I so wanted to love this book. Touted as a captivating, enchanting and even "edgy" work of storytelling hinged with elements of magical realism, "Of Love and Other Demons" seemed like a promising novel that would haunt me psychologically and emotionally.

Instead, I ended up dreading everything about it.

Quick plot review (spoilers contained): Young girl gets bit by a supposed rabid dog. Said girl is subsequently believed to be possessed by a demon. Girl is sent off to a convent to be "healed"? exorcised? Many strange occurrences seem to follow in the wake of the girls arrival at the convent. There is an overarching theme of assigning evil to that which is not clearly or scientifically understood. Some adult priest becomes enraptured by the young girl and their relationship hints at pedophilia. Eventually, everyone dies.

Maybe I missed the deeper meaning of the story because I got so impatient with the long-windedness and near overwhelming number of characters thrown into the mix (which was rather difficult to keep straight). Or maybe I've just become shallow in my old age and need a little more gratuitous action in my novels to hold my attention. In any case, I found myself constantly distracted by the never-ending introduction of the newest Marquis, Bishop, Dominga or person-from-some-Holy-Office. I felt like I needed a character guidebook to accompany the reading of this novel because after a while, I couldn't remember who was who and what their relevance to the story was supposed to be.

The prose in which Marquez writes is admittedly gorgeous, but that wasn't enough to save this piece from the depths of the infernal flames in which I felt like I was burning during the entire read.

"Of Love and Other Demons" is a short book, (less than 150 pages in my edition), yet it took me an entire month to get through it. I just didn't find myself caring much about the characters and never felt swept away by the plot (*was* there one?). It is highly likely that the essence of the story was lost in the English translation from its original Spanish text; I will allow the benefit of the doubt for that. Nonetheless, I found this novel a painful read that left me unmoved.

Márquez hat es geschafft , mich als Leser, wie einen Spielball zwischen den Emotionen regelrecht herumzuwirbeln. Es war wechselhaft alles vertreten: Wut, Trauer, Erschrecken, Ekel, Verwirrtheit, Mitleid, Unverständnis, Erstarren und eine grausame Faszination. Leider, so denke ich, gab es solche Geschichten und Schicksale, wie sie hier am Beispiel der 12 jährigen Sierva Maria erzählt wird. Wie grausam, wenn man bedenkt, dass, wenn einmal die Meinung gefasst ist, man sei von Dämonen befallen, man sich aus dieser Sicht nicht mehr herauslösen kann. Jede noch so kleine Ungereimtheit wird als "Teufelswerk" aufgefasst und gibt denen Recht, die dies so sehen wollen. Allen voran die Kirchenvertreter. Unfähig sich dagegen aufzulehnen, stehen Außenstehende, hier Siervas Vater, vor den Ereignissen. Selbst Offensichtlichkeiten werden als solche nicht angesehen und als nicht existent negiert. Einmal im Bann des Teufels, immer im Bann des Teufels. So scheint die Devise.

Zu Beginn hatte ich Zweifel, nach dem ich auch viele negative Stimmen zu diesem Buch gelesen hatte, ob mir das Buch zusagen und ob ich es überhaupt lesen wolle. Auch wenn die Geschichte nicht zu den schönen Geschichten gehört, so gehört sie doch zu den Geschichten, die man durchaus
gelesen haben sollte, da sie doch ein dunkles Kapitel unserer Welt beschreibt, dessen wir uns nicht verschließen sollten. Gewiss hat Márquez auch Mystisches und eher Zweifelhaftes einfließen lassen, wie einen Traum und auch das Ende, aber dies sei ihm verziehen. Márquez Erzählstil fesselte mich und trieb mich ab einem gewissen Punkt so intensiv durch die Geschichte, dass mir kaum mehr bewusst wurde wie die Zeit verging.
Das Buch ist düster, keine Frage. Aber die Thematik ist düster und die Zeit, in der sie spielt war düster. Für mich ein 5 Sterne Buch.

I must admit that while I enjoyed this immensely, I did not enjoy it as much as most other Marquez. It isn't just that I have grown tired of his pedophilia storylines, though that doesn't help, but rather that this story doesn't do as interesting job of blending the real and the fantastic and the moment that opens the story, so beautiful in its absurdity, seems to bear little resemblance to the story that follows, which is a shame because a concentration on the fantastic, rather than the mundane with a tint of the strange, would have helped this.

