Wait for Me: True Stories of War, Love and Rock & Roll

by Bill Gentile

"Now, in his vivid memoir, Wait for Me, True Stories of War, Love and Rock & Roll, Bill Gentile turns back the clock to the 1980s and thrusts us into the mountains of Nicaragua and the slums of El Salvador to offer what he calls "a firsthand, frontline account of the human cost of war." He succeeds for two simple he was willing to take serious risks and, more pertinently, he survived to tell his story when so many around him – soldiers, rebels and photojournalists like himself-were killed. It was, to put it bluntly, a murderous time." - Alan Riding, former New York Times Mexico and Central America bureau chief.

Bill Gentile did more than just "cover" Nicaragua's Sandinista Revolution and the Contra War. He lived them. First as correspondent for United Press International (UPI) and later as photojournalist for Newsweek magazine, Gentile experienced those historic events from the inside, as the partner of a Nicaraguan woman whose prominent family "adopted" him as one of their own. His memoir takes readers not only to the 1979 revolution, the Contra War in the merciless mountains of Nicaragua and to the deadly streets of El Salvador, but also to the steel mills and backyards of southwestern Pennsylvania where the Italian immigrant community prepared him for those conflicts, and then waited for his return. This book introduces the American public to the victims of U.S. intervention abroad. It is a firsthand, frontline account of the human cost of war.

Wait for True Stories of War, Love and Rock & Roll, explores family, self, love, loss and love again – told against a backdrop of adversity and warfare.

395 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 9, 2021

Reviews

[Suzanne Feliciano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just published, this is a great read especially for those of us who lived through this time. Gentile writes in a very personal manner about his relationships with the people of Nicaragua during a time of war which he covered for various news outlets. He also tells how his own family handled his dangerous life. I like how he relates his viewpoints about how the war was handled by the U.S gov't but leaves it to the reader to form opinions. The emphasis here is on people he's in contact with. How they relate to each other. Why he's a photojournalist. Though he was a photographer in the middle east, Africa and other places the focus here is Central America - Nicaragua in the 1980s. It's an easy read in the sense that it really pulls you in and encourages you to keep reading. If this subject is of interest to you or if you want to learn about something you've only heard of, I highly recommend Bill Gentile's "Wait For Me."

[Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am glad I read this book. Super educational both about combat and politics in Central America. It was refreshing to learn about all this from a different perspective.