Belli, Gioconda. The country under my skin; a memoir of love and war.

Random House, Anchor. 380p. illus, index. c2002. 1-4000-3216-4. $14.00. SA

Belli, born 1949, came of age in Nicaragua at a time when the lines between rich and poor were sharply drawn, and when Somoza, one of the world's most corrupt dictators, ruled. The US supported dictatots like this, and Belli and her compatriots knew they could expect little help from the north in their fight for an honest and equitable social and political system. As a young married woman, she joined the Sandinistas, the revolutionary movement that conspired to overthrow Samoza and those who benefited from his reign. Belli, who was educated in the US, writes a powerful, appealing memoir in which she tells of her activities as part of The Organization.

In the 1960s and '70s, Belli served as liaison, fund-raiser, recruiter, driver, and gatherer of medicines to send to the guerrillas. She also learned military skills. Her story is replete with the vocabulary of revolution: guerrillas, safe houses, surveillance, rebels, clandestine communications, secret meetings, code names, torture, disappearance, the death of compatriots caught by the government. Yet her life was also that of Nicaragua's privileged class. She held white-collar jobs, relied on nannies to care for her babies (eventually four), enjoyed connections with highly placed persons (including Fidel Castro), lived in fine houses, had adequate food and clothing, could command transportation to both neighboring and distant countries, and exercised options when the going got rough. Throughout, she had a series of husbands and lovers. In 1987, she married Charlie Castaldi, an American correspondent for National Public Radio, and today lives in the US.

Belli has written a literate, insightful book. She understands both the emotions that drove her personal life and the political ideologies of her time. The Sandinistas, she says, sought a more fair and equitable life for the people of her country and believed some form of socialism would deliver it. She had traveled in European communist countries, disliked the limitations on personal and economic freedoms she saw, and wanted none of it. The chapters, which are short and clearly dated, lend themselves well to pick-up reading. An excellent addition to women's literature and explorations of the Central American political movements during the Cold War years. Edna Boardman, Bismarck, ND