The Southern Tiger by Ricardo Lagos – #bookreviews
I really wasn’t looking forward to reading this book as I don’t see myself as a very political or economics minded person.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that once I had got past my own biased pre-conceived idea I actually found the book rather enjoyable, very informative and in places even laughed out loud.
It is written in a very accessible style which endears this book to non-political types like myself. The further I read into the book the more I found myself liking Ricardo Lagos and I was amazed at the reforms he managed to make to Chile in his short 6 years as president.
I found it jumped about a bit too much chronologically and sometimes I had to re-read a section to catch up with where we had got to in the timeline. It is not a book to read in a night as you really do need to peruse on what you have read to get the most out of the book.
You will get an insight into Ricardo Lagos during Pinochet’s reign, his time as President and Lagos as ex-president. Chile is a very different country now to what it was in 1988 where the book starts.
I eventually found this a very good personal read and was glad I persevered with it.
I think it would make an excellent book club choice because it will raise political debate within the group which we in Britain are often too scared to discuss in case we offend somebody with a differing opinion.
Personal read 3/5
Group read 5/5
