Balancing Power
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MWSA Review
Balancing Power is the story of a Latin American country in the final stages of a bloodless coup that is systematically dismantling its democratic government and sliding toward a socialist dictatorship. The only thing standing in the way of power-hungry Figueroa is the Autonomous Light Infantry Brigade (ALIB) led by General Francisco Portero, an American-trained brigadier general.
The book shows a realistic glimpse at the inner workings of the political machinations, social structures, cultural traditions, and people of a country poised at the edge of civil war. It is filled with characters that you like, characters you dislike, romance, intrigue, military battles, and spies. The plot pulls you in and keeps you reading.
Balancing Power is fiction with the feel of reality. The military conquests, logistics, strategy, and battle descriptions are excellent and well written. The author, Francis Graves, presents a believable scenario, having served 12 years in the U.S. Army including combat in both World War II and the Korean War. He also spent time as an investigator in Central America during the 1980s at the time of the Sandinista-Contra conflict in Nicaragua and the FMLN insurgency in El Salvador. At the end of the book you wonder if the events really happened.
Those who enjoy books with military strategy, strong supporting characters, and Latin American politics will find this book to be interesting and educational. Keep a Spanish-English dictionary nearby, however, as the author is fluent in Spanish and uses quite a few terms that are not immediately apparent from context.
Reviewed by: Betsy Beard (2013)