News of a Kidnapping
I usually
find GGM very readable and love the way he richly builds up characters and situations making you feel part of it. However
although this is
meant to be his best book I found it really difficult to get into. He brings so many characters in to play
and has a seemingly scattergun
approach as to who you get to know and who not. Added to this anyone without the advantage of being in
power or with influence is
seemingly dismissed by him as if their or their family's pain is nothing. Maybe this is deliberate as I guess
in Columbia South America.
The
narrative lurches from kidnapped to political workings all the time without really going into any
context but maybe it was written for Columbians who'd lived through
this period. I was in Columbia in the late 80s and so followed the
disastrous times then and into the 90s but even so I could have done
with a quick recap as to who Escobar was and how the situation with him,
other drug cartels and the para military / police militias had come
about and their atrocities in the slums.
I felt little sympathy for the main characters especially as they came from the social and political elite and had access to power including the president and indeed Escobar too. Maybe also it's because we don't get into the prisoners' personalities and the mental stress is reported as if in a news bulletin rather than in an empathetic way which is odd for Marquez as he's very good at that in other books I've read. I also wondered if something was lost in translation although the translator is Edith Grossman who I've read and though did brilliantly for Don Quixote and The General in His Labyrinth.
I got more into the book when it moves to less prisoners so you get to know them better and when it goes into the mechanisms of political influence and the governments way of dealing with Escobar and then learning about him. The release of the last two and Escobar's surrender were interesting although sometimes a little unbelievable and again could have had more context (written for Columbians?) as to who he was and how built up such an empire - cartels and the govt war on narcotics and police atrocities in the slums. The ending feels a bit rushed with nothing on the aftermath except for Escobar's fate.
I felt little sympathy for the main characters especially as they came from the social and political elite and had access to power including the president and indeed Escobar too. Maybe also it's because we don't get into the prisoners' personalities and the mental stress is reported as if in a news bulletin rather than in an empathetic way which is odd for Marquez as he's very good at that in other books I've read. I also wondered if something was lost in translation although the translator is Edith Grossman who I've read and though did brilliantly for Don Quixote and The General in His Labyrinth.
I got more into the book when it moves to less prisoners so you get to know them better and when it goes into the mechanisms of political influence and the governments way of dealing with Escobar and then learning about him. The release of the last two and Escobar's surrender were interesting although sometimes a little unbelievable and again could have had more context (written for Columbians?) as to who he was and how built up such an empire - cartels and the govt war on narcotics and police atrocities in the slums. The ending feels a bit rushed with nothing on the aftermath except for Escobar's fate.
In the end I was glad I persevered and enjoyed the 2nd half more than first. Not at all sure it's his best book though...
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