Tutti abbiamo almeno un libro che sentiamo di aver giudicato male, magari perchè lo abbiamo letto nel momento sbagliato, magari perchè non gli abbiamo dedicato la giusta attenzione, così promattiamo a noi stessi che un giorno gli daremo una seconda possibilità e lo rileggeremo.

Il libro che io voglio assolutamente rileggere è Cent'anni di solitudine, mi era anche piaciuto abbastanza, ma so che quando lo lessi, anni fa, non gli dedicai la giusta attenzione e forse non ero nemmeno una lettrice abbastanza matura per poterlo apprezzare appieno.

Comunque, anche se Cent'anni di solitudine aspetta ancora una mia rilettura, ho finalmente letto qualcos'altro di Gabriel García Márquez: Cronaca di una morte annunciata.

Il titolo riassume perfettamente la trama del libro che, non solo è molto semplice, ma che il lettore scopre fin dalle prime pagine: durante la prima notte di nozze il neo-marito scopre che Angela Vicario non è vergine. La ragazza accusa Santiago Nasar e i fratelli della giovane decidono di ristabilire l'onore uccidendo Santiago.
Niente di particolarmente originale o complesso. Quello che fa la differenza è il modo in cui è raccontato.

La narrazione ha la forma di una cronaca e il narratore ricostruisce, anni dopo, minuto per minuto gli eventi della fatidica mattinata con punti di vista multipli, grazie ai ricordi degli abitanti del paese.
Tutti, o quasi, sanno che i fratelli Vicario uccideranno Santiago ma nessuno fa nulla per impedire il delitto. Santiago verrà ucciso per un "crimine" che forse, anzi probabilmente, non ha commesso, anche a causa di una serie di straordinarie coincidenze.

E soprattutto, Marquez scrive benissimo. Ha la naturalezza che uno scrittore secondo me deve avere per essere davvero un grande scrittore. Sembrano parole scritte di getto, senza troppa attenzione, e invece è la miglior combinazione possibile di parole per dire quella cosa.

Il libro è breve ma intenso, e non è solo un modo di dire.
Difficilmente una lettura così veloce mi colpisce così tanto.
Un'ottima lettura.

...أعتقد أني قرأت في مكان ما ربما في ذاكرة ماركيز عشتُ لأروي عن أن هذه الرواية كتبت عن جريمة حدثت في بلدته الصغيرة وما أوقعني في سحر ماركيز من جديد علما بأني لم أخرج منه حتى الآن خاصة بعد أُخذتُ بمائة عام من العزلة هذه التفاصيل التي يغرق فيها وهو يصف الأحداث على لسان راوي من عائلة القتيل ويحكي فيها قصة شاب من أصول عربية و يدعى (سنتياغو نصار) كان يعيش فيها وحيداً مع والدته في مزرعة وقد قتل بطريقة وحشية بسكاكين لذبح الخنازير على يد أخوين توأمين بسبب الإتهام الذي وجهته شقيقتهم أنجيلا لسانتياغو حيث تبين لزوجها في ليلة عرسها بأنها غير عذراء وأنه هو من ارتكب هذا الفعل , ليس في الأمر جريمة فقط ولكن كل أحداث الرواية تشير إلى الجريمة كان معلن عنها قبل أن تحدث وأن أغلب أهالي القرية كانوا يعرفون بأن الأخوين كانت لديهما النية بالقتل وكانا قدأعلنا ذلك للغادي والرائح ويصر ماركيز على أنهما كانا ربما ينتظران من يمنعهما عن هذا الفعل غير أن الجهود التي بذلت لمنع الجريمة لم تكن ذا شأن فلم يؤخذ الأمر بجدية ولم تكن هناك أية جهود جادة لدفع الجريمة !
كان ماركيز يتلاعب بمهارة بالقارىء فهو في الوقت الذي يثير فيه الشكوك بأن سانتياغو كان بريئا من التهمة التي ألقتها أنجيلا وأصرت عليها في محضر التحقيق إلا أنه لم يكن هناك أي دليل على وجود علاقة بين الطرفين وعلى هذا الأساس أنت لا تستطيع سوى أن تشعر بالشفقة على هذه الضحية التي راحت نتيجة اللامبالاة والإتكال والتهمة الجائرة !
ولكن لن يتركك ماركيز إلا وهو يطرح احتمالا آخر لماذا لا يكون سانتياغو هو من تسبب في هدم سعادة أنجيلا زوجة اليوم الواحد التي أعادها زوجها حين اكتشف أنها ليست عذراء ومن خلال مشهد لا يتعدى سطورا قليلا وهو يصف الأحداث التي جرت قبل الجريمة
حين التقى بخطيبته فلورا وقالت له :خذ، وعسى أن يقتلاك !
يتقافز الإحتمال الثاني إلى ذهنك لأن ذلك يعني أن فلورا اكتشفت ماقام به سانتياغو مع أنجيلا فرمت له رسائله وأقفلت الباب في وجهه !
وهكذا كل أحداث الرواية تصف كيف كانت كل الأمور تسير ضد سانتياغو حتى والدته أغلقت الباب قبل أن تحدث الجريمة بدقائق بسيطة ظنا منها أن ابنها في البيت بينما كان هو يتلقى الطعنة تلو الأخرى أمام الباب :(

