Daisy, a BookBlog member who lives in New Orleans, has retreated to Chicago in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Please join me in wishing her well and hoping she gets to return to her home soon.

Although I haven't yet read Gabriel García Márquez' most known novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, I have read his other novels and short stories (there are plenty to choose from!). Perhaps like most of you, this was my first time reading Chronicle of a Death Foretold. I'd read and heard many reviews and many plot summaries on CoaDF. Thinking that I knew what to expect (although still excited about reading it), CoaDF took me by surprise and made me forget completely what I expected to read.

For an introduction, I would like to know what you thought about Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
One of the shortest novels we've read, I feel like it covered enough background information on the characters to make it a longer novel had it been written differently.
What did you all think of the way the story was executed?
Was your attention held throughout the story?
Were you bothered by the "anti-mystery" tool in this story?

Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a story about honor, tradition, irresistible violence, and the "psychology of mass complicity." (source: publisher 1999 edition?) Repetition is also often seen throughout. Aside from that, I feel that on a smaller scale, it deals with a lack of and learned love and mass consequence (since Angela is one of the main characters, i think it's somewhat significant what happens in her life in the years to come). GGM is one of the many Latin American writers that falls into the area of Magical Realism and Chronicle of a Death Foretold does not fall short of that. The following are some of my favorite lines throughout the novel which demonstrate the Magical Realism throughout the novel :

p. 37 "'He was healthier than the rest of us, but when you listened with the stethoscope, you could hear the tears bubbling inside his heart.'" (on widower Xius dying of sadness)

p. 46 "...and saw Bayardo San Román in the glow of the street light, his silk shirt unbuttoned and his fancy pants held up by elastic suspenders. 'He had that green color of dreams.'" (on BSR returning his bride)

p. 47 'She only took the time necessary to say the name...and she nailed it to the wall with her well-aimed dart, like a butterfly with no will whose sentence has always been written." (on Angela naming her perpetrator)

The way that the story was written was very successful. The tone in this story was meant to be that of a journalistic investigation and GGM's exection succeeded in that. Often times, I felt as one with the narrator, who is left unnamed--not even a last name is given. Leaving the narrator unnamed contributed to my feeling like the one doing the investigation. At the same time that the narrator is gathering all the information and accounts to make some sense of the death of Santiago Nasar, so are we.

Throughout the story, all of the characters' accounts and details differ in perspective, yet they coincide. This is one of the things that helped in keeping the story interesting for me (not that it wasn't!). For example, on p. 56, the Colonel tells the narrator that he remembered that that morning it began to rain, which coincides with earlier accounts about a thin drizzle. What mainly kept the story interesting for me was the way the story was written. I really liked how the story went in and out of the events leading to the death of Santiago to tells us about the background of some of the characters and what becomes of the characters in the years after Santiago's death.

The anti-mystery tool actually became the mystery tool. We know how the main character, Santiago, ends up. Dead. We know who kills him and why and how and when. The purpose the narrator sets out for and the tone of the novel become the driving force is wanting to find out about the events that lead to his death. That is the mystery.

Santiago Nasar: I suppose the ultimate question is, "Was he guilty???" There was no evidence, yet Angela's brothers stick to he answer. Even the narrator himself doubts Santiago's culpability. What is interesting about this is that because the narrator was friends with Santiago and he doubts his culpability, this doesn't distract us from considering Victoria Guzmán and her daughter Divina Flor's strong feelings against Santiago.

Angela Vicario: Was she lying??? If she was, why? I feel that she deserved some kind of punishment for mercilessly allowing her brothers to kill Santiago. Okay, she couldn't have done anything. Women are powerless and men have the final say (in this context!). But she didn't even show any kind of pity or guilt after Santiago's death, not even to the narrator while telling her side of the story. Maybe her punishment was that she fell in love with BSR after all... (that's it??)

Narrator: What is his purpose of gathering the details of the crime? of the chronicle? Why wait that long? What I think is that it was just one of those things that happens in life when at the moment of an event, one just takes in what has happened and it's not until years pass and one is still thinking about it that one finally decides to find out what happens exactly. I don't think there was a real purpose for the narrator waiting so long or longer before he went about his investigation. I think that makes the story even more so relative to the reader.

"Then he...fell on his face in the kitchen." What an image! There couldn't have been a more perfect way to end this. GGM's technique in writing the story allowed for the ending to be such. I couldn't have felt a louder thud!

hello bookblog members,

see you all next week for the discussion of Chronicle of a Death Foretold!

Having worked for a Chicago publisher for eight years, I was a little surprised when I began reading Jessa Crispin?s article in The Book Standard about the lack of publishers in The Windy City. I mean, I had a publishing job and knew plenty of people who worked at local competitors because of the incestuous nature of the business. If you stayed in it long enough, your career could take you to several houses by being hired, being folded into a larger company, or being sold off as parts. During my tenure, I worked for two publishers without switching desks and left just as we were about to be bought again. As far as I know, there are plenty of publishers in Chicago.

Once I got into the article, I realized that Crispin is writing about trade publishing and, more specifically, literature. Aha. No argument there. A Chicagoan with aspirations to edit the next Great American Novel will need to consider moving to New York or Los Angeles.

