|
Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littin (New York Review Books Classics) |  | Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Creators: Asa Zatz, Francisco Goldman
Publisher: NYRB Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $7.44
as of 9/9/2010 05:50 CDT details
You Save: $6.56 (47%)
New (41) Used (8) from $7.43
Seller: the_book_depository_
Rating:  2 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 160
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 1590173406
Dewey Decimal Number: 983.0646
EAN: 9781590173404
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9781590173404 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In 1973, the film director Miguel Littín fled Chile after a U.S.-supported military coup toppled the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende. The new dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, instituted a reign of terror and turned Chile into a laboratory to test the poisonous prescriptions of the American economist Milton Friedman. In 1985, Littín returned to Chile disguised as a Uruguayan businessman. He was desperate to see the homeland he’d been exiled from for so many years; he also meant to pull off a very tricky stunt: with the help of three film crews from three different countries, each supposedly busy making a movie to promote tourism, he would secretly put together a film that would tell the truth about Pinochet’s benighted Chile—a film that would capture the world’s attention while landing the general and his secret police with a very visible black eye.
Afterwards, the great novelist Gabriel García Márquez sat down with Littín to hear the story of his escapade, with all its scary, comic, and not-a-little surreal ups and downs. Then, applying the same unequaled gifts that had already gained him a Nobel Prize, García Márquez wrote it down. Clandestine in Chile is a true-life adventure story and a classic of modern reportage.
|
| Customer Reviews:
An Exciting, Tense And Haunting Work Of Journalism. August 28, 2010
Mr. Fellini (El Paso, Texas United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Brave Men and Women September 5, 2010
Loves the View (Hawaii)
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 the author, I'd never have guessed. 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 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.
|
|
|
|
| |