أن حبكة الرواية التي استقت تفاصيلها من حادثة حقيقة لا يمكن إلا أن توصف بالبراعة والذكاء الحرفي وما أثر بي حقيقة مشهد القتل الذي قاما به التوأمين والذي سيبقى مطولا في ذاكرتي فمنذ أنهيت الرواية وأنا أتخيل السكاكين وهي تقطع أحشاء سانتياغو وأراه وهو يحملها إلى بيته ويسقط قتيلا في مطبخه , إن براعة الرواي هي التي تبقي تفاصيل الحكاية ماثلة أمام ذهنك لوقتٍ طويل .


الرواية بالنسبة لي كانت ممتعة جدا

برافو يا ماركيز، صالحتني عليك.

Un libro único. Fascinante.

Kırmızı Pazartesi, işlenen bir cinayet üzerinden yapılan toplumsal bir eleştiri. Bir cinayetin öyküsü, evet, ama basit bir cinayetin öyküsü de değil.

Olaylar gerçekten yaşanmamış olsa, yahut yazar bize bunu söylemese, ben kitabı alegorik bir kitap olarak okurdum, hâlâ da öyle okuyabiliriz. Herkesin bildiği, ama kimsenin engellemediği bir cinayet nasıl işlenir? Herkesin onayıyla. Kitap boyunca bunu okuyoruz ve sorgulanmamış, önyargı halindeki ahlak kurallarının gücü karşısında eziliyoruz, şaşırıyoruz, rahatsız oluyoruz.

Kitapta katilin kim olduğu en baştan belli belki ama "esas" katil, klasik bir cinayet romanında olduğu gibi en son işaret ediliyor: "Kendi işlediği cinayetin dehşeti içinde çığlık çığlığa bağrışan halkın sesini de duymuyorlardı."

Halk, kendi ahlak kurallarıyla, kendi önyargılarıyla bir kişiyi ölü, iki kişiyi de katil yapıyor ve Márquez, Vicario kardeşlerin ruh halini, cinayet işlemekten kaçmak için her şeyi yapışlarını, cinayetten sonra çektikleri sıkıntıları muhteşem bir şekilde anlatıyor.

Bu kitaptaki hikâyelerin çok benzerini Türkiye'de de çok gördük. Madımak'ı örnek olarak görebiliriz.

Kırmızı Pazartesi bence bir Yaprak Fırtınası gücünde değil, Albaya Mektup Yok seviyesinde bir edebî değeri de yok, ama yine de önemli bir eser.

Not: Kitap tam 4 değil bu arada, 3,5'tan 4.

