Infrequently do the titles of novels capture their mood so accurately as this one does. There is a line at one point in the novel that says: “…and he achieved at the last moment the feeling of frustration that tormented him during the evil hours of his life.”However, the foreboding of something evil exudes from every page as Marquez deftly sketches out a riverside town whose inhabitants live in anxious anticipation of something unpleasant. As the various characters are brought to life one learns that lampooning is their immediate concern as some person(s) clandestinely paste notices on houses publicizing more or less known scandals and lampooning the inhabitants which often leads to turbulent and tragic outcomes. At the same time, a violent and contested past and the invisible but firm hand of oppression becomes evident – a distant centre of power, that sends its envoys and edicts, reassuring that things are far better now but displaying an old and detested hegemony. There is resentment amongst some in the town but it is being restrained; and likely also dissidents allied with anti-government guerrillas, whom the town’s zealous and corrupt mayor is perpetually trying to unearth. The mayor’s character becomes central to all kinds of concessions, largesse, control, threats, and persecution; exercise of power in the name of the distant authority but also at times on whim or based on parochial reasons.
This novel preceded One Hundred Years of Solitude and one can see Marquez developing his technique and style. Already, there is mention of Macondo and some characters related to it who would of course go on to become pivotal in the classic that followed. The strength of the narrative lies in the gradual building up of tension and the revealing bit by bit of not just the scandalous past histories of the various characters but also the political system that has suppressed them. A stinking cow in the deluge, the decrepit church with its unending mice that evade the traps, the agonizing toothache that torments the mayor whom no one wants to assist to pull out the troubling molar, the various husbands and wives consumed by doubt and jealousy about the parentage of their children and the fidelity of their spouses, the long-suffering Father Angel who knows well what evil afflicts its flock and various other recurrent and strongly described themes lend the novel its dark and brooding mood. The oppressive centre of power remains vague and distant; only its agents are revealed who pursue their entrusted agenda as well as private ones. The threat of violence is always in the air. Doubts pervade everything. The reek of corruption and decay taints all. This is a novel which you keep experiencing the mood of, long after you have read it.
I picked my copy three years back in Bogota, from a bookshop that Marquez frequented. I read almost half of it but since I had a hectic travel schedule in Colombia and Peru I discontinued half way through as it requires undivided attention. Having picked it up again it took half a morning, half an afternoon and two half evenings, simply because it sucks you in. And it was worth it. More so for me from a writing style standpoint.
At its heart is the breakdown of the notion of justice; evident in a dialogue in the novel between a woman and a legal brief writer:
“You go right on believing in writs. These days,” he explained, lowering his voice, “justice doesn’t depend on writs; it depends on bullets.”
“Everybody says the same thing, she answered, “ but the fact is that I’m the only one whose boy is in jail.”
Moral decline, infidelity, violence, theft, usurpation, and greed appear rampant in thee town and its environs under an overall corrupted order. In many ways the oppressive ruling order stems from and is sustained by this milieu and this milieu is in turn defined by it:
“What’s happening is that there isn’t a single fortune in this country that doesn’t have some dead donkey behind it.”
A dark and brooding novel by Marquez. It allows one to see how Marquez sketches characters, interweaves the apparent and the suggested, builds a mood and explores the human condition. This is a study of evil. Of how an evil order creates a diseased society and how such a society props up and sustains an oppressive order. Dare I say it is relevant.
(This review is also available at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3650951821)
