Review of the best according to the editorial board. On the selection criteria. This material is subjective and does not constitute advertising and does not serve as a purchase guide. Before buying, you need to consult with a specialist.
Many fans of the classics of 20th century literature have probably heard about the work of Gabriel Garcia Márquez. His works are stories and novels in the genre of magical realism, which implies the integration of mystical techniques and elements into real life. He was also involved in politics and journalism, which put typos on his writing.
- Rating of the best books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- One Hundred Years of Solitude
- Love during the plague
- Autumn of the Patriarch
- Blue dog eyes
- House Buendía
- Fallen foliage
- For love, the inevitability of death
- About love and other demons
- A trail of your blood in the snow
- Miguel Littin's Dangerous Adventures in Chile
- Cursed time
- Abduction history
- General in his labyrinth
Rating of the best books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
| Nomination | a place | composition | rating |
| Rating of the best books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez | 1 | One Hundred Years of Solitude | 4.9 |
| 2 | Love during the plague | 4.8 | |
| 3 | Autumn of the Patriarch | 4.8 | |
| 4 | Blue dog eyes | 4.7 | |
| 5 | House Buendía | 4.7 | |
| 6 | Fallen foliage | 4.7 | |
| 7 | For love, the inevitability of death | 4.7 | |
| 8 | About love and other demons | 4.6 | |
| 9 | A trail of your blood in the snow | 4.6 | |
| 10 | Miguel Littin's Dangerous Adventures in Chile | 4.5 | |
| 11 | Cursed time | 4.5 | |
| 12 | Abduction history | 4.5 | |
| 13 | General in his labyrinth | 4.5 |
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Book Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 4.9
In the first place in the ranking of the best books by Gabriel Garcia Márquez is the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. It is so multifaceted and deep, raising acute social issues of the countries of Lantian America, and of the whole world, that critics and readers have awarded the work with high marks.
The action takes place in the Colombian fictional town of Macondo, in the center of the Buendía clan. This is a family in whose life miracles are done every day, and they are in the order of things, no one pays attention to unusualness. The clan of the surname is multifaceted in personality: righteous and sinners, adventurers, heroes, participants in the revolution – the plot intertwines the fate of relatives with a different vision of the world throughout the entire existence of their town from beginning to end. Despite the large number of heroes, each of them is destined for loneliness – a kind of 'cross' of the Buendía family. Passions are twisted like in a Latin American TV series, which consists of 20 chapters of the novel.
One Hundred Years of Solitude must be read meaningfully. Not everyone will be able to grasp the thread of the plot due to the interweaving of the destinies of many heroes. The novel is not directly related to reality, but clearly demonstrates the way of life and history of Latin America.
Love during the plague
Book Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 4.8
The original title of the novel is Love in the Time of Cholera.
The novel raises such a false question in the life of every person as first love. The beauty Fermina rejected her childhood friend Fiorentino Aris, who truly loved her, and at the age of 21 she married Dr. Juvenal Urbino, whose dream is to find a cure and protection against the scourge of the Middle Ages – the plague (or cholera, depending on the translation). The way of life of a scientist is extremely rational, Urbino was not distinguished by emotionality and passion, unlike the rejected Aris, whose soul is full of romanticism, unappreciated by the heroine.
Fermina did not expect her husband to be unfaithful – he confessed to treason shortly before his death. After the death of Urbino, the woman who was widowed at that time again draws attention to Fiorentino, who all the years did not lose hope and was waiting for the location of his only love. Passion between them flared up, but its quality was different from youthful love – now it was a conscious romance of mature people.
The couple go on a cruise on the Aris ship, and to avoid unnecessary customs checks, they hang a flag on the deck, indicating the plague (cholera) patients on the ship. Because of him, they will not be allowed home, so Fiorentino and Fermina will embark on a new journey.
Autumn of the Patriarch
Book Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 4.8
In the novel 'Autumn of the Patriarch', Gabriel García Márquez describes in a grotesque way the life of a Latin American dictator, president, the embodied collective image of all tyrants who rule in Latin America.
In the center of the reader's attention is one of the dictators of the fictional country named Sakarias, whose mother was a poor hen. He has been in power for many years, no longer remembers how he came to rule – he was made president by the British sailors. The author presents him in a phantasmagoric guise, combining a ruler, an incarnation of God, at the same time a puppet in the hands of Fate, a thunderstorm of the living, while he himself is waiting and at the same time afraid of death. He is a legend, the embodiment of ideal power, while the image is created somewhat comic and not completely realistic.
In the narrative there are many stories about the life of the ruler, his fate is formed by gossip and legends, often deliberately opposed to each other, so that the reader ponders where the fiction is, and what really happened to the hero.
Blue dog eyes
Book Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 4.7
In fourth place in the rating is the novel 'Eyes of the Blue Dog', which was included in the collection of the same name.
One day He and She met. He was impressed by her eyes, which he compared to the eyes of a blue dog. The man stood on the threshold of death, and she began to write everywhere 'Eyes of the blue dog' so that he would remember her. This woman turned into a cat, and the negro Nabo will do everything for the angels to wait a little. In the process of getting to know the novel, the reader will pose many questions, in search of answers to which he will savor the work until the very end.
The action takes place in the fantasy city of Macondo, when the rainy season has come – that's when incredible and mysterious events happen in it.
House Buendía
Book Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 4.7
The rating includes a collection of small works by Gabriel García Márquez, written from 1940 to 1980. This time range reveals the author's growth over 40 years, the diversity of stories from the point of view of different ages; the stories are not alike, the heroes and their fates are different.
