Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses magical realism in a story about an old man with battered wings who is stranded in a village during stormy weather. He doeGabriel Garcia Marquez uses magical realism in a story about an old man with battered wings who is stranded in a village during stormy weather. He doesn't speak their language so he cannot communicate with the villagers. Some wonder if he is an angel, but he does not have the elegance, beauty, and grandeur usually associated with angels. He becomes an attraction similar to a circus sideshow, and the sick came to visit "the angel" in search of a cure.
The story has impossible happenings, ambiguity, magical phrases, and humor. The reader must leave their sense of disbelief at the door before reading, enjoy the satire and imaginative writing, and just go with the flow for a fun experience.
"The most unfortunate invalids on earth came in search of health: a poor woman who since childhood had been counting her heartbeats and had run out of numbers; a Portuguese man who couldn't sleep because the noise of the stars disturbed him; a sleepwalker who got up at night to undo the things he had done while awake; and many others with less serious ailments."...more
The citizens of Bogota, Colombia were fearful during the worst years of violence from the drug cartels. The narrator, Antonio Yammara, was walking witThe citizens of Bogota, Colombia were fearful during the worst years of violence from the drug cartels. The narrator, Antonio Yammara, was walking with an acquaintance, Ricardo Laverde, when he was caught in the crossfire that targeted Laverde. After Yammara's long recovery from his wounds, he was left with symptoms of PTSD and found it difficult to leave his home to teach at a law school. He feels the need to learn all he can about Laverde's life. Through conversations with Laverde's daughter, examining correspondence, and listening to a secret recording, Yammara unearths why Laverde walked away from a life of promise.
Author Juan Gabriel Vasquez skillfully weaves in Colombia's history as Yammara and Laverde's daughter untangle their family histories. Air crashes, political candidates gunned down, and drive-by shootings were everyday news for the generation born in the 1970s. The drug trade was an enticing way to make some quick money. Pablo Escobar, the head of the Medallin Cartel, was behind much of the violence around Bogota.
Yammara felt that keeping his partner and their young daughter away from the truth about Ricardo Laverde was to avoid"...the contamination that I'd suffered one afternoon in 1996, the causes of which I'd barely begun to understand now, the unsuspected intensity of which was just now beginning to emerge like an object falling from the sky. My contaminated life was mine alone: my family was still safe: safe from the plague of my country, from its afflicted recent history: safe from what had hunted me down along with so many of my generation (and others, too, yes, but most of all mine, the generation that was born with planes, with the flights full of bags and the bags of marijuana, the generation that was born with the War on Drugs and later experienced the consequences)."...more
This multi-generational story of a Colombian family shows the reality faced by undocumented immigrants to the United States. The parents and their firThis multi-generational story of a Colombian family shows the reality faced by undocumented immigrants to the United States. The parents and their first child fled Bogota in search of economic opportunity and safety on a tourist visa. They stayed on, but their family was torn in two by immigration policy.
Where does this family--with two languages and two countries--call home? "Infinite Country" is a story about family and sacrifice told from the perspective of all the members of this mixed-immigration-status family. Andean creation myths and the heritage of the indigenous people of Colombia are woven into the chapters set in Bogota. In the United States there is a sense of not belonging, and always being on guard for deportation authorities. The love of the family members sees them through tough times.
Illegal immigration is a controversial subject, but it's important for readers with all different views of immigration policy to know what these Colombians are experiencing. Patricia Engel writes with lovely prose, and has won numerous awards for this short novel....more
Set in the violent time of the drug lord Pablo Escobar in 1990s Columbia, "Fruit of the Drunken Tree" is the story of two girls coming from very diffeSet in the violent time of the drug lord Pablo Escobar in 1990s Columbia, "Fruit of the Drunken Tree" is the story of two girls coming from very different circumstances. Seven-year-old Chula Santiago lives with her parents and sister, Cassandra, in a gated community in Bogata. Chula's father works for an American oil company, and is away in the oil fields for extended times.
Chula's mother hires thirteen-year-old Petrona Sanchez as a maid. Petrona's father and older brothers had been captured by the paramilitary. Petrona is now expected to provide income to support her asthmatic mother and her younger siblings living in a shack in the slums of Bogata.
