"Latin American Fever"/"Gorączka Latynoamerykańska" Artur Domosławski, review by @papi.mati

What is the phenomenon of revolution, coups, and contradictory politics in Latin America? The answer emerges from the author's conversations with politicians, writers, and dissidents from this region of the world.

Artur Domosławski uses all possible writing techniques in his great reportage, skillfully doses the tension, and gives a surprising punch to the collected materials.

This book is a whole range of feelings. I was partially delighted with it, but at the same time, I was really disappointed with this position. Therefore, in the end, I can say that it is a good book, but it has certain elements that can effectively discourage reading.

The strength of "Latin American Fever" lies in the fact that the author does not himself describe the topics discussed in the book. It composes the whole of the often contradictory opinions of people who have lived, seen, know what was the situation in Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile. Their points of view are confronted with our - European and Polish - stereotypes. (book description from the cover)

First, it requires some knowledge gained before the lecture. Domosławski does not give readers a reduced tariff, so if a reader who just wants to start his adventure with Latin American countries reaches for this book, can be effectively discouraged. Historical descriptions of countries are very detailed, but I have had moments when I had the impression that the facts given by the author did not connect to me as a whole. As if something is missing between one paragraph and the other. As you know, not being able to connect all the dots in a drawing makes it difficult to recreate the entire picture.

And perhaps the worst part of this book. Confusion. This is a book that definitely requires concentration. The author likes to break the thread at once and come back to it in a few pages. More than once I found myself reading at one point, for example, about Mexico, and in a moment about the economic situation in Brazil. And while the first two times are forgivable, each subsequent one irritated me more and more.

Still, it's a good book. You can see that the author has an amazing knowledge of Latin American countries and his involvement even pulls the reader further. I also don't know any similar position that would describe in such a broad way Latin American dictatorships and their extremely interesting history. A great book, but for really patient readers.

Even though the books of Domosławski were translated to English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Slovakian, Hungarian, and Italian, "Latin American Fever" is available only in Polish and English.

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Thank you for reading,
@papi.mati