Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Avon Bard Books (1973), Mass Market Paperback, 223 pages
Description
Presents a collection of seven short stories written between 1957 and 1968 by twentieth-century Colombian-born author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
User reviews
LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
Marquez is most famous for his '100 Years...', a masterpiece of magic realism; but he wrote other stories before the novel, and 'Lead Storm' is an interesting collection that shows the ideas as they first formed. The major story in the collection, the titular piece, at first seemed too slow and
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disjointed, but it built a remarkable momentum as it moved forwards until, by the second half, I couldn't get enough of it. The other stories reminded me in a strange way of Borges, though I can't put my finger on why exactly. Show Less
LibraryThing member PilgrimJess
"No medicine cures what happiness cannot."
Set in a fictional Columbian coastal town this novella tells of the arrival and exit of the “leaf storm,” the hordes of outsiders who descended on the region as they followed the banana companies, its prosperity during the 1910’s, and its decadence
Central to this book is the burial of the most hated man in the village and is told through the eyes of the three generations of one family: the Colonel, his daughter Isabel and his young grandson. The Colonel is motivated by a promise he made to the dead man; Isabel obeys her father's request and goes along reluctantly worried as to how the other villagers will react if they are seen attending the funeral; while the child does not fully understand what is going on and whilst he is intrigued by the sight of a dead man would rather be playing with his friends.
The dead man, an outsider of unknown origins, has been found hanged and how he arrived at the village and became to be so disliked is told through a series of flashbacks by the two older characters. Most of the book consists of inner monologues by the respective characters and there is only minimal dialogue throughout. In contrast to his elders the narrative of the young boy is primarily concerned with his fascination towards the dead and thinking of the fun things that he would rather be doing.
I read somewhere that this was the author's first piece of work and it took seven years for him to find a publisher for it. Frankly I'm not surprised. Despite realising that two of the major themes of this book is a feeling of obligation and the effects of a sudden influx of new people can have on a small community I really just couldn't really see where this was going at all and as such wasn't that impressed with it . It is at least thankfully short.
Set in a fictional Columbian coastal town this novella tells of the arrival and exit of the “leaf storm,” the hordes of outsiders who descended on the region as they followed the banana companies, its prosperity during the 1910’s, and its decadence
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after 1918. A short period of wealth that ended as quickly as it had begun.Central to this book is the burial of the most hated man in the village and is told through the eyes of the three generations of one family: the Colonel, his daughter Isabel and his young grandson. The Colonel is motivated by a promise he made to the dead man; Isabel obeys her father's request and goes along reluctantly worried as to how the other villagers will react if they are seen attending the funeral; while the child does not fully understand what is going on and whilst he is intrigued by the sight of a dead man would rather be playing with his friends.
The dead man, an outsider of unknown origins, has been found hanged and how he arrived at the village and became to be so disliked is told through a series of flashbacks by the two older characters. Most of the book consists of inner monologues by the respective characters and there is only minimal dialogue throughout. In contrast to his elders the narrative of the young boy is primarily concerned with his fascination towards the dead and thinking of the fun things that he would rather be doing.
I read somewhere that this was the author's first piece of work and it took seven years for him to find a publisher for it. Frankly I'm not surprised. Despite realising that two of the major themes of this book is a feeling of obligation and the effects of a sudden influx of new people can have on a small community I really just couldn't really see where this was going at all and as such wasn't that impressed with it . It is at least thankfully short.
Show Less
LibraryThing member JennysBookBag.com
This was my first Gabriel Garcia Marquez book and it didn't take me long to see why he's a Nobel winner. I can see why readers fall in love with his books. He instantly grabs your attention. The first sentence is "I've seen a corpse for the first time." Who wouldn't want to read more after reading
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that awesome opening line? I'm looking forward to reading more of his work, especially One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
Spanish
Original publication date
1972 (Jonathan Cape)
ISBN
none