Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Crónica de una muerte anunciada by Gabriel García Márquez

3 reviews

gabriella_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

It wasn’t really my cup of tea but some of this author’s prose is really gripping. I think one of the most heartbreaking lines I’ve ever read was:

Any man will be happy with them because they’ve been raised to suffer.

I liked the delivery style of the story but it just wasn’t for me

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andra_mihaela_s's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

"Chronicle of a Death Foretold" is another masterpece by Gabriel Garcia Marquez!

In this short novel, we follow the narrator as he tries to reconstruct the events of a tragedy 27 years after, through a journalistic approach. Maquez starts from a simple premise that packs a powerful punch, letting you, the reader, perplexed why nobody tried to stop the anounced crime?!

Here is my rough translation of the back of my copy (I believe is perfect in giving you not only an idea about what you're going to read, but also in creating a solid image about this comunity):
<i>Many from those in the port knew Santiago Nassar was to be killed. Don Lazaro Aponte, a colonel from the military academy, now in reserve, and mayor for eleven years, greeted him with his fingers."I had my own justified motifs to believe there wasn't any danger to him anymore", said he. Not even father Carmen Amador worried:"When I saw him safe and sound, I thought everything was a lie", he told me.
No one even wondered if Santiago Nassar was warned, because it seemed impossible to everyone that he wasn't... </i>

In my opinion, this book talks about how people react in extraordinary circumstances, how they search for a way to shine light onto themselves and their part in the story, instead of the actual subject. I think the beginning, with Santiago's mother, Dona Placida Linero's account of her son's dreams to the narrator gives me a solid proof the author wanted to express why and how a tragedy can and will become about everybody else but the victim.

Due to it being so short and so impactful, I won't speak about the plot too much.
Just like when people give interviews about an event, with each perspective( be it from the colonel, the priest, Santiago's mother,etc.) we start the story fresh at some point in that fatal day. An interesting fact which I want to mention is the strange connection people had for the crime...and that was the coming of the bishop...funny how such a tragedy was weighted only as important as a anual event(from what I gathered...the locals mention the bishop's favorite dish, they prepare for a speech, know exactly when to come by the docks,etc.)

This is very much a story after the crime, and how people moved on, more or less affected. We get the tale between the wealthy stranger, Bayardo San Roman, and the poor girl, Angela Vicario(...btw...the ending to this was wild!>..>), the priest and colonel who couldn't understand how they judged so wrong, we get a somewhat removed account of how the crime was conducted by the Vicario brothers, Pablo and Pedro(interesting choice as everything else is said by someone, yet here we get an almost omnicient perspective), we get the exoneration of the "white man"'s family/household (Santiago is called "white man" by several people in their account; we find out he's actualy an Arab/Turk...or at least that's what the villagers said...>..>), Mrs. Clotilde Armenta - the store owner who had more than enough time to intervine, and the personal story given by the narrator presenting his grief in not doing anything. (once again interesting choice..as the 27 years of not doing anything).
We have other additions to all these reports, that, combined with the tidbits about the village, the importance of the bishop's coming, and the detail account about the wedding party, create such a great story that will force you to read it in one sitting!

My favorite characters are Angela and Mrs. Armenta, and my least favorite, the victim's mother.

As the construction of this novel implies, we get to see very little about our protagonist in absentia; it goes so far that the victim is declared someone else in all this! :)))
Santiago, in my opinion, was not a good person, but he wasn't bad either. In his last hours when everyone knew what was going to happen he was glorified and a victim(the only time he was portrayed as such), so that imediately after to become a grotesque vision and, later on, the means of self-indulgence.

<b>I won't give content warning for this novel due to it containing a major spoiler in regards to the plot, but if you read before from Garcia Marquez, his unexpected grotesque descriptions are not missing from this one!</b>

I highly recomend this book to everyone!

<i>-Santiago, my hijo, she shouted, what happened with you?
Santiago Nassar recognized her.
-They killed me, tia Wene, he said.</i>

Enjoy

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chaotically_katie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


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