Get Your Copy El Otoño Del Patriarca Originated By Gabriel García Márquez Available In Print

αγαπημένη μαγικά ρεαλιστική πένα του Gabo κάνει αυτό που ξέρει καλύτερα, αφηγείται δηλαδή τη μοναξιά, μόνο που αυτή τη φορά καταπιάνεται με τη μοναξιά της εξουσίας έχοντας ως παράδειγμα διάφορα ολοκληρωτικά καθεστώτα της Λατινικής Αμερικής αλλά και της Ισπανίας το βιβλίο γράφτηκε στη Βαρκελώνη λίγο πριν το θάνατο του Franco.

Έργο βαθύτατα πολιτικό, με πολύπλοκη γραφή, μακροπερίοδο λόγο που στα χέρια ενός λιγότερο ικανού συγγραφέα θα καταντούσε χαοτικός και θα κούραζε τον αναγνώστη, όμως εδώ προσθέτει κάτι στη σύγχυση, τον αποπροσανατολισμό και την απόγνωση που προκαλούν οι ανείπωτες τερατωδίες μιας δικτατορίας όταν μάλιστα τις βλέπουμε από διαφορετικές οπτικές γωνίες. Αν και σε όλο το μήκος του βιβλίου απεικονίζει τις ανθρώπινες αδυναμίες κι είναι πολλές, την ανασφάλεια, τη βαθιά θλίψη και την απελπισία του πρωταγωνιστή του, ο García Márquez δεν του δίνει ποτέ το ελαφρυντικό της αμφιβολίας και ουσιαστικά εξαπολύει ένα δριμύτατο κατηγορώ στην αλλαζονική κατάχρηση εξουσίας και σε αυτούς που την ασκούν.

Δε μου ήταν εύκολο ως ανάγνωσμα κι όχι μόνο εξαιτίας του χειμαρρώδους λόγου και της έλλειψης στίξης αλλά κυρίως γιατί πολλές λεπτομερείς σκηνές βασανιστηρίων και διαφόρων βιαιοπραγιών υποψιάζομαι πως δεν είναι προϊόν φαντασίας αλλά ανακληση στη μνήμη ας μην ξεχνάμε πως ο ίδιος ο García Márquez υπήρξε δημοσιογράφος,
/finally i finished this book, . . so disgusting but admirable

"The Autumn of the Patriarch" is a remarkable and clear psychological portrait of a dictator, and beautifully written but it is despicable and terrible subject.

At first people loved him beacuse they thought and believed he has the power of healing, But his infinite power created a lot of political corruption, so ancient dictator remained alone and wandered in the empty palace with cows and hens,
it was an image of death and decay and fall,
"The Autumn of the Patriarch" isn't difficult to understand, it can be difficult to read because the style is so dense and rich,
but it is a unique and great book,

when i read this book, i remembered :"The President" a film by Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf!!!
sitelink فلتذهب أنت وروايتك إلى الجحيم يا ماركيز The Autumn of the Patriarch by one of my favorite Latin American authors, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, was a very disturbing account of a most tyrannical dictator in the Caribbean as he faces the last days of his reign.
Many years ago when we were vacationing in Mexico, we met this lovely couple from Mexico City in Puerto Vallarta, It was a delightful time as we became acquainted and one of the threads that drew us together was the beautiful literature of Gabriel Garcia Marquez that resonated with all cultures, and made for a lot of lively conversation.
This is a tragic tale of unchecked power and the total loss of the ability to relate to reality, I could not help but compare this Nobel prizewinning novel to our current situation today as witnessed by the total separation and disregard of truth and reality.
The flow of this novel is at times overwhelming as the sentences run on for many pages more with outstanding poetry than prose and the beautiful use of language.
A true classic with many lessons for us today,

"The first time they found him had been at the beginning of his autumn, the nation was still lively enough for him to feel menaced by death even in the solitude of his bedroom, and still he governed as if he knew he was predestined to never die, for at that time it didn't look like a presidential palace but rather a marketplace.
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"It was hard to admit that that brokendown old man was the same messianic figure who during the beginnings of his regime would appear in towns when least expected with no other escort but a barefooted Guajiro Indian with a canecutting machete and a small entourage of congressmen and senators whom he had appointed himself with his finger.
"

"Similar evocations from his fasti of infamy did not twist his conscience during the nights of his autumn, on the contrary they served him as exemplary fables of what should have been done and what had not been done.
" The autumn of an aging Caribbean dictators discontent is set forth brilliantly and unforgettably in thisnovel by a Nobel Prizewinning author, Over the course of The Autumn of the Patriarch El otoño del patriarca, Gabriel García Márquez takes us inside the thought processes of an old man whose capacity for hideous cruelty is equaled only by the banality of many of his recollections.


Much critical ink has been spilled trying to ascertain just which Caribbean dictator might have provided the inspiration for the unnamed tyrant who serves as main character of this story.
Batista in Cuba, Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Somoza in Nicaragua, Gómez in Venezuela sadly, history provides plenty of candidates, To my mind, it seems likely that García Márquez may be combining characteristics of many different tyrants, in order to create a colorful, largerthanlife character that will fit well within the sort of magicalrealist landscape that he is famed for creating.


