13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Larger Than Life, May 22, 2002
By A Customer
One of my good friends is the person whose opinion I trust most when it comes to books and literature. And, I'm happy to say, we usually agree on what's good and what's not so good. Although my friend loves Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "The General in His Labyrinth," however, is one book my friend didn't like and I did.
"The General in His Labyrinth" tells the story of the melancholy and sad final journey of General Simon Bolivar, fondly known as "The Liberator" in many South American countries. Bolivar is the man who drove the Spanish from the northern part of South America during 1811-1824, even though the local aristocracy chose to fight against him. In the end, he became a sad and defeated man, old before his time and burdened with the knowledge that his dream of a unified South America would not be realized during his lifetime.
Although Bolivar is revered in much of South America (and the world in general), his final days were quite unhappy. In this book, Garcia Marquez takes us along with Bolivar on his final cruise along the Magdalena River from Colombia to the sea. Bolivar was sad, disillusioned, in shock from the after effects of an assassination attempt and suffering from an unspecified illness; in short, this mythic man had become old at the very young age of forty-six.
After Bolivar had been denied the presidency of Colombia he decided to spend his final days in Europe, far away from political strife of any kind. But Bolivar wouldn't have been Bolivar had he not given his life to the people. His dreams of living in peace in Europe were dashed when the government that replaced him failed.
It didn't take years of history to make Bolivar larger than life. He was larger then life to those who knew him intimately as well as to those who knew him only by reputation. And no wonder...he possessed a terrible temper, a extraordinarily passionate nature and his political and leadership abilities were virtually unsurpassed. Everyone paled next to Bolivar, in life just as (almost) everyone pales next to him in this book. (His enemy, Santander, and his commander, Sucre, are two notable exceptions. His lover, Manuela Saenz is also a well drawn character, but Bolivar's valet, Jose Palacios lets us know that, other than saving Bolivar from assassination, she was really nothing special, just one more lover among very many.)
I read, in a interview with Garcia Marquez, that the voyage along the Magdalena was chosen to be fictionalized since this was a little-known episode in a very publicly-lived life. Personally, I think it was a wonderful choice. The voyage was one that was no doubt filled with melancholy and nostalgia and no one writes of melancholy and nostalgia, especially South American melancholy and nostalgia, as well as does Garcia Marquez. This is a book in which real memories become confused with the hallucinations of delirium, a confusion that is only enhanced by the descriptions of the steamy jungle interior. The floods, the oppressive heat, the epidemics that Bolivar and his weary band of supporters encounter only serve to enhance "The Liberator's" own physical decline.
I also think that showing us Bolivar, not at the height of his glory, but at what was no doubt one of the lowest points of his life, was also a wonderful choice. Bolivar was, apparently, a man of contradictions. He was flamboyant and mythic, yet ultimately tragic; he could be elegant in public matters yet coarse in private; he was obviously a genius at strategy, yet his last days were filled with the incoherence of illness. And, all along the way, through this maze of contradictions, Garcia Marquez never loses sight of the one driving force in Simon Bolivar's life: his desire for a unified South America.
I also love the way Garcia Marquez twists and folds the narrative of this book until the reader isn't quite sure what's real and what's fevered hallucination; what really happened and what didn't. Of course, Garcia Marquez is a master at just this sort of narrative and he really outdoes himself in this book.
In the end, Bolivar, himself, decides that South America is ungovernable; it is, he declared, a land that will inevitably fall into the hands of tyrants, both large and small. Sadly, Bolivar's prophecy seems to be, at least in part, true. And, even more sadly still, although the world has come to love and rever "The Liberator," "The Liberator," himself, died a sad and defeated man.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From the king of magic realism, some real magic, August 4, 1997
By A Customer
Having read The General in his Labyrinth for the
fourth time, I am still amazed by the story, and
way it is told.
This is the story of the last days of Simon Bolivar
the liberator of South America.He is dying of consumption,
old before his time. He leads a sad and noble group of loyal soldiers
and retainers through the wilds of Nueva Granada. There is no
hope - the General is not wanted any more, having watched the
liberated continent fall in upon itself and fragment. Having
taught the people separatism, the tired General is powerless
to stop the inevitable.
And so the journey proceeds, punctuated by heat, torrential rain,
fever, delirium, memories of great loves, and despair. The General's
state of mind is conveyed to the reader in the minutest detail. We are
shown the destruction and self-destruction of a once powerful
man,and the effect is one of witnessing death itself, with
its mystifying loss of personality.
Bolivar rants in fevers, paces the floor unable to sleep, and talks
of the agony of assassination attempts, treacherous infighting, a fickle
public, and memories of strong women.He goes from town to town
with his entourage,in turn feted or reviled according to local
faction.
He has the protective love of his closest generals, and the dignified
devotion of his servant Jose Palacios to comfort him on his seemingly
ignoble flight.But this journey is the only possible end for a man of
such brilliant but caustic powers.It gives him and us time to think
about the real nature of power, achievement, history and fate.And the
unstated conclusion the General reaches is that even those blessed
with power and influence, even the most rigorous souls will come
to an inevitable stop that will seem at the time to be just like
any other "damn business".
Bolivar says "I'm old, sick, tired, disillusioned,
harassed, slandered and unappreciated" and "despair
is the health of the damned".When at last death
overtakes the General, Marquez closes his story with one
of the most moving scenes I have read in any novel.
("...the heartless speed of the octagonal clock racing
toward the ineluctable appointment at seven minutes past one..")
People who know Marquez for the "magic" novels may be
wonderfully surprised by this exquisitely written book.
The people, the skies, the rains, the nature, the loves
and the sorrows in this book are chillingly real.
Its beauty quite literally haunts me.
Anthony Nelson
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting window on Bolivar's life, November 6, 2000
"The General in His Labyrinth" is a fictionalized account of the last seven months of the life of Simon Bolivar (1783-1830), the liberator of Gran Colombia (Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador) from Spanish rule. Bolivar's goal was to unite South America into a single great country, but there was constant conflict with separatists and political and military rivals, and in the last year of his life he was expelled from the presidency. He left Bogota with an entourage of close friends, relatives, and servants, and his final months were spent in a journey down the River Magdalena, ostensibly to leave the country. A terminal illness (consumption? tuberculosis? his bedsheets are burned and eating utensils are buried after he uses them for fear of contagion) causes him fits of feverish delirium, in which he recalls glorious episodes in his life.
I once read one of Garcia Marquez's earlier short stories, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," and that story and this novel seem to share a theme. They are both about an important or extraordinary figure (in the story, the title character; in this novel, Bolivar) who falls from a state of grace, comes into contact with common people, and must suffer their treatment, be it awe or indifference. I knew almost nothing about Bolivar and the history of South America, but the fact that this fascinating novel made me want to learn more about the subject is a testament to Garcia Marquez's great skill as a writer.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
