Sweet Country

By Caroline Richards

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671622854
• ISBN13: 9780671622855
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 372 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Interesting, very good prose

"Sweet Country" is a social/political novel of the left leaning professional class (and expatriates) during the time of the 1973 coup d'état in Chile. It is based on the journals of one Eva Maria Araya and neither her name nor the names of other characters, at least those who no longer resided in Chile, were changed. No mention is made in the afterword that Richards interviewed these other people, so we may assume Richard's relied on a novelist's imagination to flesh out the book. In fact, Eva is just one of several significant characters, and the character whose inner life is most on view is that of the expatriate, Ann Willing. While Richards is a first time novelist, her prose is very good, and certainly the subject is very interesting. Still, with the exception of Eva's early journal entries, I didn't connect with the characters as much as I do in many good novels. The political facts, including the involvement of the CIA, conform to what I know. I wish some of the characters had speculated on why the coup and its aftermath were so violent (cf. coup last year in Thailand in which a democratic government was replaced). Marital infidelity is important in the novel, but I do not believe the author was trying to draw some connection between personal betrayal and political betrayal.