Monday, May 17, 2010

Recommended Reading: Gringo Nightmare

Okay, this one is a great read.  I followed this story closely when it was in the news, and Eric Volz's retelling of his experiences are riveting.

The basic premise is that a young American in Nicaragua is arrested for the murder of his Nicaraguan ex-girlfriend.  Over the course of the next year he endured the hellish conditions of the Nicaraguan prison system, the corruption of the Nicaraguan court system and the ever present shadow of the Sandinista government as the country creeps inexorably back into totalitarianism.

Of special note is the online "Exhibit Hall" that is accessible with a code in the book.  It contains a wealth of photographs of locations and people, pdf's of documents related to the court cases and even some audio files and videos.  It augments the written portion extremely well, and reminds one that these things happened and these places really exist.  The conditions he experienced are a daily reality to these men even now.

Seriously, get this and read it.  There's an excerpt available at http://gringonightmare.com.

1 comment:

I had to add anti-spam measures because, let's face it, almost nobody comments on blogs anymore unless they are spamming. Sorry.