I am again impressed by the writing techniques of Gabriel Garcia Marques, even though I don't necessary like his stories that don't focus too much on the narrative flow. These kind of books, flow of consciousness type with some magical realism, for me were interesting the first time I come across one. Now, I keep hoping after each page I turn that the actual story would start.The premise is comprised of the main themes explored: death, solitude and social conformism. Though there are some mentions to a war, I believe it is not discussed in such detail to be considered part of the premise. Regarding what I call social conformism, I refer to the fact that Macondo villagers are like a collective character. And these villagers try to impose their own values and attitudes to anyone that lives in the respective place, including the main characters. Interesting with several ways of interpret it, but it lacks the consistency of a single clear message proven by the story. I'll give then a 4 for premise.Regarding the form, I admit GGM is a great writer. He knows and applies very well many literary devices. And he uses them in such a way that they seem natural for the respective story. The only thing I did not liked is that this novella focus was literary style rather than the story itself. Overall, I'll give it with a 4 for form.In terms of originality, there are many other novels on those topic, but none, as far as I can tell, none that addressed them this way. So I will give it another 4 for the level of originality.On the characters there are just a couple characters which allowed GGM to focus on them greatly. Thus the three narrators, the patriarch (retired colonel), his daughter and the colonel's nephew, are very well detailed. And through their interior monologue we learn a lot about the strange doctor that committed suicide. A novel where the focus is on characters, well made characters, cannot receive from me anything else than a the maximum, meaning 5.Regarding the complexity and difficulty, the novel is very complex and has a lot of messages. It is also quite difficult to understand it. For me, and I am not necessarily a casual reader, it was required to read about 2/3 before I managed to understand something out of it. Probably it was very hard to write as well. Thus, I will rate it then with a 5 for complexity and difficulty.In terms of credibility, I did not noticed too many traces of magic, even though it is actually labeled as magical realism. I agree that time is a little bit awkward, but this is nothing out of ordinary. Without this, the novel is fairly consistent with itself. My rating for credibility is then 4.The last criteria is edition. It is an elegant paperback edition with nice covers. The translation is also good, as far as I can tell. So I'll give it a 5.To summarize, this was an interesting book, not necessarily my genre, but clearly a literary masterpiece. All in all, my final rating for it is 4.43, which I will round it to 4 on Goodreads system.+--------------------------+-----------------+| Criteria | Rating |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Premise | 4 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Form | 4 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Originality | 4 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Characters | 5 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Difficulty/Complexity | 5 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Credibility | 4 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Edition | 5 |+--------------------------+-----------------+|Total | 4.43 |+--------------------------+-----------------+For more details on how I rated and reviewed this novel, please read these guidelines.
Es la primera vez que leo “La hojarasca” y debo decir que, a pesar de que me gustó la historia en general, me quedaron muchísimas dudas. Siento que la identidad misteriosa del doctor es la más grande de ellas, pues me hubiera gustado saber quién era este personaje odiado por mucho y apreciado por pocos. No sé si este aire misterioso sobre ciertos personajes es algo característico de la obra de Gabo en tanto que mis conocimientos acerca de su literatura son precarios; sin embargo, tengo la esperanza de que, como discutimos en clase, este personaje aparezca en otra de las historias que leeremos para así poder entender un poco más del por qué de su personalidad cerrada y poco comunicativa.Otra de las dudas que me quedó de la lectura de este texto fue el paradero de Martín, el esposo de Isabel. Tengo la misma esperanza de que más adelante vuelva a aparecer. Me desconcertó, especialmente, su relación con Isabel, en tanto que era más bien distante y cordial, en vez de romántica. Adicionalmente, me quedó la duda de cuáles eran sus planes y obligaciones por las cuales tuvo que irse tan ‘urgentemente’, tanto como para desaparecer por nueve años sin siquiera enviar una carta o un recado de que estaba vivo.Por último, con respecto de mis dudas, me gustaría saber la relación del Coronel con el Coronel Aureliano Buendía, y por qué el primero se sintió ‘obligado’ a recibir en su casa a este extraño del cual solamente tenía la referencia del segundo (además de que, como se relata, el doctor, en algún momento, le salvó la vida al Coronel). Al igual que las dos dudas anteriores, espero que esta relación se esclarezca en un futuro, y tengo un presentimiento de que será así en Cien años de soledad.Ahora bien, del estilo de escritura, me llamó mucho la atención, hasta el punto de parecerme cómico, la narración repetitiva de algunas partes del texto. Frases como “Adelaida le daba la sopa a Isabel, “[el doctor] Estaba dando vueltas en la oficina”, “Chabela, te vas a casar y no me habías dicho nada”, “No se parece sino que es el mismo al que se parece”, entre otras, se repiten muchas veces en cuestión de páginas. No recuerdo haber leído nunca antes, y para alguien que se considera como una ávida lectora , es algo refrescante encontrar nuevos estilos. Adicionalmente, la narración a tres voces es algo que también me pareció divertido, en tanto se puede entender el impacto en cada una de las tres narraciones de la muerte de este personaje, especialmente porque son tres generaciones distintas con distintas relaciones con el difunto. Particularmente, me interesó muchísimo el uso de palabras ‘inventadas’ por parte del niño en su parte de la narración. El uso de expresiones como “Ahora teco tacando”, “Cuando teco alcutana viene revienta”, y palabras como “incomploruto” me generan especial interés en tanto que, desde mi punto de vista, expresa una cierta rebeldía del niño y, a su vez, de Gabo, para con el idioma ya que no encuentra palabras para expresar específicamente lo que quiere dar a entender.
