Page 314 - The Rough Guide to Panama (Travel Guide)

312 CONTEXTS Books
to the ground in 1885. A poignant tale that would have Sonja Watson The Politics of Race in Panama. This
worked better as a factual account. thoughtful, scholarly work, which examines the way that
John Lindsay Poland Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden race and identity are inscribed differently by authors from
History of the US in Panama. A human-rights campaigner the Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Hispanic communities, leads
and investigative journalist explores the role of the US you to wish more of these authors’ writings were available
military in Panama and the dubious uses to which it put the in English.
land it acquired. John Week and Phil Gunson Panama: Made in the USA.
John Prebble The Darien Disaster. Highly detailed and Written in 1991, this much-praised analysis of the 1989
often turgid exploration of the doomed attempt by the American invasion of Panama and its historical background
Scots to colonize the Darién. The minutiae, such as the deals with the legal implications and political
numbers of cases of rum loaded onto the ships, obscure the consequences, while shining a light on the part Noriega
depth of the tragedy that bankrupted Scotland. played leading up to the attack.
GUNA CULTURE
James Howe Chiefs, Scribes and Ethnographers: Kuna Guna women, tracing the links between the patterns used
Culture from Inside and Out. Written by a professor of and traditions and rituals in the lives of the women.
anthropology who has spent considerable time among the Joel Sherzer Stories, Myths, Chants and Songs of the Kuna
Guna over a 35-year period, this recent book deals with Indians. The author, a linguistic anthropologist, lived
accounts that the Guna chiefs themselves have given of their among the Guna people photographing and recording
life and culture. Like his previous books – A People Who their oral tradition of songs and ritual performances. He
Would not Kneel: Panama, the United States and the San Blas reveals their close association with plants and animals and
Kuna and The Kuna Gathering: Contemporary Village Politics their belief in myths and magic.
in Panama – it’s a serious but rewarding read. Jorge Ventocilla, Heraclio Herrera and Valerio
★ Salvador Mary Lyn (ed.) The Art of Being Kuna: Layers Nuñez Plants and Animals in the Life of the Kuna. Written
of Meaning among the Kuna of Panama. Glossy coffee-table by two Guna biologists and a Panamanian colleague, this
book full of fascinating photos and scholarly insights on the book is aimed at the Guna reader as well as outsiders,
interweaving of Guna art, culture and environment. providing fascinating insights into the Guna perspective on
Michael Perrin Magnificent Molas. Lavishly illustrated, ecology and cosmology as they relate to environmental
this book explores the molas or fabric “paintings” of the issues.
FICTION
Iain Banks Canal Dreams. More nightmare than dream, in Douglas Galbraith The Rising Sun. A detailed, somewhat
which an unloveable, famous Japanese cellist is trapped on rambling historical novel about the Scottish expedition to
a ship in the Panama Canal that is captured by guerrillas. the Darién, fuelled by human greed but leading to
The violence she and her lover suffer at their hands leads unbelievable hardship and the eventual bankruptcy of
her to an equally violent revenge. Scotland. It is difficult to warm to the main character who
Jane Bowles Two Serious Ladies. An avant-garde classic of tells the story, but the horror comes across.
1943, this story follows two women seeking freedom from James Stanley Gilbert Panama Patchwork Poems. A
the confines of social convention. On holiday in Panama, fascinating collection, published between 1901 and 1937,
one falls in love with a young prostitute and leaves her by a one-time employee of the Panama Railroad Company.
husband to live in the brothel in Colón. Offering a glimpse Though “Poet Laureate of the Isthmus” may be a tad
of the city’s red-light district, it also includes a scene in the exaggerated, his accessible verse provides a powerful
historic Washington Hotel. evocation of pre-Canal hardships for settlers in Colón.
Cristina Enríquez The World in Half. Debut novel from US Robert Hatting Murder in Panama. Though it won’t win
author who draws on her Panamanian heritage to narrate a any awards for writing, this first of a trilogy of Kindle
young woman’s search for identity as she leaves her ailing thrillers set in Panama will happily pass time on the plane,
mother to find in Panama the father she never knew. taking you round the country at a breathless pace.
Though the book is heavy-handed with the geological ★ John Le Carré The Tailor of Panama. With an explicit
symbolism, the protagonist’s physical and existential nod to Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana, this satirical
journey keep the pages turning. The same author’s award- spy thriller is a classic. Set just before the US handover of
winning Come Together Fall Apart contains a novella and a the Canal, a young unscrupulous British agent embarks on
handful of short stories, which provide deft close-ups of a an elaborate fiction of intrigue, which spirals out of control.
range of Panamanian characters in the turbulent 1980s, While both American and British intelligence services are
just before the fall of Noriega. lampooned as much as Panamanian high society, the

290-319_Panama_3_Contexts.indd 312 30/06/17 11:52 am