On the writing, as in most of my reviewing, I tend to post on a positive note–notwithstanding the fact that the books have been excellent overall–that it must appear I am fickle, even unreliable perhaps in falling in love with the work of whomever I am reading. Not true.
Something is starting to bug me with Marquez, and it started with the firing squad and was bolstered by the begonia, and is now including the word "solitude." The words are being repeated at me until I am almost made painfully aware of them. While I felt at first that the "firing squad" was to keep me in tune with the future of the characters while I read of their past (an amazing feat, telling the reader how the character will end up while maintaining interest in the story, not once, but many times), but Marquez did surprise with a twist: Aureliano escapes death, but the single mention of Arcadio proves true.
The begonia hit me right off the bat, mainly because of its placement with the sky and wall. When it was repeated several times, I held it as a symbol of the home and endurance of life–and in a moment, returning to the wonder of Marquez, I shall use it to exemplify his skill at imagery.
But now, it is almost as if I have to focus on the whole meaning of the book: solitude. As Marquez slips it in, slowly at first and then more often with a bit more depth, I am finding what it means to each character. A general idea for me right now is that it is a separation each individual character feels from his world, despite the passion with which his or her life is lived. More on this in another post, since it is obviously important to the story.
But it does seem just a tad overdone in the repetition of the single phrase or word. For a while there, I would have marked the begonia as the leit motif of the novel. It began to annoy, and in searching backwards for clues (‘fore I learned to remember, or at least mark the pages), I find it near impossible to research because of the variation in timelines: was it mentioned in past or present or future, after which current event?
However, and here is where I stand back in awe, Marquez is a master of imagery while using his reader to supply the image. The best way I can explain this is that his stark imagery provokes a reader to immediately furnish the detail. It is almost as if what Marquez gives us is a coloring book and 24-pack of crayons.
My begonia is hot pink. What color did you make it?
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