Culture

Authors: Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, Tom Howes, Gary Brozek
Publisher: HarperCollins
(3.5/5)

Out of Captivity is, as the title kindly spells out, a book about captivity. More specifically it details the capture, five-and-a-half years of imprisonment within the Colombian jungle, and the (frankly, brilliant) rescue of three American government contractors. 
Crash-landing in the jungle is not ideal at the best of times; at the worst of times, you are an American fighting the War on Drugs in conjunction with the Colombian government and you land right in the middle of rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) territory, making you an invaluable hostage for ransom money. Flippancy aside, what these three men were subjected to during their period of captivity was disturbing and incomprehensible, relative to one’s own comfortable life. They marched for days through the jungle, at times chained together, and stayed in hastily-made tents and prison-like camps with other captives. The lower FARC members seemed little better off than their captives and their ad-hoc existence in the judge showed their ingenuity but also great failure within the organisation. There was nothing organised about the FARC. 
Having the men tell their own story allowed for greater insights into their time in captivity which no other author could have given, and large portions of the book were devoted to their inner thoughts and the mental exercises they used to occupy their time and keep their sanity. Unfortunately, their writing styles, in particular their retrospectives on life prior to capture, were a little too reminiscent of a fifth-former’s English essay. Merit. Nice try, but sentences such as “I wasn’t in a reflective mood that morning, just riding a literal and figurative high” sound slightly too constructed to ring true. Having three authors gave the events a slightly more holistic overview without too much overlap, although I must admit that I tended to blur the men together. Overall, if you can ignore the sometimes artificial writing and concentrate on what is generally a very interesting plot, it is an entertaining read containing some fascinating insights into what it's like to be a FARC hostage in Colombia’s jungle.