Bart Jones is a reporter for Newsday and worked for eight years in Venezuela, mainly a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press. He holds a master's degree in Social Studies from Columbia University. He has also reported for The Atlantic City Press in New Jersey, where he won awards from the Philadelphia Press Association. He lives with his family on Long Island. Hugo! is his first book.
Chávez's rise has a made-for-Hollywood quality ... Jones provides a superb description of the economic inequities that helped create the conditions for a populist such as Chávez to come to power ... Where [he] truly excels is in his observations of Venezuelan society and the outsized role oil has played in molding the national character * Washington Post * Jones's book is thoughtful, comprehensive . . . the best in the bunch * Boston Globe * The most useful guide to emerge to such a major personality on the world stage * Independent * Broadly sympathetic without being starry-eyed, this is a journalistic rather than analytical account...Jones's biography is a timely and compendious corrective...a book that seeks to tell this story fairly has got to be welcome * Guardian * A refreshing departure from the ideologically charged tracts that tend to dominate the debate about Chávez * Sunday Times *