Customer Reviews

Innocent Erendira And Other Stories

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Eréndira is a dark fairy tale covered in the blanket of magic realism that has become Gabriel García Márquez's trademark. The story itself unfolds like a bizarre daydream that follows a 14 year old Eréndira as she is plagued by the "wind of her misfortune." It is this wind that causes Eréndira to burn down her grandmother's lavish villa. Upon seeing the ruin and ashes the Grandmother informs Eréndira that "it would take a lifetime to back the debt you owe me." And so begins the young girl's life of prostitution. In order to earn back her money, the Grandmother sells Eréndira to countless men, day and night. It is only when Eréndira meets angelic Ulysses that her tortured life seemingly begins to change. Perhaps the most brilliant aspect of this movie is the role of the Grandmother. She is continually seated upon a throne-like chair, is incredibly fat and gaudy and devours cake by the handful; all while dispensing cryptic advice to Eréndira. The power that the Grandmother has over the life of Eréndira is shocking yet morbidly interesting, as is she. This strong presence is the reason that her character commands the most attention in the story. Her greed and voracious appetite for life are quite possibly representative of the many corrupt and powerful organizations and politicians that are present in Latin America and throughout the world. Eréndira is a compelling story to say the least. It is funny yet eerie, intriguing yet grotesque, and I thought it was amazing. Every piece of description and every word of dialogue work together to create the web of magic realism that dominates story line. If you like slightly dark stories of Latin American culture that have a magical twist, then Eréndira should be your first choice.

A wonderfull collection of stories with the best of Garcia Marquez' magical realism, which introduces the reader to life in Macondo and the author's writting style. I recommend you read this book before trying 100 years of solitude because the short stories are much simpler but just as amusing. Once you start reading it you won't be able to stop.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is certainly a great writer and his Nobel Prize is no fluke. However, this is a collection of his early stories with most dating back to the late 1940's and early 1950's. It is interesting to see the early focus on the out-of-body, after-life and other-worldly experiences that lead the author toward the eventual "magic realism". That doesn't mean that they're good stories to read. In fact, I found most stories (other than the title story) to be rather tedious reading even as short as most of them were. "Innocent Erendira" is a good example of the author's polished style and stands as a contrast to the other works. Some sort of editing mishap has the book lead with "Innocent Erendira" rather than closing with it. Thus we see the best in the beginning and watch the rest go down hill rather than build up to the climax (as should have been done). I have often made it a point to read all of a favorite author's works and Garcia Marquez is certainly a favorite of mine. However, I have learned that even greatness has its' measure of mediocrity. This book is a reminder of that.

Innocent Erendira and Other Stories should have been entitled Innocent Erendira and Sketches. The only real story is the title piece, The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother. The other stories are mood pieces about death--interesting, but only in the way Rembrandt's doodles might be interesting. They are worth looking at, but don't really stand on their own. The title piece, however, is a gem, filled with true Garcian flare--the Caribbean circus, frantic desert chases, strange gringos, exploding pianos, treasure, obsession, repression, confession, and hilarious one-liners. When Garcia Marquez pulls the stops out, there is nobody like him.

Start off with "100 Years of Solitude", and then enjoy these short stories, they will take you back to a magical time that used to be. Marquez weaves his magic best in long, heady volumes, but these stories are not-to-be-missed for any fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

This is a collection of 12 stories written by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His most famous works are One Hundred Years of Solitude (P.S.), The Autumn of the Patriarch (P.S.) and (Love in the Time of Cholera (Vintage International)). I've read them all, and like so many others, have been enthralled with his style and his sometimes whimsical insights into the human condition. This book is an odd assortment that the publisher yoked together. The last 11 short stories were written when Marquez was between 25 and 30, in the early `50's. One Hundred Years of Solitude (P.S.) was first published in the late `60's. Only the title story, the length of a novella, was written after his classic work, in the early `70's.

Concerning the 11 stories I call a "warm-up," well, they are just that. Certainly there is evidence of the themes and style that would be honed and polished into his major works. Overall though, they are rough, and two in particular, "Eyes of the Blue Dog" and "Night of the Curlews" should have been "left on the cutting room floor" as they say in the movies. Concerning these, and the others, there are times when the style he is famous for introducing, "magical realism," flips into outright hallucinations, worthy (or more appropriately, unworthy) of William Burroughs. Marquez's sardonic view of the "democratic process," revealed in the electioneering and philandering of Senator Onesimo Sanchez will resonate with many a modern American reader. Death is a theme that is laced through many of these stories, and in particular, dominates "The Third Resignation," which appears to draw inspiration from Kafka's The Metamorphosis. Also in several of his stories, particularly in "Dialogue with the Mirror," he plays with the theme of a person's doppelganger - that eerie "other" who may accompany us. In "Eva is Inside her Cat," as the title might suggest, the author plays with the themes of the surrealistic painters, with insects under the skin causing a woman's beauty, which proves to be an immense burden. The reincarnation of choice is being a cat, but the dying mouse in one's mouth seems to spoil that fantasy. "The Woman who Came at 6'o'clock" involves the classic theme which has also become a cliché, the bartender who falls in love with a woman working in the world's oldest profession.

The title novella is clearly the best, and involves a ruthless grandmother pimping her granddaughter to obtain reparations for the grandmother's house that was burned down due to the carelessness of the granddaughter. Lots of sexual titillation, the proverbial "knight in shining armor," a dash of religion, and a much more refined dose of "magical realism."

Overall though, this book is probably only for hard-core Marquez fans, who have already read his major works. I'll round up to 4-stars, certainly in honor of the 100 years.

I read this book as well as watched the movie for my Spanish 495 class at school and thought that it was one of the more interesting of the books that we read, among el reino de este mundo, and pedro páramo. It had so much simbolism and meaning to it. I recommend it for fun, as well as for a course. It's fairly short, but with a lot of meaning behind it.

In Innocent Erendira and Other Stories by Gabriel Garcia Márquez, the author share short vignettes of adventures.
Márquez short stories delve into beauty, life, death and the wonders around us. A departure from is longer works, this book is a joy to discover the wit and imagination of one of the most prolific writers of our time.