The Soccer War

Rating:
Summary: Good read, but a bit self-indulgent
Review: Kapuscinski is a Polish reporter who worked extensively in war zones in Africa and South America, and most of this book is about his experiences in Africa in the 1960's. Towards the end of the book he also writes about the war between Honduras and El Salvador (the "soccer war" of the title) which was sparked by soccer internationals between the two countries.

I first read this book quite a few years ago and I enjoyed it immensely at the time, and would have given it four stars then. Upon reading it a second time recently I found it less impressive, though still a good read. Kapuscinski evokes Africa well, and is very good at describing people, but I now felt that he was directing too much attention to his own experiences/emotions (and bravery?), instead of just describing situations. I also found the device whereby he keeps on referring to and writing about the book that he plans but never writes (if this does not make sense here, it also doesn't make much sense in the book itself) irritating and more than slightly pretentious, as if he wanted to make The Soccer Wars a more intelligent book than most written about war. This pretentiousness also shines forth in the very confusing last chapter of the book. But, having said this, The Soccer War, although not a masterpiece by any means, is still well worth reading, as it deals with a very interesting period in African history, a period that produced some fascinating political leaders.

Rating:
Summary: Challenging and gripping writing
Review: R.Kapuscinski has spend many years of his life travelling and trying to understand the reality and the way of thinking of the third world countries . The Soccer War is exactly about that , with it's biggest part reffering to Africa and it's final fifty-sixty pages dedicated to Central America .

Kapuscinski succeeds his aims on many levels . He manages both to analyze the political situation on places like Nigeria and Ghana , to focus on the motivations and strategy of the people who hold power there and at the same time he richly describes the landscapes , the scarried faces and the towns and neighbourhoods he had seen . What he seems to try to explain is this : despite the fact that there are many gifted politicians in these nations willing to make a difference , the lack of diplomatic maturity needed , the poverty and the unalphabatised mases will always stand as an obstacle to their lands' progress .

Finally i was very pleased to see for the first time in a foreign book a chapter about the merely occupied and still divided island of Cyprus , an overlooked national drama which hasn't received the attention it should have for over than thirty years now .

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful snapshots of war and revolution
Review: This book is actually a series of essays and dispatches from various corners of the world, unlike some of Kapuscinski's previous work, which looked in length at specific countries (Iran, Ethiopia, etc.). The various sections ranged from marvelous to merely good. The first half of the book chronicles Kapuscinski's visits to Africa in the 1960's, and he provides us with some wonderful portraits of that continent's post-indenpendence dilemmas. The author really seems to capture the mixture of optimism, heroism, disillusionment, and despair that nearly every African country went through. There is a particularly colorful look at Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, as well as chapters on the Congo's Lumumba, Algeria's Ben Balla, a brutal civil war in Nigeria, and one of the most curious military takeovers I have ever read about in Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), which Kapuscinski came upon by accident. The author relates riveting near-death experiences in the Nigeria and Burundi chapters. The latter half of the book chronicle's visits to Latin America, the Middle East, Cyrus, and the Ethiopia-Somalia border during the 1970's. I found his description of the 1969 "Soccer War" between Honduras and El Salvador to be especially compelling. Kapuscinski's specialty is not in technical, academic analyses of war, economic underdevelopment, or tyranny. Nor is he necessarily a sensationalist, out to shock readers with gory details. Of course, many of his stories are quite sensational to those unaquainted with such things, but his presentation is subtle and thoughtful. He seeks to find traces of humanity in even the most barbarous situations. Another thing I really appreciate about Kapuscinski is that he seemingly talks to everyone, from urban intellectuals to impoverished peasants. The only reason I gave this book four stars rather than a perfect five is the fact that sometimes I would have appreciated a bit more technical analysis, or at least background information. This was especially lacking in his chapters on Cyprus and the Somili-Ethiopian war, where he perfectly captures the flavor of everyday life in the midst of crisis, but provides little insight into origins of the crisis itself. Also, Kapuscinski frequently launches into philosophical musings which can range from dazzlingly brilliant to downright ponderous. Nevertheless, even these detours into the abstract do not negatively affect the flow of the book, and they are minor criticisms when put into perspective. I highly recommend The Soccer War to anyone wishing to gain a better picture of some of the most intriguing events and places of our world.

Rating:
Summary: A reporter and an artist
Review: Those who are truly interested in what our world is all about and would like to get profound insights into other cultures don't waste their time on the pulp spewed daily by the popular media. Books and essays by Ryszard Kapuscinski constitute a needed antidote.

A Polish reporter whose literary skills have been compared to those of G. Greene and E. Hemingway, Kapuscinski is the only writer I know who has consistently managed to capture the essence of the geo-political realities, misunderstood conflicts, and non-Western mentalities - in all of their complexity - so accurately, with such poetry, and in so few words. "The Soccer War" is a favorite of mine. His upcoming "The Shadow of the Sun" is the best book on Africa I have ever read.

He may be one of the best writers around; it's such a shame he is not more widely known.