گفتار اندر معرفی کتاب
وقایع‌نگاری مرگی اعلام شده،
داستانی در ژانر معمایی به قلمِ گابوی عزیزم است که همانطور که از نامش پیداست داستانی‌ست که به قتلِ مردی عرب به نامِ «سانتیاگو نصار» می‌پردازد.
این داستان نیز همانند سایر نوشته‌های گابو مشخصه‌هایی داشت که به نوعی امضای گابو به حساب می‌آیند، از جمله: تکنیک پس و پیش کردن زمان، طنزهای مختص مردم امریکای جنوبی و از همه مهمتر سبک شخصی سازی شده‌ی رئالیسم جادویی که مرزهای خیال و واقعیت را در هم مخلوط می‌کرد اما به عنوان شخصی که عاشق گابو هست اعتراف می‌کنم به هیچوجه در این داستان از هیچ‌کدام از المان‌های گابو خوشم نیامد و آن حسی که همیشه پس از خواندن داستان‌ها و رمان‌هایش داشتم را تجربه نکردم.
باتوجه به حجم داستان،‌ طبیعی‌ست که به محتوا ورود نکنم اما اگر بخواهم کل کتاب را در چند کلمه خلاصه کنم به کلمات: ۱-پرده بکارت ۲-رابطه قبل از ازدواج ۳-قتل ناموسی. همین و تمام!
معتقدم گابو این داستان را می‌توانست در کمتر از چهل صفحه سر و تهش را بند بیاورد و این‌همه اطناب نیازی نداشت، این حرف را منی می‌زنم که در ریویوی رمان «عشق در زمان وبا» بر خلاف برخی از دوستانم نوشته بودم که اگر گابو داستان را در حجمی دو برابر هم می‌نوشت برایم تکراری و خسته کننده نمی‌شد اما آن داستان کجا و این داستان کجا و در داستانی معمایی که کشش پایینی هم داشت واقعا ضرورتی به این همه طول و تفصیل نبود!

نقل‌قول نامه
"همیشه باید طرفِ مُرده را گرفت."

"آدم هرچه که باشد، به مرور عشق را هم یاد می‌گیرد."

"جایی غم‌انگیزتر از بستری خالی نیست."

"مرده‌ها شلیک نمی‌کنند."

کارنامه
نه، نه، نه و باز هم نه!
این داستان، داستانی نبود که از گابوی عزیزم انتظار داشتم!
بعد از یک رمان سنگین آمدم یک نوول از نویسنده‌ی محبوبم بخوانم که به قول معروف «بشوره و ببره پایین» و هم یک داستان سبک خوانده باشم و هم ازش لذت ببرم اما این یکی داستان بهم نچسبید.
بخاطر شروع ضعیف و غیرقابل انتظار یک ستاره و اطناب‌های نه چندان جذاب گابو بر خلاف گذشته یک ستاره دیگر از کتاب کسر می‌کنم و نهایتا با ارفاق نیم‌ نمره‌ای سه ستاره برای این کتاب منظور می‌کنم.

“There’s no way out of this,” he told him. “It’s as if it had already happened.”

How is it possible, in a small town where everybody knows your name , to threaten murder against one of your own neighbours and for nobody to do anything to stop the tragedy? Predestination, or a chain of many chance events that had made absurdity possible ?

The victim is one of the young men in town, Santiago Nasar, well liked and respected. The killers are also well known, twin brothers Pablo and Pedro Vicario, who work as butchers . The investigator / reporter who asks questions about the fateful events is also one of them – he remains unnamed, but he tells us he grew up with the victim and the killers.
It should have been a morning of celebration: the wedding of one of the town’s beauties, Angela Vicario, to a handsome newcomer from out of town, Bayardo San Roman. The whole town also went out in the morning to receive a blessing from a visiting bishop.
Everybody knows! Nobody does anything to stop it!

There wasn’t a single person, rich or poor, who hadn’t participated in some way in the wildest party the town had ever seen.

>>><<<>>><<<

For some reason, the small town setting with the close ties between families, coupled with the pervasive sense of dread at the announced major event, made me think of Shirley Jackson’s famous short story “The Lottery”.
Indeed, behind the friendly and party-loving community lies a darker truth, a toxic tradition. The investigator discovers many clues that the killers wanted to be stopped, but that they felt their honour demanded the deed: their sister had been dishonoured and they must wash their reputation clean in the blood of the alleged perpetrator.
But did he really do it? Or was his name just a chance slip of the tongue from the girl?
It doesn’t really matter, because this pleasant town is ruled by secret and deadly prejudices. Its laws are made exclusively by men, who call it ‘machismo’.

