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A review by jibraun
News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel García Márquez
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.25
3.25 stars. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is obviously one of the most famous novelists ever. But fewer know him for his work as a journalist before he committed himself to fiction writing. News of a Kidnapping (Noticia de un Secuestro) is my first Marquez book (fiction or nonfiction). Marquez's strong stylistic prose shines through, even in this nonfiction work, with artistically well-written sentences that survive translation. (Kudos to Edith Grossman on providing a quality translation.)
Marquez penned a book about the kidnappings orchestrated by Pablo Escobar in the late 1980s to put pressure on the Colombian government to drop the possibility of extradition to the US, along with a surrender on Escobar's terms. The book focuses more as a narrative of the kidnapping victims, their kidnappers, the victim's families, and the political figures involved. This is not a much larger examination of the narcoterrorism orchestrated by the Medellin Cartel under Escobar or the rival warfare by the political militias and rival cartels.
Given that this book focuses on the narrative of the kidnapping victims and the people surrounding them, I think the book should've been shorter. It is 290 pages, and it could've been 230 or so. At points, the book became redundant regarding the terms of their imprisonment and the ongoing negotiations between Escobar and the government. My eyes started glazing over pages by the last chapter, even though I was taking marginalia while reading. Marquez or an editor should've trimmed where possible.
I'll also add that I have read multiple books about Escobar, watched Narcos, and watched a few documentaries about Escobar, and I took notes while reading. If there was a lay person from the US who should've understood what was going on, it was me. And I still had trouble following who was who in certain scenarios. Marquez failed to include a cast of characters (dramatis personae) or explanatory notes for some hyper-Colombian references. This makes the book harder to understand for a lay reader, and it had me Googling regularly while reading.
Regardless, I think there is enough here for me to recommend the book, especially for anyone interested in this era of Colombian history. And I definitely see the strengths of Marquez's prose, so I will endeavor to read some of his novels in the future.
Marquez penned a book about the kidnappings orchestrated by Pablo Escobar in the late 1980s to put pressure on the Colombian government to drop the possibility of extradition to the US, along with a surrender on Escobar's terms. The book focuses more as a narrative of the kidnapping victims, their kidnappers, the victim's families, and the political figures involved. This is not a much larger examination of the narcoterrorism orchestrated by the Medellin Cartel under Escobar or the rival warfare by the political militias and rival cartels.
Given that this book focuses on the narrative of the kidnapping victims and the people surrounding them, I think the book should've been shorter. It is 290 pages, and it could've been 230 or so. At points, the book became redundant regarding the terms of their imprisonment and the ongoing negotiations between Escobar and the government. My eyes started glazing over pages by the last chapter, even though I was taking marginalia while reading. Marquez or an editor should've trimmed where possible.
I'll also add that I have read multiple books about Escobar, watched Narcos, and watched a few documentaries about Escobar, and I took notes while reading. If there was a lay person from the US who should've understood what was going on, it was me. And I still had trouble following who was who in certain scenarios. Marquez failed to include a cast of characters (dramatis personae) or explanatory notes for some hyper-Colombian references. This makes the book harder to understand for a lay reader, and it had me Googling regularly while reading.
Regardless, I think there is enough here for me to recommend the book, especially for anyone interested in this era of Colombian history. And I definitely see the strengths of Marquez's prose, so I will endeavor to read some of his novels in the future.