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A review by quenchgum
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
4.0
"It seemed that the Vicario brothers had done nothing right with a view to killing Santiago Nasar immediately and without any public spectacle, but had done much more than could be imagined to have someone to stop them from killing him, and they had failed."
In a rural Latin village where men still abide by the Code of Machismo, a pair of honest twin brothers loudly set out with their butchers knives to kill a man who supposedly took their sister's honor. The villagers, whom the narrator sets out to interview, are all aware of and want to help Santiago Nasar avoid his doom--yet they pirouette in, out of, and through every page of the novella, ever more narrowly missing an opportunity to save their friend. Marquez's dark irony cannot be missed. What happened to Santiago could not be prevented: "There's no way out of this. It's as if it had already happened."
The collective guilt of the villagers, who all find themselves as accessories to an excused murder, weighs their words as you learn the story through their perspectives. You find that their sin cannot be expiated; life must go on, though there is no consensus on Santiago's fate: who remains innocent, and who guilty? The more that you read, the less you know with certainty what actually happened. You begin to realize that the narrator is just another villager reflecting on the past: he only muddles the story by adding his own input. As a reader you must realize independently that evidence, and therefore fault, will never be known; and even if it were, it would not be interpreted similarly across the continuum of affected minds. You are left with a confused panorama, a microcosm that describes not only an obscure village but also any modern and crowded environment. Because that is what life is: crowded. There will likely never be one definitively true answer.
It wouldn't be Marquez if it weren't at least a little weird. He does not disappoint. This slim novella is surreal, lyrical, and provocative. And, just in case you're angry about my "spoilers", be aware that this was, undoubtedly, inimitably, very much so a chronicle of a death foretold. ;)
In a rural Latin village where men still abide by the Code of Machismo, a pair of honest twin brothers loudly set out with their butchers knives to kill a man who supposedly took their sister's honor. The villagers, whom the narrator sets out to interview, are all aware of and want to help Santiago Nasar avoid his doom--yet they pirouette in, out of, and through every page of the novella, ever more narrowly missing an opportunity to save their friend. Marquez's dark irony cannot be missed. What happened to Santiago could not be prevented: "There's no way out of this. It's as if it had already happened."
The collective guilt of the villagers, who all find themselves as accessories to an excused murder, weighs their words as you learn the story through their perspectives. You find that their sin cannot be expiated; life must go on, though there is no consensus on Santiago's fate: who remains innocent, and who guilty? The more that you read, the less you know with certainty what actually happened. You begin to realize that the narrator is just another villager reflecting on the past: he only muddles the story by adding his own input. As a reader you must realize independently that evidence, and therefore fault, will never be known; and even if it were, it would not be interpreted similarly across the continuum of affected minds. You are left with a confused panorama, a microcosm that describes not only an obscure village but also any modern and crowded environment. Because that is what life is: crowded. There will likely never be one definitively true answer.
It wouldn't be Marquez if it weren't at least a little weird. He does not disappoint. This slim novella is surreal, lyrical, and provocative. And, just in case you're angry about my "spoilers", be aware that this was, undoubtedly, inimitably, very much so a chronicle of a death foretold. ;)