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“In a South American town, Macondo, during the early years of this century, a retired doctor long known as an eccentric flatly refuses treatment to victims of a riot. Years later, the doctor hangs himself. For the vengeful town, the issue becomes whether he will receive a proper burial or be allowed to rot in the house where he had lately secluded himself.” – how could this not be an interesting read.
I continued to read that La Hojarasca is the worst of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s work. To me, it was interesting enough to continue reading and not as bad as I thought it would be. I had done a bit of research and background on La Hojarasca before reading and realized that not only one critic said this about the work.
Reading from different points of view of the main characters, the Colonel, granddaughter and other child was interesting but at times a little hard to understand who it was that was retelling the story. The different narration voices throughout the reading made it seem a little jumpy. At times there was a smooth transition but at the odd point I’d have to think back at whos interpretation of the events I was reading.
The story line didn’t really have much to it. It was a huge change from the violence we had read in Austurias work. I did feel though that it was a lighter read than other works we have read to date. It was definitely shorter, and easier to comprehend in terms of vocabulary. In comparison to other readings, like that we just finished by Asturias, is barely a comparable! Right, some of the main themes could be there but the presentation of writing was extremely opposite.
The theme of magic-realism will definitely be brought up for discussion and as has been noted down, the theme of time and memories tie into this well. Particular dates, and times are repeated throughout the work. Maybe for emphasis? Perhaps because the memory is still so vivid? Maybe not at all and the only thing that can be remembered was what day it was? The past/present/future theme was good to pick up on. Another way that the story was a little harder to comprehend.
I also found many negative critiques of this novella, and was interested to see how the work turned out. I personally thoroughly enjoyed the story and found that the jumps through time from person to person added to the dream-like quality of the work.
ReplyDeleteI researched a lot on this story, and also found the bad critiques, but I also came across a this interesting one:
ReplyDelete"La hojarasca is a work which clearly shows both the writer’s past influences and present state of mind, but also points towards his future development...This novella is an interesting read...However, for the enthusiast of his more mature works, it’s quite fascinating to see how he paints the characters and the town before he developed his celebrated “magical realism” style."
The same critic also carried on with this negative comment:
"Some readers have indicated that the narrative comes across as being a bit stilted, and I am inclined to agree with this. There is also a certain sense of repetition in the prose which tends to get tiring; a device which he later modified and used much more effectively."
http://www.themodernword.com/gabo/gabo_works_fition.html (Allen B. Ruch, June 2007)
The time element of the story is something interesting for me. I like how it goes back and forth as the three speakers reminice or talk about what they feel. Also, I was a little confused a first ahen the speakers switched but after a couple o times I would pick up on who was speaking without a problem... Mostly
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