Rating: 
Summary: The pinnacle of reportage
Review: A series of essays based on visits to Africa and Latin America that exposes Kapuscinski's almost pathological need to get as far behind the scenes of bloody revolution and savage civil war as possible. The absolute pinnacle of modern reportage. The world is deeply indebted to the author for gathering the searing stories that otherwise would have remained largely untold. Had Kapuscinski hailed from the USA or perhaps a more affluent European nation, rather than his native Poland, he would surely have won a Pulitzer by now.
Rating:
Summary: The hair-raising adventures of an international correspondent
Review: As the only international correspondent for Poland, Ryszard Kapuscinski found himself in some truly fascinating, exciting and deadly situations. From running roadblocks in Nigeria to reporting from the front lines in Central America, Kapuscinski delivers some of the most exciting and insightful adventure/travel writing I have ever read
Rating:
Summary: Like Kundera in the Third World
Review: I just finished The Soccer War and thoroughly enjoyed it. Like 18th century novelists and Milan Kundera, Kapuscinski rambles where he pleases and you enjoy every minute of it. A reporter for the Polish press during the cold war, his essays cover Africa, Central and South America, and the Middle East during political upheaval and revolutions. His viewpoint and humor are, for me, very reminiscent of Kundera, had he roamed the third world countries. Don't miss this delightful book.
Rating:
Summary: Like Kundera in the Third World
Review: I just finished The Soccer War and thoroughly enjoyed it. Like 18th century novelists and Milan Kundera, Kapuscinski rambles where he pleases and you enjoy every minute of it. A reporter for the Polish press during the cold war, his essays cover Africa, Central and South America, and the Middle East during political upheaval and revolutions. His viewpoint and humor are, for me, very reminiscent of Kundera, had he roamed the third world countries. Don't miss this delightful book.
Rating:
Summary: The high genius of modern reporting.
Review: In the world of journalism, no one compares to Kapuscinski. For the sheer range of his intelligence, perception, bravery, and compassion, he stands unique; and in this book he collects the essence of what both allowed him and drove him to achieve his remarkable career. I'm always wary of journalists who try to summarize cultures other than their own--reducing a country's worth of people and all their pain, suffering, history, and joy into a few pithy phrases. But Kapuscinski writes with a combination of humility and experience that allows him to surpass the cynical superiority to which foreign correspondents are so often heir. Nor does he ever stoop to describing his travels as a set of exotic adventures and near misses with death. Instead, his sense of history and culture always blends his own activities with the larger political picture in a way which illuminates both. The overriding theme of THE SOCCER WAR is journalism--what it can be and what it can never be. The book's final essay, in which Kapuscinski, crouched by a fire in Ghana, contemplates his readers at home and the friends he sits with, is as fine a summary of the inherent contradictions of the calling as has ever been written. In these final pages, Kapuscinski condemns, celebrates, and demonstrates both the necessity and the impossibility of this strangest of all modern professions in a way that should haunt both journalists and anyone who has ever read a newspaper.
Rating:
Summary: The high genius of modern reporting.
Review: In the world of journalism, no one compares to Kapuscinski. For the sheer range of his intelligence, perception, bravery, and compassion, he stands unique; and in this book he collects the essence of what both allowed him and drove him to achieve his remarkable career. I'm always wary of journalists who try to summarize cultures other than their own--reducing a country's worth of people and all their pain, suffering, history, and joy into a few pithy phrases. But Kapuscinski writes with a combination of humility and experience that allows him to surpass the cynical superiority to which foreign correspondents are so often heir. Nor does he ever stoop to describing his travels as a set of exotic adventures and near misses with death. Instead, his sense of history and culture always blends his own activities with the larger political picture in a way which illuminates both. The overriding theme of THE SOCCER WAR is journalism--what it can be and what it can never be. The book's final essay, in which Kapuscinski, crouched by a fire in Ghana, contemplates his readers at home and the friends he sits with, is as fine a summary of the inherent contradictions of the calling as has ever been written. In these final pages, Kapuscinski condemns, celebrates, and demonstrates both the necessity and the impossibility of this strangest of all modern professions in a way that should haunt both journalists and anyone who has ever read a newspaper.
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: 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: A reporter and an artist
Review: Not at all what I expected from a reporter writing for the Polish Press Agency during the Cold War days. Kapuscinski acheives heights of journalistic excellence time and again. I expected Soviet-style propaganda puff-pieces and was startled over and over again by Kapucsinski's humane, non-dogmatic views and independent streak. But more than that, he is a journalist with a poet's soul. His lyricism can be downright haunting...he has a rare gift when it comes to the printed word. It is a poinant, sensitive lyricism I've found only among Polish and other East-Central European (mostly non-Russian Slavic) writers. Don't know what it is, but it always enchants me... ...I mostly bought the book due to the author's own nationality and also for the section on Latin America, which was of primary interest to me, but since I was "reading" the book as an audiobook (therefore, listening to it)...I "read" it cover to cover. Although it covered wars in Africa and other parts of the world that are of minimal interest to me, he made these events come alive, made me sit up and take notice, actually care about these things, these people, these events. Kapucsinski's book makes an interesting contrast to PJ O'Rourke's _Holidays In Hell_, which I'll admit I did laugh at when listening, but O'Rourke's is a rather mean-spirited humor and unabashedly U.S. nationalistic/right-wing. Kapucsinski is much more humane.
Rating: 
Summary: Pleasantly surprised!
Review: Not at all what I expected from a reporter writing for the Polish Press Agency during the Cold War days. Kapuscinski acheives heights of journalistic excellence time and again. I expected Soviet-style propaganda puff-pieces and was startled over and over again by Kapucsinski's humane, non-dogmatic views and independent streak. But more than that, he is a journalist with a poet's soul. His lyricism can be downright haunting...he has a rare gift when it comes to the printed word. It is a poinant, sensitive lyricism I've found only among Polish and other East-Central European (mostly non-Russian Slavic) writers. Don't know what it is, but it always enchants me... ...I mostly bought the book due to the author's own nationality and also for the section on Latin America, which was of primary interest to me, but since I was "reading" the book as an audiobook (therefore, listening to it)...I "read" it cover to cover. Although it covered wars in Africa and other parts of the world that are of minimal interest to me, he made these events come alive, made me sit up and take notice, actually care about these things, these people, these events. Kapucsinski's book makes an interesting contrast to PJ O'Rourke's _Holidays In Hell_, which I'll admit I did laugh at when listening, but O'Rourke's is a rather mean-spirited humor and unabashedly U.S. nationalistic/right-wing. Kapucsinski is much more humane.
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