Guerrilla Beach

John Walker is a professor of Spanish studies at Queen’s University.

Oakland Ross was the Globe and Mail’s foreign correspondent in Latin
America throughout the 1980s, a troubled period for that war-torn
region. This book is his first foray into the field of fiction, a
collection of 10 short stories that transcend mere journalism to capture
the essence of life in that conflict-ridden zone during those harrowing
years. Not surprisingly, given Ross’s experiences, seven of the
stories deal with the war in El Salvador, usually seen through the eyes
of the North American hacks (reporters) and cowboys (cameramen) who risk
their lives to bring back the stories and pictures of the war
(bang-bang). Through a host of fascinating figures, usually nameless and
poor Salvadoreans, and often unlikely, unprepared North American
correspondents, Ross captures (with his journalist’s eyes and ears)
the sights and sounds of a cruel, pointless war.

The three Chilean stories deal, predictably, with the disappearance of
innocent citizens (a harmless, eccentric old man; and an 18-year-old
schoolgirl) and the traumatic return of a young, exiled Allende
supporter to the totalitarian Pinochet-dominated Chile, before the
restoration of democracy.

Guerrilla Beach records what Yeats called the “terrible beauty” of
war, especially civil war. With varied narrative voices, modes, and
techniques, Ross has captured the brutal, terrifying reality of people
striving to survive in the face of government evil.