Our guerrillas, our sidewalks : a journey into the violence of Colombia /

Braun's brother-in-law, a Houston oilman, Jake Gambini, was kidnapped while on a business trip to Colombia. Braun writes this story from multiple perspectives, including family members and friends in the U.S. and Colombia, the guerrillas, and the victim. While Braun negotiated with the kidnappers, Gambini decided to commit suicide by starving himself. Over four and a half months of captivity, he lost 65 pounds and forced the guerrillas to concede. The episodic telling adds to the tension, as do snippets of intermittent news reports: "Every thirteen hours in Colombia, a person falls into the hands of kidnappers." Braun's perspective as a writer on Colombian politics and history adds further depth to his narrative and to its larger implications. (Reviewed December 15, 1994)0870813560Denise Perry Donavin

This is a journal of the kidnapping of an American businessman by guerrillas in Colombia in 1988 as told by the victim, his family, his captors, and journalists. What was his crime? He employed people-that he treated them well or that he sympathized with their cause does not matter-and hence his ransom was seen as his contribution to the decades-long struggle for social reform. From the beginning, everyone knew that he would not be harmed, for the guerrillas were professionals who knew the value of their prey and could count on the family's distress to extract a good sum. Once released, Braun was considered "vaccinated" aginst recurrence. Cleverly intertwining the personal account of a kidnapping with a history of the struggle for social reform, this book gives valuable insight into the present political situation. For most large collections.-Louise Leonard, Univ. of Florida Lib., Gainesville (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.