Chronicle of a Death Foretold (36/2020)

 

Title: Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez (GGM)
Publisher: Penguin Books
No. of Pages: 122

REVIEW 36/2020.

This was one of my late brother's collection of GGM's books. He had a few, and I have so far read three of them, including this one. I tend to like GGM's writing style, even though it is in fact, translated from Spanish. 

GGM has his own way of telling his stories. In these three books that I have read, I found that he would start with the end and then weaved his way around to tell the story bit by bit until the last few chapters when he would write the details. 

Reading this book made me think, trying to imagine the scenario and what have happened. 

He started by narrating about Santiago Nasar, the man who was killed (murdered) and the main character of this story. The author wrote this book in the first name, as if he was the narrator, going back to 27 years when the murder took place. 

It is a story of people who are still cultured by old-fashioned belief of new brides with virginity. The bride in this story, is a beautiful girl, and one who is protected and was carefully being looked after by her family. After she was married off to a foreign man who came to the town looking for a bride, the man found that she is no longer a virgin. She was then returned to her family the very next morning, causing them great humiliation and embarrassment. She then accused Santiago Nasar as the man who had deflowered her. Whether it was the truth or otherwise, only she knows.

But her twin brothers have already plotted to kill Santiago in honour of their family’s name. The sad thing about this tragedy was the fact that almost everyone in town knows about the plot to kill him, but Santiago Nasar himself was not aware of it until the last minute. What makes it sadder is how his good friend tried looking for him all night long, only to find him in the morning, already stabbed by the bride’s twin brothers.

The brothers were apparently caught and brought to trial. However, not much was told about their fate or how long would they be spending time in jail.

This book was translated into simple English. However, the names are in Spanish and the story was intertwined that as the reader, I had to flip to the previous pages in order to recall the characters and to understand the storyline.

In summary, this is an open ended story that will make you think a little bit. I give this book THREE 🌟🌟🌟 stars for the interesting story and the storyline.