Publishers Weekly
★ 12/20/2021
Journalist Neuman debuts with a heartbreaking and deeply reported account of the ongoing crisis in Venezuela. Depicting the country’s downward spiral since 2014—driven by a collapse in oil prices, U.S. sanctions, and hyperinflation—from the perspectives of political leaders and ordinary citizens, Neuman notes that one in six Venezuelans has fled the country during the crisis, an exodus “second only to the flight from Syria, which was in the midst of a civil war.” He begins the narrative with a vivid description of the 2019 blackouts that left the entire country in the dark, pinning the blame on decades of neglect by President Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro. Neuman then explains how Chávez, who came to power in 1999 and died in 2013, created a cult of personality by stoking political polarization and invoking the country’s revolutionary past while funneling oil revenues into a national “slush fund” for development projects and borrowing heavily from foreign banks. Neuman excels at humanizing the suffering of ordinary Venezuelans who lack access to basic food, medicine, or shelter, and incisively analyzes how the country’s fractured and ineffective opposition has allowed Maduro to retain control. Through lyrical prose, in-depth interviews, and lucid discussions of political and economic matters, Neuman makes the scale of Venezuela’s tragedy clear. Readers will be riveted and appalled. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
"22 Books to Look Forward to in 2022"—Newsweek
"This shocking, definitive account of Venezuela's crumbling is driven by deep reporting, startling data and most of all, stunning humanity. Neuman draws on profound interviews he conducted and his deep knowledge of the country and its history to starkly detail how the country got to where it is today." —Newsweek
"How did a country that Christopher Columbus described as paradise on earth, a country with more oil than Saudi Arabia, descend into a Hobbesian nightmare? Let William Neuman tell you. Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse is a timely, heartbreaking story of ruinous mismanagement, economic implosion and political cynicism (not least in Donald Trump's Washington)."
—Bill Keller, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, founding editor in chief of The Marshall Project, and former executive editor of The New York Times
"A deeply reported, lyrically written portrait of a nation in freefall. Neuman chronicles Venezuela’s surreal descent from tragi-comic dysfunction to catastrophe with authority, wit and above all compassion. Anyone who wants to understand how a country with the world’s biggest oil reserves fell into the void should read this book."
—Rory Carroll, author of Comandante: Hugo Chavez's Venezuela
"William Neuman’s beautifully written, incisive, and often heart-rending account must be required reading for anyone who wants to understand our neighbor to the South."
—Mary Jo McConahay, author of The Tango War
“Journalist Neuman presents a jaunty, intimate look at the recent (and ongoing) implosion of Venezuelan society that emphasizes the perils of the petrostate and the human cost of endemic corruption.” — Booklist
“As the Caracas-based Andes bureau chief for the New York Times from 2012 to 2016, Neuman is well qualified to recount the South American nation’s precipitous decline. … The author delivers the best kind of journalism, combining powerful facts and pointed observation, as he moves from one alarming event to the next, bringing into the spotlight countless Venezuelans who have little hope for the future. A heartbreaking yet authoritative, necessary look at a ruined nation.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Journalist Neuman debuts with a heartbreaking and deeply reported account of the ongoing crisis in Venezuela. … Through lyrical prose, in-depth interviews, and lucid discussions of political and economic matters, Neuman makes the scale of Venezuela’s tragedy clear. Readers will be riveted and appalled.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Neuman, who lived in Caracas for years, writes lyrically and uses in-depth interviews and reflections to put individual faces to Venezuela’s dissolving bonds of fellowship. … A riveting personal exploration of Venezuela’s slow-moving collapse.” —Library Journal
Library Journal
02/01/2022
Veteran New York Times reporter Neuman debuts with a searing indictment of the Venezuelan petro-state. He argues that populist president Hugo Chávez, instead of diversifying the country's economy to sustain the socialist revolution he claimed to lead, coasted for 14 years on oil money. The Chávez regime doled out cheap gas and sinecures to persuade Venezuelans to ignore rampant incompetence, corruption, and democratic backsliding. But since 2013, as oil revenues collapsed and Chávez's successor Nicolás Maduro embraced authoritarianism amid U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, the nation plunged into humanitarian crisis while the U.S.-backed opposition flailed ineffectually, Neuman writes. Venezuela lost two-thirds of its gross domestic product between 2013 and 2019, accompanied by hyperinflation and emigration of a sixth of its population. Neuman denounces Chávez and Maduro but gives the conservative opposition and U.S. foreign policy their fair share of criticism as well. Neuman, who lived in Caracas for years, writes lyrically and uses in-depth interviews and reflections to put individual faces to Venezuela's dissolving bonds of fellowship. However, his ham-fisted metaphors ("time was a fast-food sandwich") and patronizing comments ("I thought of Venezuela as the shouting country") sometimes detract from the book's geopolitical insights and heartfelt laments. VERDICT A riveting personal exploration of Venezuela's slow-moving collapse.—Michael Rodriguez
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2021-12-24
Tracking the tragic demise of the once-thriving, oil-rich nation.
As the Caracas-based Andes bureau chief for the New York Times from 2012 to 2016, Neuman is well qualified to recount the South American nation’s precipitous decline. He records Venezuela’s dramatic political and economic changes through interviews and deft firsthand observations, exploring the collapse of social institutions, entrenched poverty, staggering inflation, chronic blackouts, famine, and pervasive despair. Neuman points to two specific elements that help explain the tumult: the “Resource Curse” caused by its massive oil wealth, to which the entire economy was chained; and the violent rift between those who supported Hugo Chávez, the publicity-hungry president who nationalized the oil industry and centralized the government, and those who did not. Chávez “mined [the rift] and encouraged it until it became part of the landscape, something that people took as a given.” When he died in 2013, after 14 years as president, he was succeeded by his crony Nicolás Maduro, “a less talented politician who styled himself as the ideological heir of the man he called the eternal comandante.” In 2014, the massive drop in oil prices collapsed the economy, as the country depended almost entirely on its oil exports, at the expense of all others. In 2018, the disputed reelection of Maduro, tainted by heavy-handed oppression of his opponents, led to the attempted coup by the head of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, who declared himself interim president in 2019. Despite support by the U.S. and others in a concerted effort to depose Maduro—accompanied by crippling sanctions by the Trump administration—there was no citizens uprising, as hoped, just more misery. The author delivers the best kind of journalism, combining powerful facts and pointed observation, as he moves from one alarming event to the next, bringing into the spotlight countless Venezuelans who have little hope for the future.
A heartbreaking yet authoritative, necessary look at a ruined nation.
