Letters from Managua: Meditations on Politics and Art

Tony Barclay is a retired juvenile corrections probation officer and a
former public-health research associate at the University of Toronto.

Geddes, a well-known Canadian poet and teacher, visited Nicaragua in
1989, before the Sandinista government lost office. This book, an
eclectic mixture of tourist observations and reflections on politics and
art, springs from that experience. Many of the pieces have been
published in other forms, and the book perhaps lacks cohesiveness as a
result.

Geddes is a left-wing writer who, in journalistic terms, seeks to tell
us something about Nicaragua in the 10 years under revolutionary
government. He also does much more. Having found Latin American writers
who passionately believe in what they are trying to do, he is inspired
to analyze current writing in Canada and elsewhere from his own
political perspective. The book is sometimes amusing, often profound,
and occasionally trivial. Geddes is not afflicted with self-doubt or a
lack of stimulating ideas. He explores territory often ignored in the
traditional press.

For anyone interested in the three subjects dealt with in these
essays—Nicaragua, politics, and the art of writing—this book would
be a gold mine.

One doubts that anyone, least of all Geddes, would expect full
agreement with his views. Rather, look here for stimulation and
originality.