The Bookworm: The Soccer War

The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuściński. 240 pages. Vintage International. 1992.

…there was an attempt — one of a series in my life — to establish me behind a desk. My boss led me to a room containing a desk and a typist and said, “You’re going to work here.” I looked it over: the typist — yes, she was nice; the desk — abominable. It was one of those small desks, a mousetrap, which sit by the thousands in our cluttered and overcrowded offices. Behind such a desk, a man resembles an invalid in an orthopaedic brace. …I cannot suffer a desk!

Now that’s a journalist.

The Soccer War is the last of the trio of books I bought from Prairie Lights online. I’ve wanted to read it for a long time, ever since I heard of Kapuściński four years ago. Instead of buying it I’ve always tried to get a hold of a library copy (out of financial necessity, of course). However, it’s apparently a popular book: it was almost always checked out.

It wasn’t what I thought it would be, and in a good way. The Soccer War is, as the back cover says, “[p]art diary and part reportage.” It’s a collection of pieces regarding some of the 27 revolutions and coups Kapuściński covered for the Polish press from 1958 to 1980. The Soccer War includes tales from Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, and the 100-hour skirmish between El Salvador and Honduras that the book takes its name. What I always thought it would be was an entire book about the soccer war. The title is seriously misleading, but it doesn’t matter. The book is incredible regardless.

Kapuściński’s narrative is engaging and absorbing as always, but I wonder how good the translation is. The Soccer War was originally written in Polish, and William R. Brand translated it into English. Translators are responsible for not only accurately converting the language, but also making it readable and understandable. Most direct translations don’t make sense, so someone like Brand is entitled to use his own artistic discretion. How much of Kapuściński’s style comes through is something I won’t know unless I read the Polish versions and compare the two. That’s not gonna happen anytime soon.

New words I learned: All definitions are thanks to my MacBook dictionary. Canker: a necrotic, fungal disease of apple and other trees that results in damage to the bark. Lachrymose: tearful or given to weeping. Pastern: the sloping part of a horse's foot between the fetlock and the hoof. Dolt: a stupid person. Truncheon: a short, thick stick carried as a weapon by a police officer. Mufti: a Muslim legal expert who is empowered to give rulings on religious matters. Enervate: cause (someone) to feel drained of energy or vitality; weaken. Propitiate: win or regain the favor of (a god, spirit, or person) by doing something that pleases them. Baroque: relating to or denoting a style of European architecture, music, and art of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Hmm. The Soccer War deserves more, but it’s the Fourth of July and everyone in my neighborhood is drunk and armed with fireworks. I’m not really in the mood to keep writing.