My Car in Managua Paperback – March 1, 1991

Amazing book! Once I picked it up I couldnt put it down. Read it in 2 hours. Easy to follow, easy to read, gives a great overview of Nicaraguan Revolutionary days, geoography, history, and culture. Forest Coulburn is simply an Amazing Writer! :)

Great information very witty loved the book

Bought this book prior to moving to Managua. Made me wonder what I was gettign myself into,lol. Very easy book to read and laugh along with. Well worth the purchase.

Great book by a great person. You will laugh while you learn about the nation if Nicaragua during the Sandinista Revolution

Not a bad little book. A quick and entertaining read. These short vignettes on life in Nicaragua give the reader a feel for everyday life in that country after the revolution (it was written in the late 80s) This book does not have discussions of the different Sandinista factions, but rather, what jokes people tell about politicians or how hard it is to get a permit for a car. If one has a passing interest in Central America or Nicaragua specifically, I'd recommend this book.

Once upon a time, as I remember, there was a country called Nicaragua. It was in the news every day. Revolutionaries had taken it over. This was perceived as a great threat to our nation, (the USA)---a well-known military pushover with a decrepit economy which could easily have been totally destroyed by this Central American Marxist powerhouse. We armed the opposition and a war ensued in which the poor killed the poor. Russians, Bulgarians, and even Libyans appeared in Central America. People came visiting from everywhere who dreamed that Latin American countries could develop without being dominated by Uncle Sam. Even Salman Rushdie wrote a book about it. Suddenly, an election was held---hey, I thought Nicaragua was totalitarian---and the revolutionaries lost. Nicaragua faded from the news immediately and nothing more has ever been heard of the place. That's the media biz.MY CAR IN MANAGUA stands out like a lighthouse on a dark stormy night. An eminently reasonable man spent a lot of time there and wrote an academic study of the place. This is not it. Colburn captures the flavor of Nicaragua in those tumultuous years here, describing daily life and survival tactics in easily-flowing prose. No cant, no rhetoric, no animosity. In a brief book he covers a vast variety of subjects; from car purchase and maintenance to accounting and management techniques on "revolutionary" cattle ranches. You can find out what kind of toothpaste was available in Sandinista Nicaragua (Bulgarian) or how to tell a middle class home in Managua (it had cement floors). Everything is described with understanding and with a sense of humor. The book is illustrated with drawings by a famous Nicaraguan cartoonist of the time, Róger Sánchez Flores, though I did not find them exceptional. We plainly see the economic mess created by a revolution that was far more successful in breaking down old social barriers and empowering the common man. Colburn never harps on this, just notes various unvarnished facts. The affection that the author feels for this impoverished, exhausted country is obvious. For a commonsense view of 1980s Nicaragua that is enjoyable, well-written and insightful, you cannot do better than this book. And it makes you wonder, not for the first time perhaps, if the USA's style of foreign policy will ever change.

Crisp, precise writing. Great stories.