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thestoryprofessor 's review for:
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
by Gabriel García Márquez
What if you had a murder mystery that was told backwards?
That is a gross oversimplification of Marquez’s brilliant, layered, and intelligent depiction of a town where every person knew a murder was about to take place. He perfectly captures the psyche of the citizens as a whole and each individual’s interaction or lack thereof with the murder.
Having just read Phil Roth’s American Pastoral, I think the man could take a page out of this story when it comes to Marquez’s non-linear storytelling. The story isn’t told chronologically, and because the narrator is a journalist researching the event many years later, the story jumps around as the necessary information is slowly given to the reader about the murder and everyone’s involvement. Also, Roth could look at the use of an investigative narrator because Marquez’s narrator is detached enough to chronicle the event but also involved enough to give us his opinions and history with the event. Basically, what Roth couldn’t do in 427 pages, Marquez did in 120. (Yeah, I’m still mad at Roth.)
One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my all-time most anticipated reads because of my love for magical realism and Marquez’s writing, so as I work my way through his shorter works, I have a feeling it’s gonna be an all-time favorite. I’m excited to read more of his work, to say the least.
That is a gross oversimplification of Marquez’s brilliant, layered, and intelligent depiction of a town where every person knew a murder was about to take place. He perfectly captures the psyche of the citizens as a whole and each individual’s interaction or lack thereof with the murder.
Having just read Phil Roth’s American Pastoral, I think the man could take a page out of this story when it comes to Marquez’s non-linear storytelling. The story isn’t told chronologically, and because the narrator is a journalist researching the event many years later, the story jumps around as the necessary information is slowly given to the reader about the murder and everyone’s involvement. Also, Roth could look at the use of an investigative narrator because Marquez’s narrator is detached enough to chronicle the event but also involved enough to give us his opinions and history with the event. Basically, what Roth couldn’t do in 427 pages, Marquez did in 120. (Yeah, I’m still mad at Roth.)
One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my all-time most anticipated reads because of my love for magical realism and Marquez’s writing, so as I work my way through his shorter works, I have a feeling it’s gonna be an all-time favorite. I’m excited to read more of his work, to say the least.