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graywacke 's review for:
The General in His Labyrinth
by Gabriel García Márquez
44. The General in His Labyrinth by Gabriel García Márquez
translation: 1990 by Edith Grossman
published: 1989
format: 285 page paperback
acquired: March
read: Aug 8-19
rating: 3½
A novel based on the last several months of life of Simón Bolívar.
After leading the liberation of much of South America from a Napoleon-dominated Spain, Bolívar became a dictatorial-like president of Greater Colombia, a country that included present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, northern Peru, western Guyana and northwest Brazil. He held the position about 12 years, when, in 1830 he stepped down, left his capitol, Bogotá, and with a small party traveled down the Magdalena River to the Caribbean coast of modern-day Columbia. Roughly seven month later, in December of 1839, he succumbed to what historians generally believe was tuberculosis. He was 47. His country, considered one of the most powerful in the world by John Quincy Adams, quickly dissolved.
Bolívar is considered a hero throughout South America, which is apparently why there was a lot of outrage when this book was published. Márquez stays to the facts close enough that some critics want to call this novel a history (it's a novel). But he develops a different kind of Bolívar, a sickly dying man who can see the failure of his creation, but lacks the strength to do anything about it. This is a melancholy man, and, it seems, what he's pondering in 1830 is essentially the South America of 1989, after years of bad government, civil wars and uprising, and military dictators. This book is an outright attack on Colombia and the surrounding region, and a call for some reflection.
But, alas, I stumbled through. I know very little about South America or Bolívar. Lacking context of times, places, names, implications, etc, I was at the mercy of narrative I didn't understand and couldn't figure out where it was going. Instead of reflection, I got lost and a little bored. It seems this a common problem in this part of this hemisphere, because the while reviewers loved this book and the South America reaction was hot, the US public was less interested. It's a slow book, and Bolívar slowly winds down all his relationships and business and carries on just a bit longer.
This is my seventh book by Márquez this year. I enjoy following his themes as they wander through the books, mixing various fictional and non-fictional Caribbean rulers, and the ideas of absolute power with solitude and, by reference, his life as an author. This book is clearly meant to be closely associated with [The Autumn of the Patriarch], a poetic attack on absolute power and the corruption it entails - a curious pairing of hero and villains.
Overall, I think this is interesting, but mainly a book for completeists.