I read Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981) back in high school, which was my first introduction to Latin American literature and Gabriel García Márquez. A different teacher from high school suggested me to read this to learn more about magic realism. In addition to this teacher, many of my friends recommended this book as well, so I decided to pick up this intimidating book translated by George Rabassa with very high expectations. This book is known for its magic realism (and arguably the one who started this artistic movement). I was able to get along with the magic realism aspect of this novel because I was use to his style from the previous novella I read, but I know that was difficult for me to get over when I first read his oeuvre.

I was also confused with the book because it doesn’t have a typical storyline. There was no point to the story, goal, mystery, or anything I was use to in a typical book. As the story goes on, a generation is added to the family; and the readers just follow the family and their odyssey. For me, this book was too dense and complicated with the similarly named characters. There was little dialogue to connect with the individual characters as well. However, I did think it was impressive that García Márquez was able to balance that big of a family tree.

Although I found many aspects that were admirable, this book just didn’t do it for me, so I give this book a 4/10.