A review by celestesbookshelf
El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba by Gabriel García Márquez

emotional sad slow-paced

No One Writes to the Colonel | El Coronel to tiene quien le escriba 

🔖 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list 

🗺️ The StoryGraph Reads the World 2023

     🇨🇴 Colombia pick

▪️short novella: ~120 pages

▪️Márquez considered this his best work, he said in an interview he wrote “100 Years of Solitude” so that people would read this one

▪️Plot is simple and linear. Retired colonel and his wife are starving to death in a small town of Colombia under martial law following the Thousand Days’ War. 

▪️Plot was inspired by Márquez’ grandfather, a retired colonel who never received his pension.

▪️Thoughts: Although this was a simple and fast read it was very depressing, especially knowing Márquez’ grandfather experienced political tensions, poverty, hunger, and humiliation. The colonel’s wife is constantly expressing her frustration and disappointment, she attempts to sell anything she can to have money to eat. When the colonel tells her now the whole town will know we’re starving to death she responds “you can’t eat dignity”. 😣

So in addition to political turmoil and poverty there’s also marital issues and parents living through grief. The overarching theme is a rooster that belonged to their late son. The colonel places all of his faith into this rooster winning a cockfight (animal cruelty) and bringing them riches. To some degree the colonel has been so severely beaten down by disappointments that he now lives in an alternate reality where he simply expects issues to work themselves out. This being the root of his wives consistent criticism. The book is unsettling, most of all because there’s no neat bow on top at the end. The story is left open to speculation on the outcome of the colonel, his wife, and the rooster 🐔 .


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