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‘Wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good.’ -Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s written works are filled with social and political innuendos. The story of ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’ is regressive, sexist and yet somewhat interesting to read. It makes you question your own distinction of good with bad and right with wrong.
It is a story of honor and how far a family goes on to defend theirs. The question whether the actions of the characters in the novel are justified or not are purely subjective and one must choose a side.
Introduction
Book’s Name - Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Author’s name - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Genre - Crime Fiction
Language - Spanish and English
Synopsis - Spoiler Alert!
A man returns to the town where a baffling murder took place twenty-seven years earlier, determined to get to the bottom of the story. Just hours after marrying the beautiful Angela Vicario, everyone agrees, Bayardo San Roman returned his bride in disgrace to her parents. Her distraught family forced her to name her first lover; and her twin brothers announced their intention to murder Santiago Nasar for dishonoring their sister.
Yet if everyone knew the murder was going to happen, why did no one intervene to try and stop it? The more that is learned, the less is understood, and as the story races to its inexplicable conclusion, an entire society--not just a pair of murderers-is put on trial.
About the Author
Born on the 6th of March, 1927, Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Gabo as he was affectionately called was a Columbian journalist, short-story writer and novelist. He started his career by writing stories inspired by the life around him and wrote many non-fiction works.
He was considered to be one of the most significant writers of the 20th Century, especially in the Spanish language. Some of his notable works include ‘Marriage and Family’, ‘Leaf Storm’, ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’, ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ and ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in the year 1982. He died on April 17th, 2014.
About the Book
The story entails the murder of a young man, Santiago Nasar, and the events leading to this death. It also follows some of the characters' lives after he is killed. The murder occurs following Angela Vicario's wedding night, when her wealthy husband, Bayardo San Roman, discovers that she is not a virgin.
San Roman returns Angela to her family, where she is brutally interrogated for two hours, finally confessing that Santiago Nasar was the man who deflowered her. Much evidence throughout the story suggests that this accusation is false. However, Angela's brothers, Pedro and Pablo Vicario, take her word for it and kill Santiago in broad daylight in a crowded public square.
Having armed us with this foreknowledge of the murder, Garcia Marquez relates the events leading up to it in non-chronological fashion. He describes the wedding of Angela Vicario and Bayardo San Roman: the grandest celebration the town had ever seen. Bayardo's father was the famous General of the civil wars, General Petronio San Roman, and his family is very wealthy.
The formal festivities of the wedding end at 6:00 p.m., when Angela and her groom leave to consummate their marriage; the public stays, however, drinking and dancing until midnight.
Some of the wedding guests, including Santiago Nasar, his friend Cristo Bedoya (who narrates the story) and the narrator's brother continue rejoicing even after midnight, even spending time at Maria Alejandrina Cervantes 's brothel with the Vicario twins, who do not yet know of their sister's disgrace.
Following Angela's confession that Santiago Nasar took her virginity, her twin brothers decide to kill him. They announce their plan to anyone who will listen, in part, it seems, to allow someone to stop them or warn Santiago. Everyone behaves as though someone else will halt the revenge-a local police officer, the mayor, the butcher, and even the local priest all knew of the murder plot-but no one stops it.
By six o' clock a.m. of the day following the wedding, everyone in town knows the twins are going to kill Santiago. Santiago himself, however, is still unaware. A few try to warn him, including Cristo Bedoya, who has spent the morning with him; Cristo finds out too late, however, and cannot find his friend to warn him.
Eventually, the father of Santiago's fiancee warns him of the plot. He is extremely confused as to why the Vicario twins want to kill him, and his fear leaves him so shaken up that he cannot even find his way back to his house.
The Vicario brothers spot him while he stumbles through town. Santiago sprints to his door, which, unfortunately, is locked, due to his mother's belief that he was safe at home and her desire to keep the Vicarios away from him. Pedro and Pablo catch up to Santiago and stab him to death against his own door.
After the murder, an angry group of Arabs, with whom Santiago's father immigrated, chase the Vicarios into a local church. The twins give themselves up and are locked in prison. The Vicario family, meanwhile, ashamed by the whole ordeal, leaves town in disgrace.
The twins are tried three years later and acquitted because the murder had been an honor killing. Upon his release, Pablo marries his fiance, Prudencia Cotes. Pedro re-enlists in the army and goes missing in enemy territory.
Meanwhile, the story of Bayardo and Angela unfolds as well. Bayardo San Roman nearly drinks himself to death following the revelation that his bride was not a virgin. He is taken away from the town on a boat by his mother and two sisters. Meanwhile, Angela realizes (while she is being beaten by her mother, in fact) that she loves Bayardo.
After coincidentally seeing him in a hotel a few years after their annulled marriage, she begins writing him a letter every week. One day, seventeen years later, Bayardo shows up at her door with one suitcase full of clothes (indicating that he wants to return to her) and one full of her unopened letters.
Themes Involved
One of the initial themes that we find in the novella is that of fate and freewill. Santiago Nasar is kind of free to escape and yet from the very title of the book, we have an idea about how his death is predetermined or foretold.
The next evident theme is that of honor and community. When Bayardo San Roman finds out about his new bride’s lost virginity, his ego is hurt and his honor threatened. Similarly when their sister is returned back the next morning of her wedding, Pablo and Pedro take it upon their family’s honor and in the name of that murder Santiago Nasar.
Famous Quotes
“He always considered death an unavoidable professional hazard.”
“They looked like two children”, she told me. And that frightened her , because she had always felt that only children are capable of everything.”
“A falcon who chases a warlike crane can only hope for a life of pain.”
The Bottom Line
‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’ is a riveting book in the way that it has everything that a novel might require to keep the reader engrossed. It has love, hatred, honor, justice, fights and ultimately murder. It is almost cinematic to read. One feels as if one is watching a Spanish Mafia movie or something like that and for that reason, if not the compelling story, I implore that you read the book.
My Ratings for the Book - 4 on 5
You can buy the book at Amazon - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Written By - Sakshi Singh
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