“That day,” she told me, “I realised just how alone we women are in the world.”

“They’re perfect,” she was frequently heard to say. “Any man will be happy with them because they’ve been raised to suffer.”

Being born a woman in a traditional Latin American small town often feels like a life sentence served at birth – the path through life predetermined and carved out of hard work, forced pregnancies, abuse, suffering. Angela Vicario, the girl who was returned to her parents on her wedding day, is for me such a victim of the system, and the narrator expands his investigation to the decades after that tragic morning, in an effort to find out why she did name the victim, and how has that morning affected her later in life.
Its a question the novella asks of all the other witnesses of the killing, and of us the readers. This is not a police procedural or investigative journalism, but existentialism triggered by the chaotic nature of life.

For years we couldn’t talk about anything else. Our daily conduct, dominated then by so many linear habits, had suddenly begun to spin around a single common anxiety. The cocks of dawn would catch us trying to give order to the chain of many chance events that had made absurdity possible, and it was obvious that we weren’t doing it from an urge to clear up mysteries but because none of us could go on living without an exact knowledge of the place and the mission assigned to us by fate.

>>><<<>>><<<

Marquez doesn’t get an automatic five stars for everything he wrote from me, but I am hard pressed to justify any perceived flaw in this masterful narration. I struggled a little, for the first five or ten pages, to let go of my immediate surroundings and of my routine daily tasks, but at some point something clicked and I was sucked completely into the atmosphere of the town, into Gabo’s elegant phrasing, and I couldn’t let it go until I flipped the last page.
I felt like I was in the hands of a street magician, twisting me around his little finger and leading me exactly where he wanted me to be: shaken out of complacency and forced to look at the world through the lens of his vision.
A more detached critic might say something about the tools of his trade, about imagery and situations that the author likes to return to from one story to another: the tightly knit community, the doomed love affair over decades of separation, the thirst for life, a tropical exuberance in storytelling.
I think I will retain from this story a vivid picture of getting lost in a tropical town where everybody is looking at me with wary eyes, uncertain if they should welcome me with a fiesta or chase me away with stones and mad dogs.

I will close with a quote that hopefully balances a little the earlier commentaries about the fate of women in a town ruled by ‘machismo’. Marquez, in another of his trademark moves, sings praises to the mother and lover icons of womanhood, usually to be found in the person of a prostitute. In this novella, Maria Alejandrina Cervantes, through whose arms so many young boys have become men.

She taught us much more than we should have learned, but she taught us above all that there’s no place in life sadder than an empty bed.

Offered a choice between murder and love, I know which way I will be headed.

"Birçok kanıt gösteriyordu ki Vicario kardeşler, Santiago Nasar'ı hemen ve gizlice öldürmek konusunda yapılması gereken hiçbir şey yapmamışlardı. Aksine birinin gelip onu öldürmelerine engel olması için boş yere akla gelmedik yollara başvurmuşlardı."

"Nu-i pe lume loc mai trist decât un pat pustiu."

Ko se vatrom igra, taj se i opeče.

Ova knjiga je kao neki priručnik o lokalnom bezumlju, pohotljivosti sudbine i nekom kosmološkom principu neizbježnog. Predmet koji nanosi potpunu tišinu u vidu mesarskog noža i čast koja se njime brani biće izloženi i glasno najavljeni, a hronika nastalog će kroz jedan lavirint Markezovog pripovijedanja dobiti užeglu lakrdiju. Kao da su zatvorene sve kapije za Santjaga, kao da crveno mora poteći.

Markez ne ulazi u dubinu likova niti u njihov prostorno-vremenski kauzalitet, već na jedinstven način pokazuje čvrstinu uroćenog te kako su ljudi surovo nijemi u pojedinim važnim trenucima, čak do tačke plakanja, ili možda čak i smijanja ili nešto između. Da li sve shvataju kao šalu, ili su oni sami jedna velika šala? Kvakoća romana je u ironičnoj atmosferi karipskog mikrokosmosa koja, kako priča odmiče poprima mjehur dvosmislenosti. Svaki čitalac stvaraće svoj ugao gledanja te dvosmislenosti, a ona će mu tek u Markezovim naznakama kroz seoske anegdote možda biti predočena. Autor sa izuzetnom lakoćom pripovijedanja drži napetost čitaocu do samog kraja, a sam kraj vrlo suptilno izvodi. Šta je čast? Kuda vodi kompenzacija? Uspostavljanje ravnoteže međuljudskih odnosa? I mnoga druga pitanja (naročito oko postupaka likova) će se postavljati kroz ovu pripovijetku, a odgovori će biti prepušteni vama.

