Zapatista

Set amid the Zapatista revolution of the 1990s through the present day, Zapatista is a novel about a writer who gets caught up in the struggle for the poverty-stricken Native Americans of Mexico. In the middle of guns, bloodshed, and the hope for a more equal tomorrow, he falls in love with a beautiful Native woman and his life changes forever. Zapatista documents Blake Bailey as a gifted writer of memorable fiction who is able to make his characters live and their surroundings form an impressive context for original storytelling. A portion of the proceeds from Zapatista will be donated to the Zapatista movement in Mexico.

This book is an adventure, a wild ride, a plane crash to avoid a forced military landing, grab the bags of money and run. A tale of a person displaced, going on a vacation and end up killing for a cause. If you have ever been an occasional traveler in Mexico this book throws out a whole new twist, while teaching you some history about the Chiapas Indians and the Zapatista movement.

This is an excting, engrossing story of an American caught up in the Chiapas Indian revolution in Mexico -- a subject I knew nothing about prior to reading the book. The author gives a vivid portrayal of the struggles of the Chiapas Indians and makes it very real to the reader in a poignant way. This was a definite page-turner, as I couldn't wait to see what would happen to the protagonist next. I would definitely like to see more books from this author.

I bought Zapatista by mistake, thinking that it was a chronology of the Zapatista rebellion, and found myself engaged in a fasinating fiction about an American writer and his adventures in Chiapas, Mexico. I've studied the Zapatista struggle and have visited the area and I can say this story is historically accurate and I can vouch for some of the geographic detail. This author did his homework.

I found Zapatista historical, yet fresh and interesting--a Mexican revolution seen through the eyes of an American accidentally caught up in it. And later choosing to remain. Sex, violence, history--it would make a good movie.