Biography:Marquez grew up with his maternal grandparents in Aracataca, Colombia. His grandparents were cousins who moved to Aracataca at the end of the War of a Thousand Days (1899 - 1902). Marquez's childhood anecdotes tell of a big house full of ghosts , conversations in code, and relatives who could foretell thier own deaths. It was house full of guests and social events , shaded almond trees and bursting with flowers. When his grandfather died Marquez wet to live with this parents. Since his grandfather's absence, his grandmother, who was blind, could no longer keep the house. It fell into ruin, and red ants destroyed the trees and flowers. Also early in his childhood Marquez witnessed the massacre of striking banana workers at a a plantation called Macondo. at a train station. The governement made every attempt to block this information from the public and even succeeded in erasing this incident from the history books.
Review: These events featured strongly in the plot of this book. It had a nostalgic undertone of the happiness and liveliness of his grandparents big house filled with ghosts and laughter. On the other hand the context of the book is Marquez's political beliefs many of the readers of the group found this out in retrospect. The revelation of these facts provided a deeper level of understanding and recognition of the realistic themes that had been viewed as 'fanciful' prior to the sharing of this information. The book itself hadben described in summary as a satire which had not been identified until Marquez's biography had been shared.
The view of the Group were mixed, however overwhelmingly the members considered the book to be a heavy read. Many were determined to read it and some found it dry. The barrier was the verbose style of writing where there were seldom new paragraphs and very long chapters. The family repeated the cycle of behaviours throughout these included incest, extra marital affairs and a decent into madness, the men going to war and the pass time of making metal golden fishes.
Ursula the earthy first generation female in the book, the mainstay of the family was earthy and a homemaker, this character dmonstrated many of the qualities of Marquez's own grandmother including the disintergration of the household as result of her blindness and the madness and eath of her husband. One member was looking forward to the read, however, consdiered the fairy tale story of magic carpets etc. tested his patience. Another member was determined to read it, this appeared to be the case for most members. The read was a chore as opposed to an enjoyable realxing read. Some of the themes such as the cycle of life, decent into madness of some of the characters, tremendously sexual passages, and a roughness in some, were real and there were some humourous passages.
Nearly all members felt that they were glad to have read it, it generated condiderable discussions. Some even reflect on it with some affection!
The next choices are:
A Tale of Love and Darkness - Amos Oz
Homesick - Esthiol Nevo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Crusaders - Richard T Kelly
Samuel Pepys - The unequalled self - Clare Tomalin
The Tin Roof Blowdown - James Lee Birke
A lie about my father - Jon Burnside
And the winner is .............................Samuel Pepys - The unequalled self. - Clare Tomalin
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