Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Blog Post No. 5)

Chronicle of a Death Foretold 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Genre: Crime Fiction

Number of pages read:100/120

Summary: Twenty three years after the murder of Santiago Nasar, the Vicario brothers were became free once again and were let out of their cell. Pablo married Prudencia Cotes, learned how to work with precious metals and lived a peaceful life. His brother, Pedro, earned his first sergeant stripes and one morning he and his patrol went into guerrilla territory and "was never heard of again" (Marquez, 83). Bayardo San Roman fell into deep depression and became an alcoholic. His house collapsed because the spirit of widower Xius' dead wife wanted to claim what was her's. Bayardo San Roman's mother, sisters and aunts went to get him to the hospital. Angela Vicario looked very old, even though she was only in her forties. She had a wrinkled face and gray hair. After a certain period of time, she saw Bayardo San Roman exiting a hotel. She recalled many good memories of him and fell in love with him again. She wrote thousands of letters to him to prove her love, but she did not get a single response. One day, he came into her house with his clothes and belongings, as she said in one of the letters and expressed his love towards her.

Reflection: Now, after a 100 pages of the book, I got used to Marquez's style of writing and his time shifts. I was surprised when I read that Angela Vicario turned so old in only twenty three years. I was also surprised that Pablo decided to live peaceful life. I am looking forward to finishing the book. 

Passage: "At the window of a house that faced the sea, embroidering by machine during the hottest hour of the day, was a woman half in mourning, with steel-rimmed glasses and yellowish gray hair, and hanging above her head was a canary that didn't stop singing. When I saw her like that in the idyllic frame of the window, I refused to believe that the woman there was who I thought it was, because O couldn't bring myself to admit that life might end up resembling bad literature so much. But it was she: Angela Vicario, twenty three years after the drama."

I chose this passage because I like the description of Angela Vicario. It clearly shows Marquez's mysterious style of writing, for he had not revealed who he had been describing at the beginning, but only after his description was finished, he gave away the identity of the person.