Socialist Action (US)

The monthly paper of Socialist Action, San Francisco, 1983–2010

Memories of exile fire ! imaginative novel

Socialist Action, Vol. 3, No. 10, October 1985 · scan p. 19 · Mark Schneider · about 426 words

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To Bury Our Fathers: A Novel of Nicaragua, by Sergio Ramirez. Translated by Nick Caister. Readers Readers familiar with Nicaragua's literature know that the theme of flight, both in the sense of soaring and the sense of escape, is a prevalent concern.

Under the dictatorship of the Somozas, dissidents and revolutionaries had to flee-to the mountains, Sergio Ramirez, the new vice president of Nicaragua, chose exile. A lawyer and a writer, he lived in Germany in the early 1970s, where he wrote "To Thanks to Readers International, publishers devoted to translating and disseminating literature by Third World writers, Ramirez' novel is now availThis is not an overtly political book. It is a complex novel in which the author's presence is scarcely felt. This subtlety of presentation lends the story Ramirez' subject is the generation which came of The center of the action is a 1957 confrontation in age after the assassination of Sandino in 1934 and La Guatemala City brothel between exiled former yielded the center stage in the early 1960s with the re- Somocistas and their former comrade Col. Catalino Lopez. The exiles are now in rebellion and have plotRamirez' characters are mostly dreamers and fail- Ironically, Col. Lopez-despite his crimes—is preures. History has not permitted a resolution of their sented almost sympathetically by the oppositionist struggles and the fate of the characters is shrouded author. His is the only story told in the first person. in gloom. The story covers 30 years and every corner What emerges is the portrait of a man who is limited International, 1984. 253 pp., $14.95. underground in the cities, or abroad.

Bury Our Fathers."

able in English.

increased power.

emergence of the Sandinista movement.

Shrouded in gloom of Nicaragua, spilling America as well.

ted a revenge against the aging colonel.

over your our Editor's reply, I am sorry for the oversight. The Workers Policy Project, whose goal is to advance the discussion on the need for labor to break with the Democrats and Republicans and to form its own party, can be contacted at 853 Broadway, Rm. 2014, New York, N.Y. 10003.

Brazil's PT I'd like to call to the attention of your readers an article on Brazil that appeared in the Sept. 4, 1985, issue of The Guardian newspaper.

In it the author, N. Patrick Peritore, makes a serious political error in his analysis of the role and significance of Brazil's Workers Party (PT).

Peritore states that the PT's refusal to support bourgeois presidential candidate Tancredo Neves represented a grave political error, causing a "crisis" in

← Contents of Vol. 3, No. 10, October 1985

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