Stabbing a man to death is not as easy as it sounds; after all, it took 23 swipes at poor old Julius Caesar, but only one of them was actually deemed fatal. It takes a hell of an effort.
Not like that seen in those pathetic slasher movies, where a big breasted peroxide blonde is chased around a mansion by a nutcase bearing a huge blade that only dishes out flesh wounds.

Chronicling the murder of one Santiago Nasar in a small unnamed South American village, Márquez dazzles in a fictional world that is as pungently sharp as the knives used to kill, it's a murder everyone in town knew was coming, yet no one wanted. ''Never was a death more foretold.'' says the the novels narrator, recounting the events of that fateful day, in fact, it's many years later where the story is told from, using the recollections of various townsfolk, a picture is slowly built up of just "who" and "why" this horrendous act took place. The purpose is less to do with trying solve any mystery, as the deed was committed in broad daylight, by two brothers, who understood their sister had been dishonored by Nasar, it's more based on the determination to try and understand why no one was able to prevent the death from happening. Spare in tone and somewhat bizarre it's a clever piece of writing that explores the nature of complicity and fate, and of how an act of savage intent can effect so many lives over time.

Márquez utilizes mysticism and spirituality in his writing that represents culture, and symbolizes meaning within the context of the work. The death of Santiago may not have been avoided, partially due to the strange inabilities of his characters to connect with their spiritual powers. Both Santiago’s mother and his god-mother are unable to ‘truly feel his demise’. Mostly random thoughts and actions of several different people contribute to altering the course of that murderous day, with the fate of Santiago totally left in the hands of others.
Although a quick read, what I admired the most was the fact it's a deeper story than you think, it's not just the death of one, but the suffering of many, those who are burdened with failed responsibilities, the knives may have been in the hands of the killers, but seemingly the whole village also has a tight grip around them, this makes the story all the more powerful and ultimately
sad in the end, leaving an open wound on the people, unlikely ever to heal.

Having read 'Love in the time of Cholera' and 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by the same author, I found this one quite dull. Magical realism, which is at the core of GG's works, was evident in this novel as well, but combining it with a murder mystery (but you realize later that it is not actually a mystery) made it a tad uninteresting for me.
First of all, the non - linear fashion in which the book is written actually contradicts with the title. Many key events are obscured and the narrator has not chronologically revealed the order of the events.
Secondly, the themes of memory, symbolism and reality seem jumbled to me.
Thirdly, there is a lot of repetition of events surrounding the crime. Yes, repetition is a key component of GG's magical realism but it did not seem to be hitting the mark in this book. All in all, I'd say that the book was a repetitive and purely investigative work with no further findings or outcomes. In this manner, the narrator also seems very enigmatic, but with inconclusive results.

The book includes the theme of a woman being on the periphery. The very fact that death was considered a reasonable payback / retribution for the crime of taking a girl's virginity manifests how abominable it was to sleep with an unmarried woman.
This also ruined her chances of marrying well (if at all), and marriage was seen as women's one way to progress in the world, instead of being seen as an alliance that would prosper the growth for both.

Coming to the theme of 'mystery' yet again, I reckon that the real mystery is 'why' (and 'how' as well, but the 'how' is countered as this is a Magical Realism work ) the entire town allowed the murder to happen; with, at best, only lackluster efforts to stop it or even alert the victim.

However, I found a few interesting and thought–provoking quotes from the book:

1. A falcon who chases a warlike crane can only hope for a life of pain.
2. The hunt for love is haughty falconry.

Coming to the rating, for now I will round off my 2.35 stars to 2. May be, if I come and read this one later, I can think of revising the rating.