Review: Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
“On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat the bishop was coming on.” Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Great unforgettable opening lines – see below for another. It must be Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, the man responsible for magical realism. He has a way of sucking you into his stories. Don’t miss this one; it can be consumed in a single sitting. I give it 6 stars out of 5.
What’s left to say? Before writing this, really just to record that I read it [again], I checked out Goodreads. 137k ratings and 6,900 reviews. I doubt I can add anything.
The book does exactly what it says on the cover and yet is completely enigmatic prompting long debate by readers. What is it about: revenge for a deflowering or even a rape? a documentary on the collective guilt of silent neighbours? was the victim even the right target?
When you close this short novella, you know you’ve been privileged to witness some of the finest artistry in literature, told in plain language but capturing the enigma of motivation. Unwilling killers stalk a possibly innocent victim while his neighbours, friendly or indifferent, fail to prevent the tragic and inevitable outcome.
“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice”. One Hundred Years of Solitude
Asynchronists 