Nonetheless, this novel does sparkle. It tells the story of a family, of a father who had loved in insane woman, but who was forced to marry another, of how his love for her blossomed until it was full before she died and how he was then tricked into marriage with another woman and how the daughter of that liaison was despised. It is the story of demon possessions and illicit priestly love and it is, all around, the kind of love that destroys, that rends and sunders, and there is something frightening and beautiful in that.

n  n   

"«[...]Ella le preguntó por esos días si era verdad, como decían las canciones, que el amor lo podía todo.
"Es verdad", le contestó él, "pero harás bien en no creerlo".»

n  n

La última vez que leí a García Márquez fue en el 2005, estaba próximo a cumplir 11 años y fue una lectura obligatoria de la escuela, fue la novela El coronel no tiene quien le escriba. Como ya se imaginarán odié ese libro a más no poder, no hay nada peor que hacer algo por obligación, y si se trata de leer, es lo peor que se puede hacer, pero Colombia no ha sido un país que destaque por su buena educación, pero eso es otro tema.
Ya por el 2017, en la universidad para una clase leí el cuento El ahogado más hermoso del mundo, un relato que me encantó, ya le tenía amor al hábito y me dije a mí mismo que algún día le daría una oportunidad al autor. Y aquí estoy yo 18 años después de haber leído El coronel no tiene quien le escriba, escribiendo una reseña de una novela de García Márquez.

Del amor y otros demonios trata sobre Sierva María de Todos los Ángeles, una niña de 12 años hija del marqués de Casalduero que el día se su cumpleaños la muerde un perro que al parecer tiene rabia, además se ve envuelta en las garras del cristianismo debido a su crianza, ya que creció rodeada de esclavos y aprendió su lengua y costumbres.

Al inicio del libro el autor nos cuenta su inspiración para escribirlo, pero no pude encontrar información si lo que nos cuenta es verídico o no, es algo muy curioso, si lo leen sabrán de qué les hablo.
La historia me pareció excelente, triste, ya que Sierva María fue una de esas personas que nació en una época equivocada, donde no coincidir con la religión cristiana era lo peor para una persona. No pude evitar encariñarme con el personaje y no sentir lástima por lo que le sucedía.

n  

"Le dijo que el amor era un sentimiento contra natura, que condenaba a dos desconocidos a una dependencia mezquina e insalubre, tanto más efímera cuanto más intensa."

n

Los personajes están muy bien construidos, creo que lo mejor es como el autor en su momento va explicando por qué actuaban como lo hacían, qué los llevó a estar donde estaban, además sin extenderse demasiado, un desarrollo perfecto. Eso sí, el marqués Ygnacio y su esposa Bernarda son de los peores padres que he leído en una novela. Simplemente detestables.
Por otro lado, tenemos al padre Cayetano, que en su momento por una desgracia de Sierva María llegan a coincidir, y en ella encuentra su punto de quiebre, y le surgen las dudas si en realidad creer o no.
Los personajes secundarios son un complemento excelente, aportan lo necesario a la historia y el autor les da el protagonismo que merecen.

García Márquez nos cuenta una tragedia, que a su vez sirve de crítica hacia las religiones, es muy lamentable saber que hubo una época donde lo más común era asociar otro tipo de expresiones al demonio, una época donde ser diferente era autocondenarse a sí mismo. Afortunadamente ese tipo de opresión se ha ido debilitando, sin embargo, es aún más lamentable saber qué falta mucho para que desaparezca por completo, pero ya es un avance.

Hay dos puntos a aclarar en este libro.
1. Hubo una parte que narra la llegada de un virrey que me pareció muy densa y aburrida.
2. Hay una escena donde se produce cierta relación que por este tiempo no es muy bien vista, es algo que podríamos decir que envejeció mal, así que están advertidos.

Es muy difícil hacer una reseña de este libro a pesar de su corta extensión, ya que el autor supo en pocas páginas plasmar una historia muy completa, bien narrada y con personajes sólidos e inolvidables. Simplemente increíble.

n  

"No hay medicina que cure lo que no cura la felicidad"

n

إذًا فالحب عند ماركيز شيطان ،يُخرج الوقور عن وقاره،ويذهب بالعقل إلى الشتات فلا تدري كنه أفعالهوتصرفاته،فالحب هو الشيطان الأكبر.

نحن أمام رواية احتاجت فكرتها لأربعة عقود لتختمر في عقل ماركيز،ويخرجها إلى النور،هي رواية عن جنون البشر وعادتهم الغريبة المريبة،هي رواية عن سطوة الدين وجهل رجاله وجبروت تأثيره،رواية عن جمال الروح ودناسة الجسد،عن عالم غريب من البشر وتقاليدهم وعاداتهم

الفكرة في عظمة ماركيز قدرته الرهيبة على إخراج رواية متكاملة من موقف بسيط مرّ به.

الرواية جميلة بتضعك في عالمها المنسوج بمهارة كاتب عبقري وسرده الخلاب المبهر.

'Disbelief is more resistant than faith because it is sustained by the senses.'

'The Enemy makes better use of our intelligence than of our errors.'

'Dominga de Adviento, a black women, believed in two religions at the same time because what she did not find in one faith was there in the other.'

