many Americans are unfamiliar with, and not only will they discover Marquez the nonfiction storyteller here, they might also learn a thing or two about the world just across the border and down at the tip of the continent.