Neuman skillfully explains just how insane ... Neuman homes in on the latter — the nationwide electricity blackouts of 2019 — as an effective narrative means of introducing us to ordinary Venezuelans and what the great disintegration reduced them to.
Journalist Neuman presents a jaunty, intimate look at the recent (and ongoing) implosion of Venezuelan society that emphasizes the perils of the petrostate and the human cost of endemic corruption.
... a searing indictment of the Venezuelan petro-state ... Neuman denounces Chávez and Maduro but gives the conservative opposition and U.S. foreign policy their fair share of criticism as well. Neuman, who lived in Caracas for years, writes lyrically and uses in-depth interviews and reflections to put individual faces to Venezuela’s dissolving bonds of fellowship. However, his ham-fisted metaphors and patronizing comments sometimes detract from the book’s geopolitical insights and heartfelt laments ... A riveting personal exploration of Venezuela’s slow-moving collapse.
Neuman is well qualified to recount the South American nation’s precipitous decline. He records Venezuela’s dramatic political and economic changes through interviews and deft firsthand observations, exploring the collapse of social institutions, entrenched poverty, staggering inflation, chronic blackouts, famine, and pervasive despair ... The author delivers the best kind of journalism, combining powerful facts and pointed observation, as he moves from one alarming event to the next, bringing into the spotlight countless Venezuelans who have little hope for the future ... A heartbreaking yet authoritative, necessary look at a ruined nation.
... heartbreaking and deeply reported ... Neuman excels at humanizing the suffering of ordinary Venezuelans who lack access to basic food, medicine, or shelter, and incisively analyzes how the country’s fractured and ineffective opposition has allowed Maduro to retain control. Through lyrical prose, in-depth interviews, and lucid discussions of political and economic matters, Neuman makes the scale of Venezuela’s tragedy clear. Readers will be riveted and appalled.