'Dulce Olivia found consolation in nostalgia of her unrequited love.'

Once I was speaking to my room-mate. I told him about the helplessness of people in India ... Sometimes their senses are so raped by the misery or misshaping around them that they loss touch with realities and go into the pangs of blind-faith and people under such circumstances are ready to do anything that they were told ... even to kill their daughter or pet animal or anything that was suggestive to them ... The witnesses are already the ongoing TRP's of crime shows on TV. (The overall gist was people can do anything when they situations are very unforgiving and unfavorable)

My room-mate handed me a para from this book and he requested me to read the para :
He was, in reality referring to the poor Christians of every color, in the slums and in the countryside, who had the courage to poison the food of their rabid kin in order to spare them ghastly death ( the book is on backdrop of endemic of rabbis so people are killing the victim so that this contagious disease would not spread further) ... At the end of the previous century an entire family HAD CONSUMED POISONED SOUP BECAUSE NONE OF THEM HAD THE HEART TO POISON ONLY A 5 YEAR OLD BOY.

And I shut my mouth after reading this.


The first thing, that my senses were unable to understand was that, how Gabriel Garcia Marquez was able to discover such bigger characters with hearts bigger than Jupiter in very small association , or to say artistry of words. This book, I would say, was exemplary piece of emotion.
The entire plot of a girl bitten by a dog, vulnerable to rabbis, and the remnant journey which flip-flops on faith and disbelief ... The test of god and stigma in some older Christian beliefs ... but more than anything ... there was irrepressible human condition of love.

This book was like a punch in the gut. And it left me with little to no words, so this review will be short and vague so as to not spoiling anything.

Set in the 18th century, 12-year-old Sierva María is bitten by a dog and people believe her to be posessed by a demon. Thus they send her to a convent where Cayetano Delaura meets her and falls in intense love.

Honestly, it's very simple, and yet there's so much in it. The writing is so atmospheric, and this is enhanced by the subtle magical realism in the book, which in my opinion is better than to start making weird things happen and fancy yourself very clever.

The story itself is utterly tragic, and so far, it's been my favourite book by García Márquez. He's one of the authors that make me proud of being Latin American. I've got nothing left to say except that you should read this book and see for yourself how beautiful and sad it is.

"Nijedan luđak nije lud, ako čovjek prihvati njegovu logiku."

A ako ne prihvati, jao si ga "luđaku". Radnja je smještena u 19. stoljeće, u kojem strah od nepoznatog neminovno vodi ka samo jednom zaključku - sve su to vražja posla. Kad se svemu tome pridoda i ljubav, imamo katastrofu, pogotovo ako je jedan od aktera svećenik. Jako dobar opis jednog prošlog vremena, kojim se Marquez "narugao" crkvi i njenom kleru.

"Mi ateisti ne možemo živjeti bez klerika. Pacijenti nam povjeravaju tijela, a ne duše, i mi se ponašamo kao đavao, pokušavajući te duše oteti Bogu."

لو هتكلم الرواية بتتكلم عن ايه فأفضل شئ هو الاستعانة بما تم كتابته على الغلاف فهو ملخص بالفعل لفكرة الرواية
n  
في هذه الرواية تُروى قصة سييرفا ماريا دي تودوس لوس أنخيلس، طفلة في الثانية عشرة من عمرها، وابنة غير مرغوب فيها للماركيز كاسالدويرو وزوجته الثانية، الخلاسية الشبقة برناردا كابريرا. وبسبب كراهية الأم لسييرفا وعدم اهتمام الأب الماركيز بالطفلة، تتولّى العبدة الزنجية دومينغا دي أديفينيتو تربيتها؛ وسط عبيد زنوج، يؤمنون بتقاليد اليوربا، تعيش الطفلة سعيدة. لكن مصير سييرفا يتبدّل عندما يعضّها كلب. وحين يعلم الماركيز بأمر هذا الحادث، يأخذ ابنته إلى الطبيب اليهودي أبرينونثيو، الملحد والمتنوّر، فيجد أن الطفلة غير مصابة بداء الكَلَب ولكن ما يلاحظه هو مشكلة نقص في السعادة.
يذهب الماركيز في ما بعد لرؤية المطران ويعترف له بنزوعه إلى الشك وفقدانه الإيمان، كما يخبره بحالة ابنته. فيؤكد المطران، ممثل محاكم التفتيش، أن الطفلة مصابة بمس من الشيطان، وأنه لابد من طرد الشيطان منها من أجل خلاصها. بعد هذه الزيارة يقرر الماركيز إدخالها دير سانتا كلارا.n

فماذا سيحدث لها وكيف سيتم التعامل معها؟!