As the violence increases in Bogata, Chula's exposure to it also escalates from seeing news reports of kidnappings on TV to witnessing a murder to having a bomb explode in her neighborhood. The violence keeps moving closer to home. Petrona is under pressure to cooperate with the encapotados in the slum. Heartbreaking choices are forced on her since she really has so few options in her life.
The fictional book was inspired by the author's personal experiences as a child in Bogata. The story has many authentic details that transport the reader to Colombia. While Chula is often confused at her tender age, TV news reports and adult conversations fill in the political reality. "Fruit of the Drunken Tree" is a coming-of-age story with a high emotional cost where survival is the main goal....more
I have to admit that I wondered if I would enjoy a book overflowing with magical realism. But Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a wonderfully imaginative authI have to admit that I wondered if I would enjoy a book overflowing with magical realism. But Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a wonderfully imaginative author, weaving together reality and fiction, the everyday and the supernatural, history and magic. The reader has to suspend disbelief and accept it all as reality. By the middle of the book, I was hooked.
One Hundred Years of Solitudeis set in the mythical Colombian town of Macondo. The isolated town changes as gypsies bring in new inventions, civil wars are fought in the country, the railroad connects to the outside world, foreign investors set up a banana plantation, and years of rain drive away the population.
The Buendias are the founding family of Macando, and the book follows the family for a hundred years. Garcia Marquez plays with time with some things proceeding in a linear manner, and other things in a circular manner with repetitions of family names and personal characteristics. The repetition of names was the most challenging part of reading the book with all the males being named a variation of either Arcadio or Aureliano. But each character had a distinct personality, and there is a family tree in the front of the book. There is love, hate, passion, incest, wealth, poverty, death, ghosts, magic, and humor in the story of the Buendias. Social and political changes in Macondo affect the family members. The atmosphere ranges from intense solitude to crazy parties to visits in the red light district. The one hundred year saga closes in an ending that seems very appropriate in an imaginative, magical way.
It is the 50th anniversary of the publication ofOne Hundred Years of Solitude.Although I had read Garcia Marquez's nonfiction book,News of a Kidnapping,this was the first time I had read his fiction. He's a talented writer who paved the way for other authors of magical realism.
Gabriel García Márquezis usually associated with his novels containing elements of magical realism, but he was a reporter in his younger days. In "NGabriel García Márquezis usually associated with his novels containing elements of magical realism, but he was a reporter in his younger days. In "News of a Kidnapping" he returns to nonfiction to tell the story of ten hostages who were kidnapped by the wealthy Medellin drug cartel in Colombia. Pablo Escobar used the hostages to bargain with the Colombian government when he feared he would be extradited to the United States in 1990 for drug crimes. The city of Medellin, where the drug cartel was based, was full of violence with hundreds of policemen and members of the drug cartel killed each month.
In addition to the harrowing accounts of the captives, the book shows how the families, government officials, and an elderly saintly priest worked out a solution with Escobar. It was especially moving to read how a husband acted as one of the chief intermediaries between Escobar and the government, hoping for the release of his kidnapped wife and putting his own life at risk. After the first captive was killed, I was on edge wondering what the fate of the others would be. This well written book shows how Escobar kept the country of Colombia emotionally and politically hostage in his efforts to avoid extradition....more
Mona, a reporter for a Colombian tabloid, is sent to the poor mountainous neighborhood of Galilea on the outskirts of Bogota. She is to write a storyMona, a reporter for a Colombian tabloid, is sent to the poor mountainous neighborhood of Galilea on the outskirts of Bogota. She is to write a story about an angel who has attracted a devoted following. The angel is a handsome young man who speaks only in foreign tongues, and has a luminous charismatic quality about him. Mona falls deeply in love with him. His mother claims that the angel uses her as a psychic channel, and she has journals filled with his thoughts.
The village is composed of two groups--those that believe in the angel and another group, led by the priest, who think he is a fraud or demon. Mona persues the story of the angel's early life and finds he had a horrific childhood. But he possesses a personal magnetism that offers the poor residents of Galilea something to believe in. Is he an angel, or mentally ill, or both? Full of Latin American magical realism and superstition, this story does not give us an answer. Occasionally, it veers into a humorous or silly vein. The reader justs needs to suspend reality, and go along for an unusual ride....more
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