Of Love and Other Demons (Vintage International)
On her twelfth birthday, Sierva Maria – the only child of a decaying noble family in an eighteenth-century South American seaport – is bitten by a rabid dog. Believed to be possessed, she is brought to a convent for observation. And into her cell stumbles Father Cayetano Delaura, who has already dreamed about a girl with hair trailing after her like a bridal train. As he tends to her with holy water and sacramental oils, Delaura feels something shocking begin to occur. He has fallen in love – and it is not long until Sierva Maria joins him in his fevered misery. Unsettling and indelible, Of Love and Other Demons is an evocative, majestic tale of the most universal experiences known to woman and man.
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Community Reviews
Of Love and Other Demons - Gabriel Garćia Márquez
Used for prompt #14 - a character with superhuman abilities, but also could be used for prompts 20, 23, 25, 32, 33, 35, 37, 45
3-1/2 stars
"When I stand and contemplate my fate and see the path along which you have led me, I reach my end, for artless I surrendered to one who is my undoing and my end, Into your hands at last I have come vanquished. Where I know that I must die, So that in myself alone it might be proven how deep the sword bites into conquered flesh."
On the writing style itself, this book is 5-stars. You’re sitting in the middle of it’s twisted soul, and from the spot of the reader, it is a worthwhile, sumptuous tale worth of discussion, and Garćia Márquez seems to know this based on the title. As a work of fiction it is excellent. Have Google nearby to look up unfamiliar articles of clothing.
My difficulty with the book is philosophical- the basis for the narrative is the so-called “love” between a 30+ year-old priest and a 12-year-old traumatized girl who is neglected by her parents, who may or may not be demon possessed, who sometimes behaves with “childish cruelty” and may or may not be dealing with having contracted rabies, but who happens to have long and beautiful hair (when it isn’t lice ridden).
“Abrenuncio tried to dissuade him. He said that love was an emotion contra natura that condemned two strangers to base and unhealthy dependence, and the more intense it was, the more ephemeral. But Cayetano did not hear him.”
If this is “love” we are all doomed. Also I’ve observed IRL that often men can’t tell the difference between women who are fun-crazy or clinically crazy, and, this just seems to be another example of that.
(I looked to see if this booked has been banned in any of the recent stupidity, but, it hasn’t been. Perhaps the Tennessee state legislators find it instructive toward finding a young wife and tragically sad rather than a book which might be considered “grooming”…. But I’d doubt they’ve read it to begin with)
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