Product Description

First-person accounts of life in Pinochet's Chile—"the perfect epitaph to a violent dictatorship" (Library Journal). "Like a García Márquez novel that has suddenly, horrifyingly, come to real life" (New York Newsday), Fear in Chile is an extraordinary collection of first-person accounts of life under dictatorship. In the 1980s, shortly after Chile emerged from one of the century's most notorious reigns of terror, Chilean journalist Patricia Politzer interviewed figures including a revolutionary activist, a military leader loyal to General Augusto Pinochet, a bank clerk concerned with the status quo, the mother of one of the "disappeared," as well as a dozen other men and women from every political position and social stratum of Chilean life. The result is a broad, vivid, yet nonideological view of modern life under military rule, about which Ariel Dorfman writes, "I can think of no better introduction to my country." With the October 1998 arrest of General Pinochet in Great Britain and renewed world awareness of the horrendous crimes committed during his regime, Fear in Chile, updated with a new afterword by the author that considers the recent attempts to prosecute Pinochet for human-rights violations, offers a vivid portrait of Chile's Pinochet era.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1714340 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 254 pages

From Library Journal
Through these interviews with both pro-and anti-government Chileans, journalist Politzer conveys the widespread fear that has become endemic in this country. For another account, see Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Clandestine in Chile ( LJ 6/15/87).-- Ed. . She juxtaposes accounts of relentless killings, disappearances, and police brutality with exalting reports of economic prosperity under Pinochet's regime. Macabrely fascinating, this book is a timely release in light of the upcoming Chilean presidential election that was mandated by the 1988 plebiscite. The book may become the perfect epitaph to a violent dictatorship.
- Bibi Thompson, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

New York Newsday
A remarkable and moving document about life under military dictatorship.

Ariel Dorfman
I can think of no better introduction to my country.