Status
Available
Collection
Publication
Alfred A. Knopf (1993), Edition: 1st, 188 pages
Description
The 12 stories in this shimmering collection poignantly depict South Americans adrift in Europe. Combining terror and nostalgia, surreal comedy and the poetry of the commonplace, Strange Pilgrims is a triumph of narrative sorcery by the Nobel Prize-winning author of One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Media reviews
La obra Doce cuentos peregrinos bien podría haberse titulado Doce cuentos siniestros o Doce cuentos lúgubres, pero hizo bien el autor en titularla con el adjetivo que utilizó porque es un término que se presta a jugar con la palabra. Peregrino es alguien que anda en tierras extrañas, y todos
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los protagonistas de este libro son extranjeros. Peregrino es también alguien que por devoción va a visitar un lugar santo, lo que se cumple en un par de estos cuentos. Es peregrina el ave que va de un lugar a otro, y eso es justamente lo que pasó con estos cuentos, los cuales se escribieron en el transcurso de casi dos décadas y hasta llegaron a perderse definitivamente, teniendo el autor que rescatar de su memoria a los más afortunados. Algo peregrino es también algo raro, y en estos cuentos hay mucho de extraño. Los dos títulos que sugerí al inicio de este artículo habrían tenido solo la ventaja de advertir al lector las emociones que le esperaban al leer el libro. No teniendo la suerte de ser prevenida, solo me quedó hundirme inadvertidamente en esta ciénaga de historias funestas. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member myfanwy
This was happily one of those collections that was written as a collection. Marquez' publisher didn't just call him up and ask him to clean his desk and drop off some pieces he'd written over the years. No, this is one that Marquez carefully crafted and honed down to just a few stories, all about
I have to say, I love GGM's writing style. He finds the poetic in the mundane. Skin is the "color of bread". A pricked finger leaves a trail of drops of blood in the snow. There is also something subtly grotesque in his works, something which I appreciate from Roald Dahl's short stories as well. The most horrifying one of the collection was I Only Came to Use the Phone in which a woman finds herself in a mental hospital, unable to escape and growing steadily madder with the passage of time. There's also a classic ghost story, short and simple and effective in The Ghosts of August and even I Sell my Dreams has an underlying current of apprehension.
Marquez isn't at his best in his short stories. You miss in these the intertwining stories and the depth of characterization that he is capable of. However, this was a lovely and enjoyable short collection which shows his style and elegance.
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Latin Americans in Europe.I have to say, I love GGM's writing style. He finds the poetic in the mundane. Skin is the "color of bread". A pricked finger leaves a trail of drops of blood in the snow. There is also something subtly grotesque in his works, something which I appreciate from Roald Dahl's short stories as well. The most horrifying one of the collection was I Only Came to Use the Phone in which a woman finds herself in a mental hospital, unable to escape and growing steadily madder with the passage of time. There's also a classic ghost story, short and simple and effective in The Ghosts of August and even I Sell my Dreams has an underlying current of apprehension.
Marquez isn't at his best in his short stories. You miss in these the intertwining stories and the depth of characterization that he is capable of. However, this was a lovely and enjoyable short collection which shows his style and elegance.
