A History of Violence

La nostra recensione

Martinez draws readers into this complex narrative by alternating between a panoramic social sweep and the beleaguered lives of civilians, victims, gang members, and cops, capturing the multilayered nature of a place whose indigenous traditions are being brutalized by modern criminals who commit murder casually...Smart, angry immersive journalism from an author who warrants wider readership on this side of the border. - Kirkus Reviews Ripped from the headlines, these are powerful stories of Central America's chaotic and bloody present, sure to raise awareness among a broad audience of North Americans, whom Martinez refuses to let off the hook. 'The solution?' he asks. 'It's up to you.' - Library Journal A haunting portrait of a tragic, complicated part of the world. - Shelf Awareness The Beast is extraordinary, first, for the courage that Martinez summoned to write it; and, second, for the hidden lives he reveals. - Financial Times (in praise of The Beast) The graceful, incisive writing lifts The Beast from being merely an impressive feat of reportage into the realm of literature. Mr. Martinez has produced something that is an honorable successor to enduring works like George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier or Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives. - New York Times (in praise of The Beast) The most extraordinary (and harrowing) book I read this year. Beautiful and searing and impossible to put down. - Junot Diaz (in praise of The Beast) Oscar Martinez deserves praise not only for his efforts, and for what he writes about, but because he writes so very well. - New Yorker Clearly a wonderful listener-journalism's rarest and most important attribute-and this makes his prose resound with raw authenticity. - Observer A powerful storyteller and his approach to investigative journalism is closer to anthropological immersion. - Columbia Journalism Review One of the bravest writers in Latin America, if not the world. He's also one of the best. - Dazed and Confused Martinez tenaciously reports piece by piece on the accretion of gang-related violence besetting El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala...Martinez's reporting reveals shocking failures of the state-particularly of police and courts-but he avoids tidy lessons, preferring to let the intractable issues stand in all their cold brutality. - Publisher's Weekly In Spanish, the tradition of the cronica is in-depth testimonial reportage blended with personal essay, and Martinez is a worthy inheritor. Martinez's work conveys an intimate knowledge of the social and criminal ecosystem-both macro-level context and telling minutiae. But because he isn't afraid to follow dangerous paths, the result are jewels with moments of intense emotion presented against a historical background that contemplates military, social, economic, religious, psychological and all sorts of other factors...I am in awe of Martinez's commanding style. - Ilan Stavans, In These Times Agonizing stories...[Martinez] urges readers to understand what Central Americans are going through and what compels them to seek refuge in the United States. - Ramon Renteria, El Paso Times Martinez dives into the underworld of his subjects, navigating barrios that police won't enter, spending days and nights with gang members. His methods resemble war reporting and his prose is cinematic ... The collection's strength lies in his ability to write the hell out of his material. Like Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family, it skimps on statistics and analysis, instead relying on description alone to create a world that captures the reader and doesn't let her go. One of the stories, 'El Nino Hollywood's Death Foretold,' evokes Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Like the beloved Colombian writer, Martinez pens scenes that are suspenseful, moving, and vivid. - Sarah Esther Maslin, The New Republic [A History of Violence] dives deep to the problems driving the region's violence and impunity...if 'The Beast' was a look at the dangers of the journey, 'A History of Violence' focuses on why people take it to begin with. - Jared Goyette, PRI's The World No place is dangerous enough to quell Martinez's hunger for the truth, as the intrepid newshound sniffs around in occupied prisons, grim police stations, hellish whorehouses, desolate crack dens, isolated ranches and battered barrios, all the locales omitted from the tourism brochures. To understand how corruption operates in Central America, Martinez goes to where it operates...gritty journalism. - Hector Luis Alamo, Latino Rebels Reading Salvadoran journalist Oscar Martinez's nonfiction portrait of violence in Central America, it seems fantastically lucky for all of us that he's still alive...The reporting is an act of courage; the book is a plea for comprehension of the terror that drives people from Central America to the United States...Martinez's portrait of Central America as killing field is a plea not only for comprehension of immigrants' race for the border but also for empathy. - Nancy Nusser, Texas Observer If you take just one book to Central America on holiday, don't pick this one. Oscar Martinez has written a punishing account of the lives of the poor in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Melding acuity and anger, he unveils the scary realities of organised crime... Mr Martinez deserves credit for bringing it so effectively to life - Economist As the current wave of US Immigration and Customs raids authorised by President Obama deports Latino migrants, and Donald Trump boosts his election campaign with promises to build a wall along the US-Mexican border, Martinez endeavours to explain why, for many Central Americans of the northern triangle, returning home is a death sentence. - Independent Martinez is a gifted storyteller with an astute, observant eye and a voice that beckons to be followed...A History of Violence is a necessary read, especially for US government officials crafting immigration policy against migrants and refugees from the region. It sheds light on why so many are braving the treacherous trek through Mexico to reach the United States. - Sara Campos, Los Angeles Review of Books El Salvador's best chronicler of this profound crisis is Oscar Martinez, a journalist based in San Salvador. Martinez has dedicated his career to documenting how the matrix of poverty, instability, and narcotrafficking has transformed the lives and prospects of Central Americans. As a writer, he's a committed, old-school social realist, and traveled with migrants on their deadly northward route for his previous book about Central American migration, The Beast. His methods in A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America are equally painstaking. - Caille Millner, The New Inquiry