I wish that I knew Spanish well enough to read García Márquez in the original I have heard so much about how the great Colombian novelist is a stylistic master.
Not being able to read Spanish that well, I must settle for the way in which Gregory Rabassas translation seems, to my mind, to capture well the lilting flow of a great prose stylists work.


The opening sentence of The Autumn of the Patriarch will provide a suitable example: “Over the weekend the vultures got into the presidential palace by pecking through the screens on the balcony windows and the flapping of their wings stirred up the stagnant time inside, and at dawn on Monday the city awoke out of its lethargy of centuries with the warm, soft breeze of a great man dead and rotting grandeur” p.
. He sets the scene, grabs the readers attention, and introduces what will be major themes of the novel, all withinwords,

That sentence is actually a relatively short one for El otoño del patriarca, The novels sentences go on for pages at a time, swirling and twirling like Caribbean trade winds, capturing in a streamofconsciousness manner the recollections of a largerthanlife tyrant who is described by the novels unnamed, firstpersonplural narrator as having died “at an indefinite age somewhere betweenandyears” p.
. The narrator seems to be capturing the perspective of the tyrants subjects who have been so long observing the vicissitudes of his reign,

In accordance with the magicalrealist traditions within which García Márquez writes, characteristics of the general, such as a herniated testicle, take on a largerthanlife quality.
The events of the novel are not “realistic,” and are not meant to be,

The tyrants recollections are alternately pathetic he loves to recall sexual liaisons with the women kept as concubines in the stables of the presidential palace and horrifying: he is perfectly capable of having a political opponent skinned alive and then thrown out onto the cobblestones to writhe in agony.


Supporting characters in The Autumn of the Patriarch are drawn with comparable vividness: the dictators mother Bendición Alvarado, whose death prompts the general to demand that the papal nuncio nominate her for sainthood his mistressturnedwife Leticia Nazareno, a former nun whom the general regularly refers to as “Leticia Nazareno of my misfortune” General Rodrigo de Aguilar, the countrys defense minister, who for a time shows a remarkable ability to survive the frequent purges and upheavals of the generals reign.


Some of my favorite moments in the novel are the humorous ones, like the generals recollection of how his mother responded when she saw him in full dress uniform on the occasion of his formally taking power: “She could not repress her impulse of maternal pride and exclaimed aloud in front of the whole diplomatic corps that if Id known my son was going to be president of the republic Id have sent him to school, yes sir” p.
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But there are more serious moments as well moments that dramatize the generals sense of realpolitik as when the general recalls what he once said to a foreigner who wanted support for anticonservative revolutions in other countries of the region:

He felt so moved by his vehemence that he had asked him why are you mixed up in this mess, God damn it, why do you want to die, and the foreigner had answered him without a trace of modesty that there was no higher glory than dying for ones country, excellency, and he replied smiling with pity dont be a horses ass, boy, fatherland means staying alive, thats what it is, he told him, and he opened the fist that he had resting on the desk and in the palm of his hand showed him this little glass ball which is something a person has or doesnt have, but only the one who has it has it, boy, this is the nation, he said, while he sent him away with pats on the back and not giving him anything, not even the consolation of a promise, and he ordered the aide who closed the door that they were not to bother that man who has just left any more, dont even waste your time keeping him under surveillance, he said, hes just got a fever in his quills, hes no good for anything.
pp

So absolute is the generals need to control all aspects of life in his republic that even the plot of a radio soap opera may be subject to presidentially mandated change:

He would listen to it in the hammock with his pitcher of fruit juice untouched in his handhis eyes moist with tears over the anxiety to know whether that girl who was so young was going to die or not and Saenz de la Barra would ascertain yes, general, the girl is going to die, then shes not to die, God damn it, he ordered, shes going to keep on living to the end and get married and have children and get old like everybody else, and Saenz de la Barra had the script changed to please himso no one died again by his orders, engaged couples who didnt love each other got married, people buried in previous episodes were resuscitated and villains were sacrificed ahead of time to please him general sir, everybody was to be happy by his orders.
. . p

What is being emphasized in scenes like this one, I think, is the manner in which reallife dictators like the fictional general of García Márquezs novel have held, and still hold, absolute power over the lives of their people.
Indeed, there are plenty of reallife tyrants today, all over the world, who give nonsensical orders that are immediately and dutifully

carried out,

To try to sum up plot action in a novel as complex as El otoño del patriarca is, to my mind, unavailing.
The book is impressionistic in quality, conveying impressions both of the generals power lifeanddeath control over his people and of its limitations, as underscored every time an American Ambassador visits with "offers" from the colossus to the north that are at least as much demands as offers.
The Autumn of the Patriarch is a multilayered and challenging novel that demands and rewards repeat readings, I have read it twice now once for a Latin American history course at William amp Mary, and then again more recently and I look forward to reading it again, in hopes that I will more fully understand it someday.
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