Take a photo of a barcode or cover
analyticali 's review for:
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor
by Gabriel García Márquez
A brisk and engaging read where journalism meets literary levels.
Under other circumstances, I might have given this book four stars, but under other circumstances, I might not have taken the time to read it in the first place. (What follows is less a review and more a story of how I read this book.)
I was going on a nine day journey that would take me to three cities in Colombia. Normally, I pack too much to read, so in order to pack efficiently, I brought only a copy of Moby Dick. I had seen the new musical based on the book in December, and it seemed long enough that I wouldn’t finish it on the trip while the paperback copy I had was comparatively light for its size.
Once I arrived in Bogotá, I felt bad reading about 19th century Nantucket and whaling. The book was captivating, but unrelated to the Spanish-speaking, mountainous, 21st-century city around me. At the Gabriel García Márquez Cultural Center, I decided to pick up an English translation of one of his books. I’d read “100 Years of Solitude” and “Love in the Time of Cholera,” so I looked around for something else.
“The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor” looked like a good fit—a maritime theme to link it to Moby Dick and a Cartagena link to align with the second city on my trip. Reading it proved its perfection. The story (about Luis Alejandro Velasco) is almost entirely centered around waiting as he floats through the Caribbean after going overboard on page 17. He waits for food and water, to be rescued, and to meet death.
Meanwhile, I was reading it and waiting—waiting for the boat to take us snorkeling, for the boat to go to Playa Blanca, for the boat to take us back to Cartagena. And in between reading, I was being sloshed and splashed by the same Caribbean Sea, getting sunburned, and needing to remember that I actually could (and should) drink water. A 100% 5-star reading experience.
Even if you were to read the book in a comfy chair by a fire on a cold gray day with plenty of food, I expect you’d be enthralled by the narrative force of this true story.
Under other circumstances, I might have given this book four stars, but under other circumstances, I might not have taken the time to read it in the first place. (What follows is less a review and more a story of how I read this book.)
I was going on a nine day journey that would take me to three cities in Colombia. Normally, I pack too much to read, so in order to pack efficiently, I brought only a copy of Moby Dick. I had seen the new musical based on the book in December, and it seemed long enough that I wouldn’t finish it on the trip while the paperback copy I had was comparatively light for its size.
Once I arrived in Bogotá, I felt bad reading about 19th century Nantucket and whaling. The book was captivating, but unrelated to the Spanish-speaking, mountainous, 21st-century city around me. At the Gabriel García Márquez Cultural Center, I decided to pick up an English translation of one of his books. I’d read “100 Years of Solitude” and “Love in the Time of Cholera,” so I looked around for something else.
“The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor” looked like a good fit—a maritime theme to link it to Moby Dick and a Cartagena link to align with the second city on my trip. Reading it proved its perfection. The story (about Luis Alejandro Velasco) is almost entirely centered around waiting as he floats through the Caribbean after going overboard on page 17. He waits for food and water, to be rescued, and to meet death.
Meanwhile, I was reading it and waiting—waiting for the boat to take us snorkeling, for the boat to go to Playa Blanca, for the boat to take us back to Cartagena. And in between reading, I was being sloshed and splashed by the same Caribbean Sea, getting sunburned, and needing to remember that I actually could (and should) drink water. A 100% 5-star reading experience.
Even if you were to read the book in a comfy chair by a fire on a cold gray day with plenty of food, I expect you’d be enthralled by the narrative force of this true story.