Modern Fiction Books > Gabriel Garcia Marquez Modern Fiction Books

Advantages: a very good book, you learn a great deal about social mechanisms
Disadvantages: none

This is a true story. The mother did really hear her son screaming outside the door. She thought he was only joking, because he was talking to someone, but in reality he was screaming for help and trying to save his life by getting into the house. But the door was locked and thus two men killed him. Marquez describes how and why this murder happened and it turns out that they did not plan it outright, but were forced to do it, because the whole ...
...do not want to murder him outright, the victim even receives a warning through his friends – they cannot save his life however. The story ends really tragically and touched me, even more so, because it was real. This murder is rather odd, as well as the whole story around it. It really shows you how traditions govern people’s actions. Marquez tells the story really dryly, almost like a documentary, but occasionally metaphors are used. ... Read review

Advantages: A captivating book from an extraordinarily skilled author
Disadvantages: You won't want the story to end!

Love in the Time of Cholera is one of the best known novels by the Nobel Prize winning Colombian writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I picked up this book after reading, and immensely enjoying, his earlier novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Love in the Time of Cholera is set in Colombia during the chaotic aftermath of liberation from Spanish dominion, when the country was racked by political dispute and civil war. The tale is one of unrequited love ...
...hidden life - a clandestine love affair. At the time of Saint-Amour's death, Dr. Juvenal Urbino and his proud stately wife, Fermina Daza, are in the fiftieth year of their marriage. Dr. Urbino's death occurs soon afterwards as he falls off a ladder, trying to catch his wayward parrot, which is sitting in a mango tree. At Urbino's funeral we are introduced to Florentino Ariza who comes to repeat to Fermina Daza his vow of fidelity and everlasting ... Read review

Advantages: easy to read
Disadvantages: if you read the preface you know the outcome.

This book marks a change for Garcia Marquez, whose best known books are works of fiction. In this novel, he tells the story of a journalist and her sister, kidnapped by guerillas in Colombia. It pulls no punches, and you get a real insight into what life was like for the two women in captivity. Marquez writes well in the journalistic style, making this an easier introduction to his work than something like "One Hundred Years of Solitude". As the ... Read review

Advantages: Great Writing
Disadvantages: Depressing

...censorship took over people's lives. No wonder he wrote this book in France, and he hasn't returned in many years. Nobody writes to the colonel (el coronel no tiene le escriba) is a thing much associated to this book. Every week or so, he goes to the ports to see if he has post. Every time he goes, he never has any luck getting post, and he always is embarrassed for the fact that he still hopes he will be sent a letter regarding his war pension. ...
...She is ashamed of her lifestyle, she wants her husband to get his pension, although she is sure it won't happen, she doesn't believe that 'el gallo' is doing them any good. She has bad asthma, although her doctor (el medico) says it isn't as bad as she thinks. The couple live only in memory of their son. He had looked after them for many years, and his death only happened a couple of years before the start of the book. ‘El Medico’, when he appears, ... Read review

Advantages: A fantastic read
Disadvantages: As with other books by Marquez, I couldn't put it down

The style of writing of Marquez matches that of other modern classic writers, including de Berniere and Allende. One bitten by the Marquex bug a reader will find themselves drawn to any book by the author as I have. Of Love and Other Demons was the second book by Marquez that I read and is by far the easiest that I have read so far. The story told by Of Love and Other Demons is written in such a way that I felt the heartache of the young heroine ...
...Once again the style of writing can not be faulted. The descriptions of places and the main characters make you feel as if you are part of the story. The madness, the love, the family relationships, the obsession, the cruelty are all brought together beautifully. The young girl who is the focus of the story is brought up by two slightly (or very) mad parents and the native nurse. The story give the background to her parentage and her upbring but ... Read review