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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unflinchingly honest account of El Salvador's prelude to war, June 21, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: One Day of Life (Paperback)
Being Salvadoran and having traveled to El Salvador in 1991, before the peace accord was signed, I can attest to the brutal veracity of this novel. The violent schism between landowners and peasants, and the use of military forces as instruments of repression against the lower classes, intertwined with religion and allegations of communism, enveloped El Salvador's volatile social system in the late 1970's, presumably when this novel takes place. And the novel integrates each of these elements as it progresses through the course of a single day. The thoughts and actions of the main characters form the fabric of the novel, a tragic and ultimatley determined portrait of El Salvador as the picturesque nation collapsed. This novel is a fine translation of a fine author's passionate, bitter vision of his homeland. For those who have never spoken to someone affected by a third-world war, this novel will provide insight into the tortuous process of civil repression from the point of view of those who are trapped beneath police brutality and government ideology.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read for lovers of freedom and of the human spirit., January 12, 1999
This review is from: One Day of Life (Paperback)
Manlio Argueta's uncanny ability to portray both the inner and outer struggle of the peasant caught in the mire of El Salvador's corruption during its infamous civil war makes this book a memorable and haunting experience. The story is laced with a taste of the all-too-common physical and psychological terror to which rural Salvadorans were cruelly and commonly subjected by the government. But aside from its inherent darkness, the book contains an underlying theme of hope, courage, and strength. The main character's growing awareness that her every day struggles are not in vain, that indeed, the people's collective spirit must not be dampened by the National Guard's offences but suffused with fervor and knowledge, is inspirational. I was particularly impressed with Mr. Argueta's use of the vernacular in his narration. He successfully portrays Lupe, the main character, as a simple woman--albeit one full of hard earned wisdom and grit--in the middle of extraordinary circumstances. What is fascinating is her awareness that her small actions can directly affect the larger scheme of things. The end of the book is disturbing but on a deeper level, it is highly uplifting. One cannot help but be touched by the scope of Argueta's message. One Day of Life is certainly a must read for lovers of freedom and of the human spirit; a true source of enlightenment and courage for all.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A look into Salvadorian life, from differing POV, November 5, 2002
This review is from: One Day of Life (Paperback)
A serious study of the Cold War generally entails the bitter ideological struggle of two superpowers trying to exert their spheres of influence over nearby countries. In this geopolitical struggle we are rarely confronted with the idea of military confrontation, with the great exception being the Cuban missile crisis. More often than not Central America has played a marginal role in our understanding of Cold War tensions. Central America makes an interesting case study because it makes a strong case for the development of Latin America as a geopolitical reserve of the United States, in the same way that the Soviet Union had its satellite states. The conflict of democracy versus socialism took the center stage in the days following the 1959 Cuban Revolution. More importantly, the 1979 triumph of the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional [FSLN] in Nicaragua paved the way for a conflict in neighboring El Salvador which would be anything but ideological. In this context, Manlio Argueta, a renowned Salvadorian writer took upon himself the task of viewing the Salvadorian civil war from the eyes of those who lived it. In One Day of Life, Argueta paints a gruesome picture of the harsh realities of the Cold War beyond those painted by White House speech writers. Argueta attempts to place the cold war in real terms, in a way that is chillingly real and shocking. Argueta's One Day of Life takes place in a reality which is often obscured behind the larger context of a Soviet/American ideological struggle. Argueta's work is crucial to understanding the conflict of a country which was prominent in the media during the 1980's and which at the time was feared to be the next Vietnam. Written in 1980, Argueta's work is fictional, much like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, but imbued with vivid and often harrowing details of the conditions that afflicted the Salvadorian people for 12 years. For the outsider, the Salvadorian civil war was a vicious conflict which resulted in the deaths of approximately 61,000 civilians, while anywhere from 750,000 to over a million Salvadorians migrated to the United States. While the numbers are significant, Argueta takes us into the minds of the Salvadorian psyche by looking across the social strata to peasants, insurgents, national guardsmen, and all those caught by uncertainty.
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