What do You think about La Hojarasca (2006)?
Marquéz ha la straordinaria capacità di rigenerarmi, di riappacificarmi con me stessa e ogni volta che leggo un suo libro vivo una piacevole sensazione di benessere, che si è verificata anche questa volta.In questo romanzo Marquéz presenta 3 personaggi: il figlio, la madre e il nonno che ci raccontano ognuno a modo loro la vita di un medico, una figura particolare, enigmatica, un uomo fondamentalmente solo, che era solito mangiare erba e mal visto dalla comunità di Macondo. "Foglie morte" è il primo romanzo di Marquéz e anticipa le tematiche di "Cent'anni di solitudine": a partire da Macondo, il colonnello Aureliano Buendìa, la compagnia bananiera, la calura soffocante,luoghi e personaggi indimenticabili. Se avete amato "Cent'anni..." e volete scoprire dove tutto ebbe inizio, leggete anche questo breve, ma intenso romanzo e vi innamorerete della poesia di Marquéz.
—Simona
حيرتني الرواية .. لم افهم بالضبط ما المغزى منها .. لا يوجد بها عناصر القصة .. لا توجد بها عقدة او حل لمشكلة وإنما هي عبارة عن تخليد ذكرى .. تصوير لحظة من حياة البشرية .. بكل تعقيدات النفس البشرية وبساطتها ...بكل تفاصيل الذاكرة الازلية .. الناس غارقون في العادة .. غارقون في العادات والتقاليد .. غارقون في التبعية الإجتماعية .. لا يجرؤأحدهم على الخروج من التيار ،، من يخرج يحكم عليه بالموت الاجتماعي .. وبالمحصلة لا أحد يقبل النبذ من مجتمعه أي بالمحصلة سيحكم العقل الجمعي على تصرفات افراده رغما عنهم ...سريالية السرد أعطت الرواية زوايا ومعاني غاية في التعقيد .. و في الدقة .. إبراز التفاصيل الصغيرة والكبيرة رسم لوحة متكاملة من لحظة متجمدة في تاريخ ماكوندو .. القرية التي شهدت أحداث الرواية ..
—Eman
Oh, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I guess it wasn’t third time lucky for us. Having really liked the previous two novels I read by Marquez (Chronicle of a Death Foretold and The Story of a Shipewrecked Sailor), Leaf Storm was kind of a major letdown.Marquez’s gorgeous writing style was out in force throughout the novel, which means that it is by no means a total failure; his ability to bring places to life is incredible and there is a specific passage about the movement of time that is just beautiful.Yet this prose didn’t detract from the fact that the novel rubbed me the wrong way. For starters, the novel is told from three different viewpoints; that of the Colonel, his daughter Isobel and her son. I normally have no problem with this; and to begin with I quite liked its use in this novel. However, it got increasingly difficult to work out who was talking, and I had to wait until I came across a reference to either grandfather/father/daughter to work out whose perspective I was reading. The central character of the Doctor, and his interactions with the Colonel were also a point of serious contention for me. In the synopsis the Colonel is referred to as ‘the one last honourable man’ left in the entire town. However, the Colonel’s total trenchant self-belief makes pretty much everyone around him unhappy, which strikes me as far from the type of person whose decisions one should replicate. For instance, he feels he can make no aspersions on the character of his daughter’s husband, who disappeared to make his fortune and never returned; seemingly only wanting to get the Colonel’s recommendation. The Doctor is loathed in the community because he refused to treat ten wounded men. This is linked to the arrival of the factories that bought with them their own medical care. Whilst a point could be made here about the destructive power of changes; I felt pretty much no compassion towards the Doctor, who just struck me as cold and cruel. I’m really gutted that I didn’t like Leaf Storm as much as my previous explorations of Marquez; but it certainly hasn’t put me off Marquez all together.
—Amy
