An eveloping trip down the River Magdelena,and through South American history,as we follow Bolivar, and his thoughts as he leaves the country. ( )

The Pulitzer Prize winner Marquez gives us the last days of Simon Bolivar as his health deteriorates and his legendary liberation of South America from Spanish rule is left trampled and his dream of a unified country turns to ash. Yes, there is history here, but what is striking is the sculpture of a dying man putting the layers of his life into place as he tolerates a journey to exile amidst derision and humiliation, yet with a faithful entourage. We travel with Bolivar on a trip down the Magdalena River as life slips slowly through his hands yet continues rushing around him. He always participates! Even as his body is ravaged, fevers and hallucinations deny him sleep, and food is odious, he still schemes and plans for a unified country despite all the obstacles. Emaciated and weak he still carries on with the voyage of life, not always with grace, often with temper but always with passion. No, I can't really call this a historical novel, not a novel in the typical sense either, what comes to mind more than anything is that this is a portrait. It is a picture of a prematurely old man in all of his magnificence and humanity as he slides away from us. It is not often pretty, bodies in decline seldom are, but it is life and this story is told with a beauty of which Marquez' is master. A worthwhile read! ( )

Difficult to get into. Waiting for that magic GGM insight and tying up of story to emerge but it never came. ( )

This was one of those difficult books that was objectively good, and I know it was objectively good, and yet I didn’t like it.

Marquez is Latin America’s most famous writer, and in The General In His Labyrinth he chronicles the last days of Latin America’s most famous hero, Simon Bolivar. Breaking with tradition, in which Bolivar is portrayed as a saint-like hero, Marquez depicts him as a sick, tired, weary and bitter old man. He has been turned out of government by his countrymen, and is travelling down a river to the Caribbean coastline with a few loyal aides-de-camp, heading for a European exile.

Bolivar was apparently the George Washington of South America, a military leader, statesman and visionary, but whom I’d never heard of before reading the book. That’s the “problem” with reading it as a Westerner; it’s so peppered with South American history that a foreigner has difficulty understanding what’s going on. It almost felt like a fantasy novel, taking place in a distant and unfamiliar landscape, through countries which may as well be fictional because they don’t exist anymore.

This isn’t an inherently bad thing, of course, but it’s not exactly an accessible book, and I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed it. ( )

Book review (spanish) ( )