Bookish Tuesdays - Book Review: Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez

Book Review - Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez

Published -  January 1996 by Penguin Books

Rating- 5/5 

Summary -  Source: Book's Back Cover

When newlywed Angela Vicario and Bayardo San Roman are left to their wedding night, Bayardo discovers that his new wife is no virgin. Disgusted, he returns Angela to her family home that very night, where her humiliated mother beats her savagely and her two brothers demand to know her violator, whom she names as Santiago Nasar.

My Copy!

My thoughts on the book... 

A shocking story told  in a most gripping manner.

With fast-paced pseudo-journalistic narrative, the plot went back and forth in various timelines without confusing me. Hardly 120 pages, it's a quick read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I gave it 5 stars for good storytelling.

This is my second Marquez book. The first I read was The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor. Both had journalistic narrative. One was a survival story and this one is about murder. Just like Shipwrecked where you know from Page 1 that the central character Luis Alejandro Velasco survives, in Death Foretold you know the central character Nasar dies. But you are still on the edge of the seat as the story unfolds. 

It made me realize how we all love a scandal, no matter how outrageous it is. News of a murder horrifies us, but then we also devour every detail about the incident with rapt attention. Sample- Arushi Talvar or Sheena Bora murder case.

 I am digressing. 

Back to the book, my favourite lines are:

'When he finally learned at the last moment that the Vicario brothers were waiting for him to kill him, his reaction was not one of the panic, as has so often been said, but was rather the bewilderment of innocence. My personal impression is that he died without understanding his death.' Heartbreaking!! :(

Amazing read. You must read it too.

Happy Reading!!