كان بقالى فترة طويلة جدا مقرأتش لماركيز والرواية دى كانت في الخطة عندى من فترة طويلة بالفعل والتقييمات والآراء عنها في الغالبية إيجابية ومشجعة فكنت متحمسة ليها وتوقعاتي عالية ليها . ومفروض أكون اتعلمت ان سقف توقعاتي ما يكونش عالى بس للأسف لسه بقع في الغلطة دى

n2021 fotoğrafla gelen edit:
Şimdi okusam içimdeki utanmaz romantiğe bi' tokat çakar daha çok sever miydim diye şüphe duyuyorum kendimden. Ayrıca gerçekçilerden nefret ettiğim falan yok. Beklediği romantizmi alamayan ikovski'nin overdramatic boş konuşmalarından biri daha.

BTW bunun fotoğrafını ayrı bi seviyom. Genelde kitabın içerindeki "şeyler"den yararlanıp dekore ediyordum bookstagram fotoğraflarımı, consept fotoğrafçılık gibi (geçen yine hadsizim), bu yüzden kıymetim bilinmediasdfaasdfasdfasdfsd :( Fotorafraftaki kızıl saç ve gümüş haç hep göğsümü kabartır.



fotoğrafla gelen özövgü bitti.
n

İnternetsizlikle geçen günlerim bel sakatlığı, öğlen uykusu ve kitapla geçiyor. Zaten bu bir günde bitti. Free wifi kafeler İyi ki varlar.
Nys.

Gerçekçilik akımından nefret ediyorum. Bazen. Çoğu zaman. Konusu romantik bir kurguya müsaitse. Genelde gerçekçilerden nefret ediyorum. Evet.

Sorun Marquez'in Büyülü Gerçekçi olması. Bu, içimdeki o duygusal sürrealisti kahırlara boğuyor :(

Tabi bu Marquez'in dilini sevmediğimi ve kitabı anlatışını beğenmediğim anlamına gelmez. Sadece konusu öyle sıradan-dışı ve müsait ki geberdim dilediğim gibi akması için kitabın, ama olmadı. Yine de kaderimi kabullendim, çok sevdim. Yazarın ayrıca yüzyıllık yalnızlık ve kırmızı pazartesi kitapları var bende ama teşebbüs etmemiştim. Canım yalın ve duygudan neredeyse arındırılmış 'büyülü' bir şey okumak isterse kesinlikle bu yazara koşarım.

Tabi ama insan bu hikayeyi Emile Zola veya Goethe yazsa nasıl mükemmel olur diye düşünmeden edemiyor. Napim'. EDEMEDİM.

Arka kapak yeterince anlatmış konuyu. Fakat belirtmek istediğim bir konu da kitap bu 'değişik' aşkın ve o dönemin sosyolojik haline atıf yapan yanından öte diğer karakterlerin de haletiruhiyeti bayağı önemli bence. Yani kızın babası da çok önemliydi mesela, onu anlamak, analiz edip üzerinde düşünmek... Belki de romantiğimdir.

Hem kimse, hikayenin son derece 'o dönem için' bile pedofili olduğunu söylememiş. Bi romantik ben değilim demek ki :|

Bu arada, isimlerin hiçbirini aklımda tutamıyor oluşum <3

Kitabın adına aşığım neredeyse.
xoxo
iko
n

It seems this is one you either love or are indifferent to. I found myself leaning toward the indifferent. The underlying story of a young girl being removed from the comforts of wealth based upon misdiagnosis and ignorance is of itself fascinating, the scene setting fabulous. To overlay that with a doomed romance between a handsome priest and a prepubescent girl is heady stuff, then further layered with themes of the demonic and the insane, and yet it simply failed to enliven my senses. Maybe presenting such powerful melodrama in such a bland and tame manner is the book's triumph but it left me wanting to feel more, especially of the priest's multifarious challenges. It's a gentle, passive work, with a dangerous, explosive plot which completely fails to ignite. It may well be lost in translation but even if the author craftily intends for the reader to feel disturbed almost subliminally by the extreme physcology at work, then he doesn't do enough to provoke a reaction from this reader. I have seen this book given as a gift to represent an improbable, impossible love, so I hope the giver and receiver are on the same wavelength as I remember the book more for its interesting story and scenes than for any emotions aroused or intellectual confrontation.

Alnında beyaz leke olan kül rengi bir köpekle başlayıp, usturayla kazınmış bir kafadan inatla fışkıran ve tutam tutam git gide uzadığı gözle görülen saçlarla biten Marquez romanı.

Hakkında denecek her şey hemen hemen söylenmiş. "Her şeyin romanı" diyeyim ben de. Tarih, edebiyat, din, aşk, ahlaki değerler, Avrupa, ne ararsanız var.

Ah unutmadan bir de, "Mutluluğun iyi edemediğini iyileştirecek ilaç yoktur."