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mildbestwishes's review against another edition
2.0
The time and place of this book is compelling (1987 during the increasing struggle between revolution and dictatorship in Central and South America), but the biographical aspect was completely uninspiring. While I hoped to read about the affect of revolutionary momentum on an idealistic American girl who hoped to be part of the change, instead I found a whiny account of an eighteen year old dealing with boyfriend troubles and diarrhea. Written in her adult life, the author still shows no sign of learning, growth, understanding, or insight into any of the events that she witnessed. Instead, she merely ponders her inability to understand the collapse of her relationship. Ugh.
lindseyloeper's review against another edition
This book is less a memoir about being in Central America during the 1980s and more about the author remembering being a 19 year old in a bad relationship while in Central America during the 1980s. I doubt many people remember their 19 year old selves fondly and this definitely comes through. An interesting book, but the two main characters are pretty annoying, again probably because the author doesn't remember them fondly. I really enjoyed the last quarter of the book when she begins discussing how this experience impacted her life as an adult and wish that she had included more of this analysis throughout. Overall an entertaining book and an easy read. I'll definitely look for more books by Unferth in the future.
zoemig's review against another edition
4.0
Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War by Deb Olin Unferth is a memoir most easily summarized by an excerpt from the book itself:
"My boyfriend and I went to join the revolution.
We couldn’t find the first revolution.
The second revolution hired us on and then let us go.
We went to the other revolutions in the area- there were several- but every one we came to let us hang around for a few weeks but then made us leave.
We ran out of money and at last we came home.
I was eighteen. That’s the whole story."
Focusing on the year 1987, the memoir is told in a voice that is part naive 18 year old, desperately following her boyfriend wherever he goes, and part wise woman reflecting on her youthful experiences. Revolution is told in short chapters, fluttering throughout time, beginning with Unferth and her boyfriend, George, returning from Central America, with Unferth desperately craving McDonalds, "I had food in my heart and mind that morning", she writes. Later in the memoir when their Nicaraguan visas run out they go to Costa Rica. At this point they are both extremely malnourished and Unferth has taken on the look of a pregnant woman due to some kind of parasite likely living in her stomach, inflating it round and smooth. They purchase chocolate cake and Diet Coke and with a full mouth, Unferth states "Capitalism is wonderful."
Revolution manages to be both funny and heart-warming, told with a dry sense of humour and a remarkable openness. Unferth easily admits that she was so in love with George, a desperate young love, that she was willing to drop out of college and follow him into dangerous places, deciding to be Christian along the way. Her family was Jewish and her decision to abandon their religion was perhaps more disturbing to them then that fact that she had left home and written them from the Mexican border about her plans to find a revolution. Unfortunately, finding a revolution proves more difficult than George and her imagined. They get fired from an orphanage when Unferth refuses to wear a bra and instead travel around Central America with a tape recorder, interviewing various people and recording over old rock cassettes. Unferth seems incredibly unaware of the danger she is encountering, more concerned about whether or not she should marry George. Writing on her experiences with the revolution, she says:
"We had absolutely no effect on anything that happened. The only thing that changed as a result of our presence was us."
Unferth's writing is incredible, she has an eye for tiny details and description which are what make Revolution so memorable. Her writing is both quirky and profound, and she manages to find a touch of humour in all situations. For example, she writes that benefit of having this parasite that inflated her stomach was that people often thought she was pregnant and she was not beyond using that to get food. Unferth also delves into what happened to her and George afterwards, including how she hired a private detective to find him, supposedly because she was writing this book but she was possibly writing this book as an excuse to find out what had happened to him. It is a remarkably genuine story of her first true love and the desperate obsession that comes along with it.
In addition to the strength of the content itself, this may sound a bit silly, but this is also a case where the physical book is really gorgeous. I think the cover is perfect and the memoir is divided into sections separated by text in a style similar to the cover, including tiny butterflies.
Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War was my first experience with author Deb Olin Unferth, who has previously published a collection of short stories, Minor Robberies, as well as a novel, Vacation, however I have already purchased her previous works and am extremely excited to read them as she is clearly a rising literary star. Unferth has an incredible ability to be concise and clever, the book itself is a fairly short read, but what sticks with the reader afterwards is the power of the writing. In Revolution, Unferth reflects on her experiences attempting to join Central America revolutions with an observant and humorous eye while writing about universal emotions and the distances we will go, literally, for love.
"My boyfriend and I went to join the revolution.
We couldn’t find the first revolution.
The second revolution hired us on and then let us go.
We went to the other revolutions in the area- there were several- but every one we came to let us hang around for a few weeks but then made us leave.
We ran out of money and at last we came home.
I was eighteen. That’s the whole story."
Focusing on the year 1987, the memoir is told in a voice that is part naive 18 year old, desperately following her boyfriend wherever he goes, and part wise woman reflecting on her youthful experiences. Revolution is told in short chapters, fluttering throughout time, beginning with Unferth and her boyfriend, George, returning from Central America, with Unferth desperately craving McDonalds, "I had food in my heart and mind that morning", she writes. Later in the memoir when their Nicaraguan visas run out they go to Costa Rica. At this point they are both extremely malnourished and Unferth has taken on the look of a pregnant woman due to some kind of parasite likely living in her stomach, inflating it round and smooth. They purchase chocolate cake and Diet Coke and with a full mouth, Unferth states "Capitalism is wonderful."
