First of all, I need to thank Themis for recommending this masterpiece of a story. Themis is also the person who shall be blamed for the expansion in my TBR as I add all of Marquez's work. 

 

In the hands of another author, this story would have been four times as long, drawn out, and boring. Marquez manages to capture so much in so few pages. It's quite a feat. I had sworn to myself I wasn't going to just binge through this book in a day. Chalk that up to yet another promise I've broken. Oops.

 

 

Gabriel Garcia Márquez was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, following “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”, which was published the year before. This short novella (122 pages) was generally lauded as a masterpiece and translated from the original Spanish, it is clearly a complex literary exploration of individual and collectively-held values and the moral standards underpinning them.

Set in a small, diverse Caribbean community, the opening sentence immediately peaks the readers curiosity:–
“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.”

Notwithstanding the proximity of ‘the church’ and the attendant moral authority, the most heinous crime is about to be perpetrated. The plot goes on to test the case for an ‘honour killing’, in undermining this most fundamental of commandments and the complicity of individuals and society in rationalizing the sacrifice of an ostensibly innocent man. In spite of the subsequent handwringing, the acceptance of the concept of dishonouring an individual, a family, a community, breathes life into a chain of reactions and responses, which culminate in a barbaric, unchecked thirst for revenge, on behalf of victims, apparently unable to withstand the expectation of social norms. And there are a series of ‘victims’ and consciences to be expiated.

However, the ambiguities discovered through the author’s examination of the circumstances and subsequent reflections seventeen years later give credence to the possibility of fate, yet the certainty that the killing solved nothing and surely failed to salvage any sense of honour.

This book is provocative and deliberately harrowing in its dissection of a community through the lens of a murder enquiry. Moreover, it questions our capacity for independence within a human hive.

The plot unfolds in one day and is given through testimonies of people who have some kind of connection with the death of Santiago.However one-dimensional the characters may be, they don't manage to evolve at all in the time frame which this novella gives them, and although the plot is not particularly imaginative, I loved every bit of this book. The atmosphere was absolutely to my taste whilst Marquez's writing style moved me, once again.

In a tiny, coastal Latin American town, Angela Vicario and Bayardo San Román get married and have the biggest party the town had seen! But soon after, Bayardo returns his new wife to her shocked family after he realizes that her virginity has been spoiled. In an effort to restore her honor, her twin brothers murder her alleged deflowerer in cold blood (obviously not a spoiler), but not before announcing their intentions for all to hear.

"'All right, girl,' he told her, trembling with rage, 'tell us who it was.'

She only took the time necessary to say the name. She looked for it in the shadows, she found it at first sight among the many, many easily confused names from this world and the other, and she nailed it to the wall with her well-aimed dart, like a butterfly with no will whose sentence has always been written.

'Santiago Nasar,' she said"

The late master Gabriel García Márquez (with credit to translator Gregory Rabassa) has once again impressed me and captivated me with his command of language, this time in an effort to explore and document the events that surround this very public homicide. Not only does Marquez look at whether or not the Vicario brothers are right in defending their sister's honor in such a way, but even more significant, he writes a fascinating portrait of a small town, and how its collective mindset, the self-absorption of it's citizens, bad decisions, unfortunate fate, and possibly straight up lies came together in an epic fail of preventing a tragedy that ultimately affect the community for years to come.

"They taught her old wives' tricks to feign her lost possession, so that on her first morning as a newlywed she could display open under the sun in the courtyard of her house the linen sheet with the stain of honor."

Everything I've come to love from Gabriel Garcia Marquez is in this small but powerful story. 

Chronicles of a Death Foretold is a tragedy and you know instantly that nothing will end well. I mean it's called Chronicles of a Death Foretold and Marquez wrote it, so what more would you expect from it right? However, as the story progresses you find yourself wanting the story to surprise you and switch directions from the obvious tragic route it's going through. The novel leads you into a haunting look at society. It forces us to look at our own participation in our communities, and our voices and what we chose to do with them. 

The novel takes a close look at the murder of Santiago Nasar which occurred in a small town more than twenty seven years ago. The narrator interviews the towns people many of who could have prevented the murder had they simply spoken up or stepped up to the plate. 

Marquez presents this tragic tale with elements of magical realism, a cast of kooky characters,and beautiful writing. The imagery in the last pages of the novel really hits you hard, especially as you realize the truth of the story.

Overall a good read with a very important message.