Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Vintage International)
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • From the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude comes the gripping story of the murder of a young aristocrat that puts an entire society—not just a pair of murderers—on trial.
A man returns to the town where a baffling murder took place 27 years earlier, determined to get to the bottom of the story. Just hours after marrying the beautiful Angela Vicario, everyone agrees, Bayardo San Roman returned his bride in disgrace to her parents. Her distraught family forced her to name her first lover; and her twin brothers announced their intention to murder Santiago Nasar for dishonoring their sister.
Yet if everyone knew the murder was going to happen, why did no one intervene to stop it? The more that is learned, the less is understood, as the story races to its inexplicable conclusion.
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Readers say the book is beautifully written, blending cultural richness with a poetic, thought-provoking narrative. They agree it's a compelling, haun...
Gabriel García Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981) is a novella that says a lot without using many words. It is not necessarily poetic in its writing, but it is thought-provoking in its ideas. It is a phenomenal conversation piece.
I went into this book with no expectations. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I have never read Gabriel García Márquez before. This was the first time I read one of his literary works. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I would go as far as to say that the book was worth all the hype.
All the characters were very complex and challenging. There were no real heroes and villains, just morally grey people. Overall, it was really a collective character study. I also appreciated the social commentary on complicity, selective outrage, and performative behavior. By utilizing those themes, it made the book more timeless. It reminded me very much of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History (1992).
I also enjoyed the various elements of ambiguity throughout the book. Was the narrator reliable? Was Santiago Nasar actually Angela’s lover? Those questions could be dissected for hours and yet still never come to any definitive conclusion. It really gave the reader something to contemplate.
The only minor gripe I had with the book was with the enormous amount of characters. For such a short book, there were far too many to keep track of. I understand that Gabriel García Márquez utilized the various characters to emphasize the collective guilt of the community, but it was just too overdone. It caused the reading to be confusing and frustrating at times. I would have preferred a visual family tree diagram at the start of the book.
I still highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It really is a timeless classic.
I went into this book with no expectations. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I have never read Gabriel García Márquez before. This was the first time I read one of his literary works. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I would go as far as to say that the book was worth all the hype.
All the characters were very complex and challenging. There were no real heroes and villains, just morally grey people. Overall, it was really a collective character study. I also appreciated the social commentary on complicity, selective outrage, and performative behavior. By utilizing those themes, it made the book more timeless. It reminded me very much of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History (1992).
I also enjoyed the various elements of ambiguity throughout the book. Was the narrator reliable? Was Santiago Nasar actually Angela’s lover? Those questions could be dissected for hours and yet still never come to any definitive conclusion. It really gave the reader something to contemplate.
The only minor gripe I had with the book was with the enormous amount of characters. For such a short book, there were far too many to keep track of. I understand that Gabriel García Márquez utilized the various characters to emphasize the collective guilt of the community, but it was just too overdone. It caused the reading to be confusing and frustrating at times. I would have preferred a visual family tree diagram at the start of the book.
I still highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It really is a timeless classic.
Took a bit to really get where he was going with it due to excursions into extraneous detail, but the payoff was worth it. I think I would have liked a little more explicit exploration of the theme to wrap it up though - not like Forster or Elliot stating a thesis but maybe like staging a bit of a debate on interpretations of the crime.
Wow. [Spoilers!] You are told right away that this is the story of two brothers killing the man who took their sister's virginity out of wedlock, but that's not really it. This is the story of an entire town ruining lives and murdering a man in perfect silent coordination. The brothers clearly don't want to do it and run around town telling everyone their plans so someone will stop them- but no one will. Society does stuff like this all the time. Yes, it is the story of machismo, but it's much more as the entire town reveals all their motives. Santiago Nasar probably didn't take Ángela Vicario's virginity but she didn't want her brothers to murder the actual person so she pointed to a man no one particularly liked. But the thing is the town knows this! And they go out of their way to allow his murder anyway.
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