The Jaguar Smile

infobox Book |
name = The Jaguar Smile
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Salman Rushdie
illustrator =
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country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Travel writing
publisher = Viking Press/Penguin Books
release_date = 1987
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = ISBN 0670817570
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followed_by =

"The Jaguar Smile" is Salman Rushdie's first full-length non-fiction book, which he wrote in 1987 after visiting Nicaragua. The book is subtitled "A Nicaraguan Journey" and relates his travel experiences, the people he met as well as views on the political situation then facing the country.cite web |url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16596 |title=The Jaguar Smile |accessdate=2007-06-19 |last=Teverson |first=Andrew |date=13 |year=2004 |month=10 |publisher=The Literary Dictionary Company ] The book was written during a break the author took from writing his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses.

Background

After a period of political and economic turmoil under President Luis Somoza Debayle, the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (commonly known by the initial "FSNL" or as the Sandinistas) came to power in Nicaragua in 1979 supported by much of the populace and elements of the Catholic Church. The government was initially backed by the US under Jimmy Carter, but the support evaporated under the presidency of Ronald Reagan in light of evidence that the Sandinistas were providing help to the FMLN rebels in El Salvador. The US imposed economic sanctions and a trade embargo instead which contributed to the collapse of the Nicaraguan economy in the early-to-mid 1980s. While the Soviet Union and Cuba funded the Nicaraguan army, the US financed the contras in neighboring Honduras with a view towards establishing a friendly government in Nicaragua. Nicaragua won a historic case against the U.S. at the International Court of Justice in 1986 (see Nicaragua v. United States), and the U.S. was ordered to pay Nicaragua some $12 billion in reparations for undermining the nation's sovereignty.

It was during this period that Salman Rushdie visited Nicaragua at the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the Sandinistas rise to power.

Rushdie's trip and observations

Rushdie's three week trip to Nicaragua in the summer of 1986 was at the invitation of "Sandinista Association of Cultural Workers" which was billed as the, "the umbrella organisation that brought writers, artists, musicians, craftspeople, dancers and so on, together under the same roof"cite book |last=Rushdie |first=Salman |authorlink=Salman Rushdie |title= The Jaguar Smile |year= 1987|publisher=Viking Penguin Inc |isbn=0317566032 ]

Reviews and reception

The book received mixed reviews on release. In the review in Time, reviewer Pico Iyer, praised Rushdie's account that was "quickened by a novelist's eye". However Iyer felt that Rushdie was quick to overlook Sandinista totalitarianism and censorship due to his ideological sympathies with their cause. Predicting the readers expected response, Iyer said, "Since his own views seem largely unchanged by what he encounters, the tourist is unlikely to change the views of his readers. Those who share his assumptions will be reassured by his brief; those who do not will be outraged by it."cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,963959,00.html |title= Surfaces the Jaguar Smile|accessdate=2007-06-22 |author=Pico Iyer |authorlink= Pico Iyer|date=1987-03-06|publisher=Time ]

References

External links