I have to say that after I The Supreme I really appreciated seeing the small margins, large font, and overall shortness. Quotation marks, hallelujah! I feel like writing an Ode to the Quotation Mark instead of this… “Oh quotation mark, quotation mark, how I…” Well enough of that… I digress…. This novel really does read like one would expect of a typical novel; the prose is a nice change of pace.
The general is described as being very weak physically but still strong willed. He doesn’t not appear, on the surface (thus far) to be necessarily evil. My image of the typical Über-macho egotistical dictator does not have him frequently meditating in bathtubs. There’s something about the General so far that seems sort of warm and fuzzy. Although I may regret saying this later…
When the long narrow precipice from Chuquisa to La Paz was mentioned I couldn’t help but to think of the still very scary roads out of La Paz. Take a look for yourself… Although these pictures were heading down into the Amazon side of the Andes, where as the General was traveling from “Chuquisa.”
I couldn’t figure out where Chuquisa was so I plugged it into trusty wikipedia and found out (well if you can trust any information on that site... hehe…) that it’s an old name for Sucre, the modern capital of Bolivia (still fairly high in elevation). The road there is still bad but nothing compared to the one heading into the Amazon basin.
When the General arrives in the warmer climate I loved the "'eternal cliché:' “It’s so hot here the hens lay fried eggs.” The heat down there can be truly oppressing. The General shows great bravery and mental strength by not using a mosquitero when he sleeps. I do speak from experience here… let’s just say that it’s not that great an idea to fall asleep out in a hammock deep in the Amazon. I wondered at first why so many locals wore long pants so fashion consciously tucked inside their socks in such stifling heat… then I figured it out… there are stinging insects a big as birds down there and bats that catch fish (granted they do you no harm – it’s just freaky)… but again I digress…
The one major thing I am picking up from this book is my severe lack of knowledge of Latin American history in general. I have such a basic understanding of what happened down there, mostly from what I picked up traveling. I knew that Bolivia at one point had a coastline which they lost to Chile (hence the still prevalent animosity between some Chilean’s and Bolivians) but this was more recent event. As I was reading this book I found myself looking up brief some brief information about the founding of Bolivia and several other countries in the region. Eventually I think I need to read more Latin American history then come back and reexamine all of these books again…
Here's a picture of modern La Paz for good measure… I love the juxtaposition between the old and the new. La Paz is a great town… I recommend it to all…
Oh and about the General’s plan for supersized Latin American country? Somehow throw California in the mix and that would have been something truly amazing. I’d immigrate… (but then that wouldn’t be the first time… lol)…
2 comments:
Of course, these books are also entryways into history... It'd be interesting to consider further the relation between literature and history in each one. In part, for instance, what García Márquez is undertaking here is a revision of history: along the lines of "so you were all told that Bolívar was this great hero, but look at the way in which I'm portraying him." In part, then, it's an argument against history, at least as it is usually taught. And it's also an investigation into the way in which that history gets made, the way in which the mythic Bolívar comes to diverge from the "real" one.
thx for sharing about Chuquisa. I am really bad with history too...wouldnt have known without you! heheh. Those are some beautiful pictures. and yes, bolivar or mexico then will be different than now, but its interesting how the book introduces us to it....opens up new perspectives.
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