The collection includes the famous stories 'Siesta of Tuesday', like a torn chapter from 'Hundred Years of Solitude', 'Artificial Roses' and others, 34 diverse stories in total. Readers will also be interested to get acquainted with a sketch about a visit to Russia – this is a satirical sketch by Marquez, with a Nobel lecture (remember, the author is a laureate of a prestigious prize), with monologues about Borges.
The book arouses different emotions from joy to deep sadness, opens up the opportunity to evaluate one's own life from different angles.
Fallen foliage
Book Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 4.7
Another title of the novel is 'Crazy Foliage'. This is the first story about the fictional city of Macondo, which is mentioned in many of Marquez's works. Colonel Aureliano Buendía first appears here.
The title of the novel speaks eloquently about the loneliness and oblivion that are characteristic of the work of Marquez. A quarter of a century of city life is represented by the memories of Colonel Aureliano and his family. At the same time, it is difficult to say that only sad events take place in Macondo, there are many funny stories, dramatic and amazing to the core.
For love, the inevitability of death
Book Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 4.7
Senator Onesimo Sanchez meets the woman of a lifetime six months before his death. Laura Farina is sent to him by his father. Now she takes the life of a senator and means more to him than the upcoming elections. The election campaign is now less interesting, especially on the eve of the predicted death due to illness. Death puts everything in its place, tearing off the masks, and makes you take stock.
The emphasis in the novel is made on politics and its falsity from the point of view of sincerity and often – common sense. The Senator, even knowing that there is little time left, being in power and feeling his own power, wants to get everything at once.
About love and other demons
Book Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 4.6
Love, despite the fullness of the works of Marquez with loneliness and the burden of life, is present in every story to a different degree and quality. The novel 'On Love and Other Demons' was no exception. Mary, a young and beautiful marquise, was possessed by demons – at least she created the impression that she was imprisoned in a monastery for purification. To expel extraneous entities from her body, the young priest Cayetano takes over.
But the plot unexpectedly turns – between Maria and Cayetano, love, passion is tied, which cannot be expelled either by fasting or prayer.
“If fire is brought to gunpowder, do not expect good” – this Spanish proverb characterizes the novel “About love and other demons.”
A trail of your blood in the snow
Book Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 4.6
The cycle 'Twelve Wanderer Stories' includes the story 'The Trail of Your Blood in the Snow', known throughout the world.
Nena Daconte and Billy Sanchez, who were married a few days ago, set off on a journey from Marseille across France in a brand new Mustang donated. The couple is enjoying each other, Nena is already 2 months pregnant. Everything is changed by a fatal incident – at a business reception, a young wife wounds her finger with a rose thorn from a presented bouquet. The bleeding does not stop throughout the journey, leaving a trail in the snow where you can find Nena and Billy, as she joked herself. The wound did not close, the girl had to see a doctor. Nena remains in the hospital, and Billy can visit her only on Tuesday at a certain time, that is, after 6 days.
A story is a short story that can be read in one breath in an hour.
Miguel Littin's Dangerous Adventures in Chile
Book Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 4.5
The Dangerous Adventures of Miguel Littin in Chile is based on the real journey of Miguel Littin, a Chilean filmmaker, to his homeland after being exiled by the Pinochet regime. It is not surprising that the ruler banned the distribution of the work in the country and ordered the destruction of all received circulation.
Littin returned to Chile illegally to make a movie about the destruction of the country during the years of Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship. The resulting film 'Chile's Universal Declaration' won a prize at the Venice Film Festival. It shows real life in a state about which the world knew little, and partly makes a discovery, because a political military regime involves hiding many aspects of what is happening inside the country.
The book 'The Dangerous Adventures of Miguel Littin in Chile' contains not only the risky moments for the director's life, but also other stories told in the spirit of adventurous prose.
Cursed time
Book author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 4.5
And again Macondo, the symbol of the province of Latin America in the works of Marquez. 'Cursed Time' or 'Bad Hour' immerses the reader in the world of a fictional city, where events are repeated from day to day, from season to season, from year to year. They are full of miracles, which no one, by virtue of everyday life, pays attention to. Passions simmer as in the traditional genre of Latin American TV series. One day everything changes: someone appears in the city, posting leaflets on the streets with information about the vices of the townspeople in all colors and details.
Abduction history
Book author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 4.5
The novel “The Story of the Abduction” is not typical for Marquez in terms of the dynamism of the plot – here the emphasis is not on reasoning and descriptions, but on the development of events, almost like in a detective story. In the early 90s, Pablo Escobar, in the company of no less noble drug lords, kidnapped a group of famous journalists. The mafia needed these people as an exchange card – the kidnappers offered the authorities the lives of nine journalists in exchange for canceling the decision to deport several influential members of the drug group to the United States to serve life sentences. Blackmail failed. Then the husband of one of the kidnapped journalists intervenes in the case – he becomes an intermediary between the drug lords and the Government.
General in his labyrinth
Book author: Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 4.5
We will end the rating with a novel about the historical dictatorship 'The General in His Labyrinth'. It's about Signora Bolivar, the liberator general of the Spanish colonies in Latin America. Marquez talks about the life of the once brilliant leader after retirement from the army. By the way, according to official data, historians know practically nothing about Bolivar's late biography.
Gabriel García Márquez, using magic realism, forms the legend of the brilliant commander, using certain known facts, transforms them into truth and myths, which the reader will have to share on his own. Bolivar's symbolic journey along the river becomes a walk along the road of memories, summing up the journey into the world that awaits everyone after death.
Attention! This rating is subjective and does not constitute an advertisement and does not serve as a purchase guide. Before buying, you need to consult with a specialist.