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LibraryThing member JosephJ
This is a collection of short stories about Latino Americans traveling or living in Europe. Marquez lures the reader into the sense that any one of his stories may not really be going anywhere, but then it suddenly shifts into an impactful climax, which validates all that came before it. Another
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great quality in the stories is Marquez’s ability to touch upon the human condition in very subtle ways while using magical realism to do so. Also, his descriptions of landscapes and of certain people (particularly women) are succulent. Show Less
LibraryThing member guiltlessreader
Probably my favorite GGM. This is a fantastic book! If you aren’t quite ready to plunge into Garcia Marquez’s full length books, this one will give you a feel for how he writes. Despite some of these stories being only a few pages long, the stories will stay with you. They are beautifully
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un-verbose and showcase his gift for storytelling in magical, mystical prose. That is Garcia Marquez’s magic. Show Less
LibraryThing member FPdC
This book collects together twelve short stories, with the common theme of being about South American expatriates in Europe. A few of them I thought were really good, but overall, I found the author somewhat lacking in a clear ideia on how to finish them. Certainly, I would not rank them among the
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best of Márquez's efforts. Show Less
LibraryThing member nmhale
An anthology of twelve short stories, by one of my favorite writers, Marquez. I'm trying to read some more magical realism into my life, and I picked up this collection as a starter. The stories were actually much more pure realism than his previous collections, which doesn't detract from his
For instance, one of my favorite stories, "Miss Forbes's Summer of Happiness". In this story of a sad summer in the life of two boys, the narrative begins in a simple structure that I've seen before, young people suffering under the harsh and restrictive tutelage of an overbearing governess. Yet we start with one of the boy's shout of fear over a fish head tacked to the door (a species that Miss Forbes identifies as a mythological creature) and that gruesome death head haunts the remainder of the story, imbuing ordinary events with an air of mystery. When the boys arrive at their shocking decision, the atmosphere of the story makes it not so surprising, after all. Nothing that happens from beginning to end is an event that we would be surprised to see in the modern day, but it all wears the murky costume of a dream in daylight.
Let me try describing another one of my favorite stories, "Light is Like Water", because it is hard putting in words the special quality in these stories. This tale is the reverse of the former; whereas one presents explicable events in a fantastic way, the other describes inexplicable happenings as if they were quite ordinary. In this much smaller tale, two boys learn how to harness the liquid nature of light and swim around their living room in boats and diving gear. They transform an apartment in the middle of a landlocked city into a water paradise. As he describes these marvelous events, Marquez uses simple and clear diction, and a tone that is natural. He has a paragraph, in fact, describing the scientific principles that make the boys' discovery possible. In all ways he writes as if this impossible event were the simplest thing in the world. This is more like some of his earlier stories that I've read, where the supernatural is so grounded in reality that you can really believe.
I am again confirmed in my high regard for Marquez as a storyteller. His characters are so real I can meet them, his sense of place so detailed and vivid that I never for a minute doubt the veracity of his story. He manages to bring out the supernatural quality of life, to merge the fantastic and the mundane in a harmonious union, even in this collection where the magical realism isn't as pronounced. I haven't even really touched on his themes, either, in particular how death is enfolded in life, or how the glorious can be discovered in the cheap and tawdry. A fine book, and a good starting place for those just discovering Marquez.
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masterly writing or the beauty of these stories; and though the stories didn't merge the real and the supernatural as much as I have come to expect from Marquez's work, he has the same surreal touch of presenting a dream-like quality to everyday life. The style of his writing emphasizes the magic of the ordinary. For instance, one of my favorite stories, "Miss Forbes's Summer of Happiness". In this story of a sad summer in the life of two boys, the narrative begins in a simple structure that I've seen before, young people suffering under the harsh and restrictive tutelage of an overbearing governess. Yet we start with one of the boy's shout of fear over a fish head tacked to the door (a species that Miss Forbes identifies as a mythological creature) and that gruesome death head haunts the remainder of the story, imbuing ordinary events with an air of mystery. When the boys arrive at their shocking decision, the atmosphere of the story makes it not so surprising, after all. Nothing that happens from beginning to end is an event that we would be surprised to see in the modern day, but it all wears the murky costume of a dream in daylight.
Let me try describing another one of my favorite stories, "Light is Like Water", because it is hard putting in words the special quality in these stories. This tale is the reverse of the former; whereas one presents explicable events in a fantastic way, the other describes inexplicable happenings as if they were quite ordinary. In this much smaller tale, two boys learn how to harness the liquid nature of light and swim around their living room in boats and diving gear. They transform an apartment in the middle of a landlocked city into a water paradise. As he describes these marvelous events, Marquez uses simple and clear diction, and a tone that is natural. He has a paragraph, in fact, describing the scientific principles that make the boys' discovery possible. In all ways he writes as if this impossible event were the simplest thing in the world. This is more like some of his earlier stories that I've read, where the supernatural is so grounded in reality that you can really believe.
