Eadie B. (eadieburke) - , reviewed on 7/5/2017 + 1642 more book reviews

Marquez considered No One Writes to the Colonel as his best book, saying that he had to write One Hundred Years of Solitude so that people would read No One Writes to the Colonel. The story is about an impoverished, retired colonel, a veteran of the Thousand Days' War, who still hopes to receive the pension he was promised some fifteen years earlier. The colonel lives with his asthmatic wife in a small village under martial law. The action opens with the colonel preparing to go to the funeral of a town musician whose death is notable because he was the first to die from natural causes in many years. The novel is set during the years of "La Violencia" in Colombia, when martial law and censorship prevail.
Because the book is actually the length of a short story, it is hard to really get to the characters. The book does give insight into what was really going on in Colombia at the time and uses references to censorship and the impact of government on society. Marquez explained that the novel was inspired by his grandfather, who was also a colonel and who never received the pension he was promised. However, there is also speculation that Marrquez took inspiration from his experience of unemployment in 1956 after the newspaper he had been working for shut down. The daily lives he witnessed during this time are said to be one of his inspirations for this novel.
I enjoyed reading this short story and found the characters interesting. I just wish it was a bit longer in order to get to know the characters better. I would recommend this short novel to those who are interested in the conditions in Colombia around the 1950's.

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