Customer Reviews

News of a Kidnapping

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If one were not familiar with the kidnappings that have occurred in Columbia, one might just believe this was a brilliant piece of fiction. Unfortunately this is not the case and Marquez does a fantastic job of recounting the terror that the hostages had to go through in their ordeal. This a true life tale of one of the plagues of Latin America. It is all to common to hear of prominent atheletes, entertainers and other high profile individuals being held ransom to fullfill a political cause. This is a story of Pablo Escobar, the notorious drug lord and how he conducted his reign over Columbia. This is the story of the Medellin cartels attempt to pressure the United Staates into not exradicting any of it's members. The portrayl of the drug lords and their lackeys is brilliant, showing the human side of people who are inhumane. The captives are so real, as portrayed by Marquez that one becomes very emotional over the conditions they had to endure. This book details the kidnapping of various journalists, ten in all, one by one. An easy enough book to read one will finish this book quickly as the suspense is, to use a pun, captivating. That Gabriel Garcia Marquez would write such a book is amazing considering that he risks his life by doing so. True to his his journalist roots he did it at the urging of the released captives suggestion. Marquez is to be applauded for his effort and his bravery as well as he shed some international light on a terrible malady of Latin America. After reading this you will appreciate your freedom and and all the luxuries it affords.

Let me say this first: this is not a book for the fainthearted! If you have someone you care about in Colombia, you will drive that person (and yourself) crazy if you read this book!! (Unfortunately, I speak from experience.. *gentle smile*)

Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez is best known for his beautiful classic novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude". "News of a Kidnapping" is very different from the other novels I have read of García Márquez, but still very interesting and well written. If one were not familiar with the kidnappings that have occurred in Columbia, one might just believe this was just another brilliant novel by Garcia Márquez.

"News of a kidnapping" is a true-life story of one of the evils of Colombia and Latin America. García Márquez writes about the kidnappings of Colombian journalists, and other well-known persons or their relatives, ten in total. "News of a kidnapping" is the story of how these people lived during their endless months in captivity. While held hostages they were not tortured nor abused, but just being away from their families and loved ones for many months and the lack of news from the outside world wore them out. The emotional suffering was made even worse by the attitudes of their abductors. One moment they could be very nice to them, and in the next moment they could be behaving like wild animals. Parallel to the memoirs of the imprisoned journalists, we follow their families and their anxiety; and the fight to have the ones kidnapped set free.

In Colombia people live in constant fear of being the next victim of kidnapping, or maybe even worse, that their loved ones will be. All too often we hear of famous athletes, celebrities, or other high profile people being held ransom for money or to achieve other political goals. That Garcia Márquez has dared to write such a book is rather amazing, bearing in mind that he probably risked his life by doing so. This book will for sure change the way you look upon your personal freedom!

After finishing this book I realized that living in Norway is maybe not that bad after all. It is not the belly on earth, and not much is happening here, but Hey! maybe that's not so bad after all..

I read News of a kidnapping(Noticias de un Secuestro) of colombian writer, Gabriel García Márquez in spanish, and for me it was one of those book that I found myself cryng while reading it. Does it loose something with the translation?,I don't know; Does it loose something with the cultural gap?, maybe.Maybe if you don't live in a country were your physical integrity its in constant risk, you'll find this novel an odd version of Magic realism, but one musn't forget that García Márquez began his career as a journalist, and in his collected journalist works you could find in seed what you can fully appreciate in News of a kidnapping: That Gabo is almost as talented in non-fiction as he is in fiction. He might not be your typical or classical journalist, his works are so interesting and well written that you might think that you're reading fiction. Lástima that this is not the case: in Colombia, and lately in Venezuela, people live in constant fear of beign the next prey of the kidnappers,or maybe even worse, their loved ones. These menace is for everybody: Young, old, women, men, children, poor people, rich people. I think that García Márquez dared to write about something that few would: the kidnappings of a number of colombian journalists.How they lived during their endless months in captivity; their families and their desperation; the negotiations; the sacrifices of human life for what: An ideal...or greed? News of a kidnapping its a wonderful books of a horrible contemporary latinamerican issue.

I first read an exerpt from this book in the New Yorker magazine and was compelled to read the book in its entirety. GGM provides a page-turning account of the kidnapping of several prominent Colombian journalists. His narrative not only provides insight to how one endures such ordeals but gives equal time to explain how Pablo Escobar and his cartel felt compelled to act as they did. Criticism that this narrative is dull and confusing are unfounded. The book provides insight as to what is happening today in Colombia with the many car bombings and acts of terroism by the drug cartel. It also provides an understanding to the difficulty that the US government faces in trying to counteract these acts of terroism not to mention the illegal trafficking of drugs. This is an excellent read and I only hope that GCM will at some point provide us with a follow up to this well written book.

This is my first attempt at GGM's work. The author's writing style is very different in accounting the events happened during that kidnap saga. As he explains the events unfolding, he carefully adds the background information of the appropriate character(s) involved in the scene and he gets back to the present by providing the correct dose of the past. Though the reader aware of the victims killed, the heart races every time the government forces goof up and we wonder whom going to get killed. That means successful writing. The book details the exhaustive account of how all the sides acted during the period of kidnapping, how professionally and emotionally the victims' families handle the situations. The author explains them in a measured quantity rather than tiring the reader with too many deatils.

The translation is great and I can't help feeling that Edith Grossman got into GGM's mind and translate it exactly what he was trying to put it. Very rare I come across a translator like that.

Worth reading.