I am again confirmed in my high regard for Marquez as a storyteller. His characters are so real I can meet them, his sense of place so detailed and vivid that I never for a minute doubt the veracity of his story. He manages to bring out the supernatural quality of life, to merge the fantastic and the mundane in a harmonious union, even in this collection where the magical realism isn't as pronounced. I haven't even really touched on his themes, either, in particular how death is enfolded in life, or how the glorious can be discovered in the cheap and tawdry. A fine book, and a good starting place for those just discovering Marquez.
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LibraryThing member isabelx
When we came back to the house in the afternoon, we found an enormous sea serpent nailed by the neck to the door frame. Black and phosphorescent, it looked like a Gypsy curse, with its still-flashing eyes and its sawlike teeth in gaping jaws.
A book of short stories about Latin Americans in Europe.
A book of short stories about Latin Americans in Europe.
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Some are settled and some adrift, but all feel out of place in an alien land. My favourites were "Seventeen Poisoned Englishmen", "Light is like Water" and "The Trail of Your Blood in the Snow". Show Less
LibraryThing member Niecierpek
Delicious if you like South American fiction. Very much Marquez. No surprises.
LibraryThing member abycats
Read three out of twelve stories and am beginning to think I simply don't like mystical writing such as I usually find in fiction translated from Spanish. I'm undoubtedly missing some deep joys and emotions from not finding Marquez's and other well-regarded authors' books marvelous but so be it.
LibraryThing member jonfaith
Despite my aversion story collections, this one had an impact. I recall reading this one at the side of a lake, the breeze was amazing and I felt transported by these tales of myriad exiles and martyrs.
LibraryThing member Carmenere
Don't get me wrong, GGM is one of my favorite authors and I normally like the locales, real and imagined, to which he takes me however taking this collection of stories on vacation was a very bad idea!
Firstly, as I read the first story, it began to sound vaguely familiar to me but I continued on
Firstly, as I read the first story, it began to sound vaguely familiar to me but I continued on
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and, sure enough, by it's conclusion, I realized I read it before in another collection of short stories by Marquez. One not to give up on my favorite author, I continued to read the other stories, sadly several more turned out to be rereads as well, though well written, it was not the time nor the place for them. Secondly, the stories are consumed with death, dying, old age and reflections of past loves and regrets. Ugh! Again, not holiday material! I left the book in the lobby of the Hotel Gellert in Budapest in the hope another reader will enjoy it more than I. Show Less
LibraryThing member DanielSTJ
This was a very keen and interesting set of stories by Marquez. Many of them have lasting value and appeal to the reader on many levels. The language is sharp and the plot-lines, themes, and evocations strong. A good collection!
3.5 stars
3.5 stars
LibraryThing member Andy_DiMartino
Some strange stuff indeed
LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri
They range from very good to pretty bad - particularly the last story which was a shame. and maybe coloured my memories of some of the earlier ones. There's more than a hint of whimsy. Made me think I should not re-read A Hundred Years of Solitude in case the magical realism has turned into whimsy
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as I have got older. The best stories have a lovely clarity about the people in them but does not pin them down so they live on in the mind rather then being fixed as a picture. Show Less
LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
'Strange Pilgrims' is a collection of short stories, each one of which is something approaching a masterpiece. If you want to learn to write, dissecting any of the stories in this collection would tell you so much that you need to know, like how to grab the reader's attention in the first
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paragraph, and how to build character through telling detail. Sumptuous, magnificent stuff. Show Less
LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri
They range from very good to pretty bad - particularly the last story which was a shame. and maybe coloured my memories of some of the earlier ones. There's more than a hint of whimsy. Made me think I should not re-read A Hundred Years of Solitude in case the magical realism has turned into whimsy
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as I have got older. The best stories have a lovely clarity about the people in them but does not pin them down so they live on in the mind rather then being fixed as a picture. Show Less
LibraryThing member beau.p.laurence
MY FAVORITE work of fiction. a collection of short stories, "I Sell My Dreams" is wonderful
LibraryThing member vdt_melbourne
Interesting stories, messing just like life. Keeps you guessing
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1992 (1e édition originale espagnole)
2002-11-06 (Nouvelle édition française Grand format luxe, Grands lecteur, Grasset jeunesse)
Physical description
188 p.; 8.5 inches
ISBN
0679425667 / 9780679425663
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Pages
188