Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31542 in Books
• Published on: 1996-02-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

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.

The Autumn of the Patriarch is an experiment in form. Here Marquez eschews the use of paragraphs (or, more accurately, each chapter consists of one paragraph which can last for aroud 30 pages), and can go for pages without a full stop.

What's more, the narrator seems to change even within the same sentence, moving from "I" to "he" to "we", while the information presented (you guess) comes from a soldier, a lover, a mother, the patriarch himself.

The result of these techniques is that as a reader, you relax into the book, worry less about what is being said and who is saying it, and instead let the imagery wash over you, resulting in an almost impressionistic experience of a life, rather than a story as such.

But there lies the weakness. There really isn't much of a story here, no beginning, middle and end. There are the usual fantastic elements of a Marquez novel - miracles and disasters included - but little sense to it all. That may be the very point, and in that it is successful, but as a reading experience this just isn't as enjoyable as his other books, and as a stylistic technique Jose Saramago does it better.

Needs to be read more than once
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.

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. There is a contract between the writer and reader of believability - do you really believe the patriarch could survive as head of state and still be completely illiterate? I don't . The pointless violence was also very wearing on my patience. Marquez I think is a little in love with his own pomposities, and it is with relief that I chuck this back to the second hand shop