Set in an unspecified Caribbean country, this is the story of a nation dominated by a dictator who has just died after a very long reign. Its main themes are deception and illusion.
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Review
It asks to be read more than twice, and the rewards are dazzling (Observer )
Delights with its quirky humanity and black humour and impresses by its total originality (Vogue )
Captures perfectly the moral squalor and political paralysis that enshrouds a society awaiting the death of a long-term dictator (Guardian ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Delights with its quirky humanity and black humour and impresses by its total originality (Vogue )
Captures perfectly the moral squalor and political paralysis that enshrouds a society awaiting the death of a long-term dictator (Guardian ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
About the Author
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927- ) was born in Aracataca, Colombia. His most recent book, Memories of My Melancholy Whores, is his first new novel to be published in a decade and is available as a Penguin Paperback from August 2007. He is the author of several novels, works of non-fiction and collections of short stories, including Leaf Storm (1955); One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967); The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975); Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981) and The General in His Labyrinth (1989). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
--This text refers to an alternate
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First Sentence
OVER THE WEEKEND the vultures got into the presidential palace by pecking through the screens on the balcony windows and the flapping of their wings stirred up the stagnant time inside, and at dawn on Monday the city awoke out of its lethargy of centuries with the warm, soft breeze of a great man dead and rotting grandeur. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
OVER THE WEEKEND the vultures got into the presidential palace by pecking through the screens on the balcony windows and the flapping of their wings stirred up the stagnant time inside, and at dawn on Monday the city awoke out of its lethargy of centuries with the warm, soft breeze of a great man dead and rotting grandeur. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By sibslock
Format:Paperback
As a fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez it was with determination that I explored this book, with its lack of full-stops and rambling narrative. I have read it many times, and it is only now that I fully appreciate it. The story weaves through time and needs the extra read throughs before you can put all events together in your head, to give an overall picture of the incredible life that is being unravelled by the book. Like all his books it has the air of a dream world that is closely connected to our reality but allows you to suspend disbelief and live somewhere else for a while. It is definately a demanding book to read, but well worth the effort when you finally get to grips with what the author wants to protray to you.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The Autumn of the Patriarch is perhaps one of the greatest works of literary artistry of the twentieth century and certainly one of his most innovative works, but most likely it won't appeal to the general reader because of its unconventional structure. The main character, a tyrant of a small country, is the only 'real' character in this book, in that being the supreme leader and dictator of his world and all that surrounds him, he 'owns' all that the novel encompasses, yet his comprehension of life is riddled within a strange shroud of misguided purpose and a directionless ego. Marquez distorts the boundaries in many aspects of his writing structure so that it seems a blending of actions and thoughts that are being portrayed in order to show with full effect this dictators life through all characters and descriptions, sometimes switching between first and third person within the same sentence, giving a sense of the often displaced and cold objectivity of this man. There is an interesting contrast here, as his world is a concentricity of solitude and paranoia, yet a free and rich world grows around him that he seems to never really be able to touch. This book is confusing to many people upon their first reaction, because it is a work of multi-faceted characteristics, packed with symbolic despcription and living sentences, all coming together to create a very unique work. This novel should, perhaps, be absorbed more than studied, as you can spend a lot of time trying to figure out the structure of it in order to form a linear perspective of what you are reading, but it's probably a waste of time once you realize that everything presented here lends to the broader environment instead of single plot turns or actions. I have read comments upon the complexity of this novel, which is understandable if one is used to reading the standard serial novel that we come to expect, but if you can grasp the kind of picture Marquez is trying to paint, it makes the novel a much simpler and enjoyable piec! e of art.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Luc REYNAERT
Format:Paperback
G.G. Márquez's book is a written version of a polyptych by Hieronymus Bosch on the universal theme of `Evil' (on a moral, personal, political, social, economical or psychological level).
The main character in this book is a solitary despot.
His `regime of infamy' is an avalanche of killings, summary executions, massacres, suicides, cruelties, tortures, horror laboratories, expulsions, explosions, illnesses, plagues, obscenities, perversions, depravations, rapes, promiscuities, corruptions, hallucinations, evil omens, doubles, apparitions, filths, putrefactions, stenches, pestilential vapors, false messages, fictionalized photographs, physical deformities, alleged miracles, bird and child cries.
His most scorned enemies are men of letters, `worse than politicians, worse than priests.'
This forceful and relentless stream of (sur)real visions and violent images is a must read for all G.G. Márquez fans and for all lovers of world literature.
The main character in this book is a solitary despot.
His `regime of infamy' is an avalanche of killings, summary executions, massacres, suicides, cruelties, tortures, horror laboratories, expulsions, explosions, illnesses, plagues, obscenities, perversions, depravations, rapes, promiscuities, corruptions, hallucinations, evil omens, doubles, apparitions, filths, putrefactions, stenches, pestilential vapors, false messages, fictionalized photographs, physical deformities, alleged miracles, bird and child cries.
His most scorned enemies are men of letters, `worse than politicians, worse than priests.'
This forceful and relentless stream of (sur)real visions and violent images is a must read for all G.G. Márquez fans and for all lovers of world literature.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting book
The Autumn Of The Patriarch is a very interesting little book. The writing style is a little eccentric (no paragraphs, just very large chapters, and can ramble on a bit (not sure... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Dickie Diver
3.0 out of 5 stars
Worth reading - but not his best
I've read and enjoyed many of Marquez's books, and would easily rate him as one of the best living writers. But if you want a place to start with Marquez, don't start here. Read more
Published on 13 Jun 2006 by Mr. Paul J. Bradshaw
2.0 out of 5 stars
tedious drab unbelievable
I tried really hard to like this book. But failed. Endless wearily surreal sentences as the crows flap in slow motion over a decaying and brutal world. Read more
Published on 3 Aug 2000 by brixtonite
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible.
If the aim of literature is to unmask the deepest workings of the mind, then this book is probably the furthest any writer has dared to go. Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2000 by Bloke
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not to be missed!
When I first began reading this book I must admit that I was confused by the stream of conciousness and one sentence chapters. But what a treat it was! Read more
Published on 10 May 1999
4.0 out of 5 stars
How to surf the tidal wave of this book's confusion
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel, The Autumn of the Patriarch, threw me into the sea to which he constantly referred to. Read more
Published on 3 Jan 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
Challenging; Epitome of 'Description-Action'
Beware, those of you who have not read a Gabriel Garcia Marquez book yet! The style and literary techniques employed by the venerable author here are not, at first,... Read more
Published on 27 Aug 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tough reading, but hypnotic and brilliant
Written during 1968-1975, Marquez has fashioned a grand narrative of a Caribbean tyrant caught in the prison of his own power, slowly losing it and dying (with shades of Lear and... Read more
Published on 28 Jun 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Mother Of The Stream of Consciousness Novel
This dictator combines within himself, the best and the worst, of the human being when invested with absolute power: from charity to corruption, benevolence to rape, fear of God to... Read more
Published on 25 Jun 1998
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