Product Description

As the citizens of an unnamed Caribbean nation creep through the dusty corridors of the presidential palace in search of their tyrannical leader, they cannot comprehend that the frail and withered man laying dead on the floor can be the self-styled General of the Universe. Their egocentric, maniacally violent leader, known for serving up traitors to dinner guests and drowning young children at sea, can surely not die the humiliating death of a mere mortal? Tracing the demands of a man whose egocentric excesses mask the loneliness of isolation and whose lies have become so ingrained that they are indistinguishable from truth, Márquez has created a fantastical portrait of despotism that rings with an air of reality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #124518 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
Delights with its quirky humanity and black humour and impresses by its total originality (Vogue )

It asks to be read more than twice, and the rewards are dazzling (Observer )

Captures perfectly the moral squalor and political paralysis that enshrouds a society awaiting the death of a long-term dictator (Guardian )

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.

Customer Reviews

The fabric of brilliance
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.

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.

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 Macbeth).Garcia Marquez's theme is once again solitude. The language is more like a poem than a novel -- sentences run on for pages, changing voice several times before coming to a period. This style can be irritating, forcing re-reading to find out who is speaking or acting, but it also lends a dream-like, fluid quality that perfectly embodies the ambiguity of reason and truth. In this it is Post Modern. In it's surreal content and luxuriant sensual prose (the translation by Gregory Rabassa is an inspiration), it shows who is the father of Magical Realism. It is worth reading alone for the details -- a herniated testicle that whistles, the effete torturer listening to Bruckner records, the mighty dictator napping in a hammock under tamarind trees at his mother's house while his cabinet ministers argue the fine points of law, and the final act that brings ruin on his nation -- the sale of the sea (numbered and boxed for shipping) to foreign creditors.