Revolution manages to be both funny and heart-warming, told with a dry sense of humour and a remarkable openness. Unferth easily admits that she was so in love with George, a desperate young love, that she was willing to drop out of college and follow him into dangerous places, deciding to be Christian along the way. Her family was Jewish and her decision to abandon their religion was perhaps more disturbing to them then that fact that she had left home and written them from the Mexican border about her plans to find a revolution. Unfortunately, finding a revolution proves more difficult than George and her imagined. They get fired from an orphanage when Unferth refuses to wear a bra and instead travel around Central America with a tape recorder, interviewing various people and recording over old rock cassettes. Unferth seems incredibly unaware of the danger she is encountering, more concerned about whether or not she should marry George. Writing on her experiences with the revolution, she says:
"We had absolutely no effect on anything that happened. The only thing that changed as a result of our presence was us."
Unferth's writing is incredible, she has an eye for tiny details and description which are what make Revolution so memorable. Her writing is both quirky and profound, and she manages to find a touch of humour in all situations. For example, she writes that benefit of having this parasite that inflated her stomach was that people often thought she was pregnant and she was not beyond using that to get food. Unferth also delves into what happened to her and George afterwards, including how she hired a private detective to find him, supposedly because she was writing this book but she was possibly writing this book as an excuse to find out what had happened to him. It is a remarkably genuine story of her first true love and the desperate obsession that comes along with it.
In addition to the strength of the content itself, this may sound a bit silly, but this is also a case where the physical book is really gorgeous. I think the cover is perfect and the memoir is divided into sections separated by text in a style similar to the cover, including tiny butterflies.
Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War was my first experience with author Deb Olin Unferth, who has previously published a collection of short stories, Minor Robberies, as well as a novel, Vacation, however I have already purchased her previous works and am extremely excited to read them as she is clearly a rising literary star. Unferth has an incredible ability to be concise and clever, the book itself is a fairly short read, but what sticks with the reader afterwards is the power of the writing. In Revolution, Unferth reflects on her experiences attempting to join Central America revolutions with an observant and humorous eye while writing about universal emotions and the distances we will go, literally, for love.
abbeyjfox's review against another edition
5.0
just finished this book after my first trip to central america. combined a fantastic, accessible history of the revolution with an honest, sometimes sad, coming of age story. perfect.
kylefwill's review against another edition
5.0
"We—I and I—stand to one side and regard the girl we were."
mkat303's review against another edition
4.0
I wound up really liking it. At first I just thought it would be poking fun at privileged white kids going off to Central America to work for the revolution, but I actually found it pretty compassionate. Good writing.
h2oetry's review against another edition
4.0
7.5/10
Big fan of DOU, though I do prefer her fiction. It recounts her youthful dalliances with the revolution fervor of the late 80s. I like that she doesn't bring a self-appointed heroicism to her efforts, which a lot of people would for the sole reason of having made the attempt. There is something very compelling about Unferth's sentences; although I didn't enjoy this in the same way I did her collection of short stories or her novel, I am glad I read it.
Big fan of DOU, though I do prefer her fiction. It recounts her youthful dalliances with the revolution fervor of the late 80s. I like that she doesn't bring a self-appointed heroicism to her efforts, which a lot of people would for the sole reason of having made the attempt. There is something very compelling about Unferth's sentences; although I didn't enjoy this in the same way I did her collection of short stories or her novel, I am glad I read it.
sophronisba's review against another edition
3.0
Of the memoir subgenre "college students go to exotic places and wacky/frightening hijinks ensue," I did prefer [b:Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven|4757303|Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven|Susan Jane Gilman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255603235s/4757303.jpg|4822089]. But this is interesting if a bit scattershot.
burnsbooks's review
3.0
This is a weird one. Because it is a GOOD 3. I've underlined passages of the text, read it a lot quicker than I have anything else recently, and there are parts that will resonate with me or pop into my mind and make me chuckle for years to come. But I didn't feel compeled to give it a higher rating.
This book is a memoir of Unferth's experience of running away with her boyfriend at 18 to join the Sandinistas revolution in 1987 Nicaragua. Some of her tales are hilarious and others harrowing. It is compelling to see the elements that led to Unferth's embarkment to the revolution and her eventual disillusionment.
Two of my favourite aspects about this book was that it is a travel memoir from before the internet. Previous memoirs that I have read tend to include more tech or go a lot more smoothly. Unferths experience appears to have been a total clusterfuck and it is amazing.
My other favourite part of the book was Unferth's narative voice. The ways she tells her tale gets across what actually happened but also how we mythologise our pasts to ourselves and others.
Would recommend.
This book is a memoir of Unferth's experience of running away with her boyfriend at 18 to join the Sandinistas revolution in 1987 Nicaragua. Some of her tales are hilarious and others harrowing. It is compelling to see the elements that led to Unferth's embarkment to the revolution and her eventual disillusionment.
Two of my favourite aspects about this book was that it is a travel memoir from before the internet. Previous memoirs that I have read tend to include more tech or go a lot more smoothly. Unferths experience appears to have been a total clusterfuck and it is amazing.
My other favourite part of the book was Unferth's narative voice. The ways she tells her tale gets across what actually happened but also how we mythologise our pasts to ourselves and others.
Would recommend.