How can anyone think that one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century, who also happened to be a journalist, could write anything that was shallow is beyond me. But the fact that this book is a highly readable account of one of the major judicial events in the history of the world, as well as being book by a Nobel laureate, makes it absolutely amazing. The man weaves together a complex narrative which creates a certain amount of empathy for the persons involved as well as illuminating the truly fascinating history behind it; i.e., the Medellin cartel's insidious network of kidnapping journalists and ransoming them against their own extradition.

The fact that anyone would think that an author of Marquez' stature would write a book about such a complex and intriguing subject, and not do it well, is beyond me.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "News of a Kidnapping" is a non-fiction work of journalism. This is unusual in that Señor Gabo, as he is known by his Colombia countrymen, usually writes fiction. Of course, he is best known as the nobel-prize winning author of the novels "One Hundred Years of Solitude", "Love in the Time of Cholera", and "The General in his Labyrinth". This fiction has been called "magical realism".

"News of a Kidnapping" was translated by Edith Grossman. She translated all the Marquez novels listed above and has been praised by the author.

"News of a Kidnapping" tells the tales of the kidnapping of a dozen or so Colombian citizens by the drug lords who came to be called the "extraditables". That name is no longer in the news since Pablo Escobar and other kingpins have been killed and the drug cartels broken into smaller groups including the guerrilla army which is, of course, no small group at all. The "extraditables" name refers to the fact that Colombia had signed a treaty allowing the extradition of drug lords wanted by the U.S. to the U.S. for trial. The kidnapping described in this book was a campaign of terror designed to roll back this legislation. This pretty much worked since the extradition laws were overturned.

The journalism in this book reads like a novel. We are witness to the horror of the kidnapping of people who are then help captive in Medellin and elsewhere. The prisoner's psychological torment is made worse by the attitudes of their captors. At one moment they could be gentle the next they would be brutal. They were not physically tortured or psychologically abused. But their absence from their families for up to a year and lack of news wore them down. Some captives could have easily jumped out of windows and escaped. But they had been blindfolded or stuffed onto the floorboards of a car when they were taken. Consequently they did not know where they were even though most were in a city. The captives were also hidden with the complicity of neighbors. So if they fled to freedom they would no doubt have been betrayed by those around them.

There was a profile of Gabriel Marguez in "The New Yorker" magazine a year or two ago. It seems he serves as a go-between and unpaid diplomat ferrying messages between the United States and Fidel Castro's Cuba. Marquez has long been friends of Castro. Riding around Colombia in an armored convoy he is a jet-setting politician traveling to Panama and beyond. Like Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, or Gore Vidal, this is a novelist who is involved in politics as well as writing.

If you have not read them, the fiction of Gabriel Marquez is a worthy pursuit. My math teacher in college, no doubt being frustrated with kids who lacked a humanistic education, offered extra credit to those who read "One Hundred Years of Solitude". Only after that class ended did I read that novel. It is a "Buddenbrooks" for Latin America. Much of it's settings and ideas are drawn from the jungle where Marquez grew up. "Love in the time of Cholera" is just that: a love story set in the time when cholera ravaged the population. The vision of dead bloated bodies floating in the river remains vivid in my mind. "The General in His Labrynth" is a fictionalized look at the like of Simon Bolivar, liberator of Ecuador, Peru, and Columbia. I like these books so much I have read each several times.

This business of kidnapping and civil war has ruined Colombia. I would like to go there as a tourist. Bogota is high in the sky and consequently cool like Quito, Ecuador. It is surrounded by pleasant mountain vistas. Cartagena is on the coast and I am sure has great beaches and fishing. Maybe this madness of war will end one day. Do as George Shultz, William F. Buckley, and George Soros say and legalize marijuana, heroin, and cocaine. Then we would cut off all that violence at its pocket book source.

When you walk into a bookstore and go to the history section, and look for latinamerican history, you will find this book there. It is absolutely outrageous that this book is sold as if it were titled "A History of Colombia".

Kidnapping is a phenomena that has plagued Colombia for some time now, as it provides the economic means for the civil war in Colombia. However, kidnapping is not the axis our major point of our history.

This very well written book is an account of a kidnapping from the inside. Gabo actually spoke to the people this happened to, and penned it nicely. This book is sad and reflects a reality which should only exist in nightmares.

Worth it.

If you go in here expecting magic realism, remembering Love in the Time of Cholera and looking for that delightful language that, even in translation, is Marquez's trademark, you won't find it here. This is the grim realism of Marquez the journalist, taking up the most important issue tearing his beloved Colombia apart: the drug trade and the senseless violence that went with it. Here, in remorseless detail, he takes up the events leading up to the Pablo Escobar 'surrender': the brutal kidnappings by the Extraditables, the political machinations, Escobar's arrogant control over everything that happened. For me who knew of Escobar and the Colombian drug trade only through newspaper reports, the book was a remarkable insight into the daily horrors that the existence if the criminally armed drug traders and their cronies in Medellin meant for the people of Colombia. One can understand why the country had such insanely high crime rates. While the story itself is gripping, one cannot escape the feeling that more has been left out than said, and I will certainly be reading more about this intractable subject. The prose are nothing much to speak of (amazing in a Marquez novel), the English translation appears stilted and at times reads like a too-long newspaper report. A fascinating and shocking story

What an amazing story! And to have it told by Garcia Marquez.

This is the true story of a series of kidnappings that took place in Colombia a decade ago. Unfortunately, it seems that this story could be told again this year, with a new set of victims. Garcia Marquez tells the story from various of the kidnappers perspective, and he keeps it organized so the reader can follow along and understand what is happening to each of the victims, their families, etc.

This is a must ready for anyone interested in Colombia, Latin America, or contemporary issues in general. I know I'll be re-reading it again.