Customer Reviews

One Day of Life

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

To start off, "One Day of Life" is a marvelous book. A very shocking peice of truth in the history of El Salvador. The Book is peiced together by the stories of the people in a small town in El Salvador. Stories put as one to reveal the tradegies and poverty in Central American towns, where the people do not know their own rights as human beings. The time the story is set in, is 1936. A pre-war time where communism was being beaten and people were being beaten just as well for beliefs they might not have had. IF you wish to indulge yourself in a great book that shows the truth through the eyes of the poverty born world then this is the book for you. I highley reccomend you read this.

This was my introduction to El Salvador and I am glad I choose this book. The writing was unique and kept me interested throughout. I am even more interested now about the struggles of the poor in El Salvador during the civil war and even today.

This novel is told by the matriarch of a peasant family in El Salvador. Originally published in 1980 at the start of the civil war in El Salvador, it is an account of the persecution of one family by government-backed soldiers. Through flashbacks we learn that the son of the matriarch has already disappeared due to his "Communist sympathies."

Lupe, the matriarch, begins her day like any other. Her 14 year old granddaughter, Adolfina, goes out with her younger siblings to get tortillas in the village. By noon a group of soldiers arrive at the family home. They want to take Adolfina to see if she can identify a "wounded man." Since we know that the wounded man was "wounded" by these soldiers it is clear that their intentions are not good. Lupe refuses to let Adolfina go and eventually the soldiers bring the man, near death, to be identified. Only Lupe recognizes him, with grave consequences.

The tension of this story builds gradually throughout the day and the conclusion is unpredictable. As it is describing the tactics Salvadorean soldiers used to intimidate and torture their fellow peasants, all in the name of preventing communist tendencies, it is a story of the viciousness of humanity.
[...]

I would recommend this seller to anyone. Although, the book was used it was still in great condition as described by the seller.

This book starts off strange. Not weird just confusing. I really didn't understand it very well at first. I was very confused during the first 50 pages. It just seemed really sparatic and I couldn't follow it very well. After I got through that and started to learn the characters I was able to follow the story line and it started to become very interesting and sad.

It is a great story that you wish you didn't have to know about it. The sad truth is that this is true and people suffer like this on a daily basis. It really makes religion is useless and that missionaries are the cause of this, even though the effects of missionaries are double sided I wish it would cover the positives but that is the nature of the book.

I had to read this for my History class and It is a good read to learn about El Salvador.

For a Central American fiction story, this book illustrates such characters that leave an strong impression on you. What I love about this book is that they used different view points, from the 'campesinos' who struggle for human rights to the brainwashed 'federales.' If you want to read a great NON-Fiction book, check out "Hear My Testimony: Maria Teresa Tula Human Rights Activist of El Salvador." Which is another astonishing book depicting the brutality the Salvadorean government has inflicted upon the working class.

it's hard to criticize this book because the subject matter is so intense, so real, so awful. it presents about the worst side of human nature - the evil of cruel, authoritarian people systematically terrorizing all but helpless, innocent rural farmers who want nothing more than to be left alone... for these points, for its authenticity, this book has value.

its weak points: this book was all over the map. one minute it was concrete and readable, the next it was in a dream world, vague and almost incomprehensible, and i know it could be argued that this parallels the characters' inner states, but i felt the writer didn't pull off the task. what i felt happened, in effect, was that the book became unreadable, not cohesive, and ended up being sort of artsy-fartsy, lacking the power it might have otherwise had. also, i felt that the translation was iffy... often i had to re-read lines to figure out their meaning due to the poor grammatical style of the translator...missing commas, etc.

also, the author GREATLY overused the tool of switching points of view and time frame to tell the story. if it had been handled well it might have made a good artistic effect...instead it was just annoying and hard to follow.

last gripe, and i suspect few will agree with me here, but so be it: i felt the story had little in it that was redemptive beyond just telling a (true) horror story. aside from "we must fight for our rights," and "life doesn't mean much unless we're willing to die for our rights," i didn't find much of a spiritual message within. that said, the book was chilling nonetheless...disturbing...a good book to provoke nightmares.