However, it is absolutely possible to have a publishing career in Chicago if you can handle not being cool and hip. I worked for a decidedly unsexy educational publisher and was able to do well enough to live in an apartment on a private beach with a view of both The Gold Coast and The Sears Tower. Of course, my neighborhood was also neither cool nor hip but I never felt like complaining whenever I looked out the window.

Throw a rock in Chicago, and you?re likely to hit a big-name educational publisher:

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
310 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60604

Harcourt School Publishers
5513 N. Cumberland Avenue
Chicago, IL 60656

McGraw-Hill Education
One Prudential Plaza
Chicago, IL 60601

University of Chicago Press
1427 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

World Book, Inc.
233 N. Michigan Avenue #2200
Chicago, IL 60601

Spread out to the suburbs, and there are dozens more in the metropolitan area. Add trade nonfiction houses, the many university presses, and book distributors and a very fine living is to be had in the Chicago publishing industry. You won?t necessarily rub elbows with famous authors, but there?s always a chance The Rock Bottom Remainders could get together again for a future BEA.

During my most recent visit with Kate, the first thing I asked was for her CD collection so I could steal copy borrow some music and the second was whether or not she had WiFi so I wouldn?t have to type all the song titles. When I steal copy borrow, I prefer to expend no more energy than necessary. Since I?m all into being wireless, Kate sent me an e-mail about WiFi service now available at most Barnes & Noble stores in New Jersey.

Being a person who is into both books and WiFi, I already knew. The last few times I went to B&N, I noticed several people flipping through books, sipping Grande White Chocolate Mocha Frappuccinos, and surfing the Internet all at the same time. And in public no less. Sure, I have access to books, coffee, and the Internet at home. But B&N has more books, better coffee, and Wifi that probably doesn?t break down every half hour because the idiot neighbor?s wireless signal constantly interferes with yours. As I waited for an Iced Venti Soy Latte on one particular outing, I picked up a brochure on B&N?s WiFi service. $3.95 for two hours or $19.95 a month. Oof. At least fighting with the idiot neighbor?s signal is free.

(By the way, thank you, idiot neighbor, for not being smart enough to secure your network. Whenever you take us down, we steal copy borrow your broadband.)

Here?s a tip: If you need access to both books and wireless, try the library. Some of them, like The New York Public Library, offer free WiFi service. Of course, you?d have to skip the Tall Double-Shot Americano with Room.

I recently finished reading Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. I wasn?t expecting much because the back cover copy included the word ?quixotic,? but I really enjoyed it. It sucked me in by being funny and held my attention through the ending because it is also tragic. The narrative is made up of three stories: a young Jew?s journey to Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis, the history of his family going back to his great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, and the coming of age of his Ukrainian translator.

In one funny scene, the main character, who is also named Jonathan Safran Foer, explains that Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior, the translator's grandfather's female dog, is named after a Jew:

?He says that the bitch was named for his favorite singer, who was Sammy Davis, Junior.? ?A Jew,? the hero said. ?What?? ?Sammy Davis, Junior was a Jew.? ?This is not possible,? I said. ?A convert. He found the Jewish God. Funny.? I told this to Grandfather. ?Sammy Davis, Junior was not a Jew!? he hollered. ?He was the Negro of the Rat Pack!? ?The Jew is certain of it.? ?The Music Man? A Jew? This is not a possible thing!? ?This is what he informs me.? ?Dean Martin, Junior!? he hollered to the back seat. ?Get up here! Come on, girl!?

Soon after, we find out that the hero is vegetarian and cannot get a plate of food without any meat on it. The translator comes to his rescue by using the tact of a diplomat to negotiate for an extra potato. But the waitress asserts, ?'We can make concessions to give him two potatoes, but they are served with a piece of meat on the plate. The chef says that this cannot be negotiated. He will have to eat it.'? I actually laughed aloud on the subway when the hard-gotten extra potato fell to the floor with a ?PLOMP.?

After capturing your attention with his wit, Foer moves on to serious issues like the razing of a Jewish village and the translator?s grandfather?s memories of the war. By the time the novel took a somber turn, I was already committed to seeing it through to the end. Anyone else read this book?

During last month's discussion of The Ghost Writer, we couldn't help but focus on the stories within the story because they play such a large role in the progression of the overall plot. "Seraphina" and "The Revenant" are written by Viola Hatherley, an author who didn't exist until John Harwood invented her. Other past BookBlog selections also contain stories within the story. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino [May 2004] refers to novels that never were. And Cervantes' Don Quixote [November/December 2002] would have stayed home if it were not for tales of knights errant and their noble adventures.

Keeping track of virtual books requires a virtual library:

The Invisible Library - The Invisible Library is a collection of books that only appear in other books. Within the library's catalog you will find imaginary books, pseudobiblia, artifictions, fabled tomes, libris phantastica, and all manner of books unwritten, unread, unpublished, and unfound.

You won't get to read any of the books cataloged in The Invisible Library, but it's a fun web site nonetheless. For book geeks everywhere.

I'm probably just being lazy here, but does anyone know when Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is going to be released in the U.S. in paperback?

It seems like everyone on the planet has read this book and I'd like to as well, but I refuse to buy hardcover books because they're too heavy to carry around. I could probably get my hands on the U.K. paperback, but shipping costs would make it more expensive than the U.S. hardcover. If I dug hard enough, I could also probably find a U.S. paperback book club version. But why should I have to dig when a paperback ought to be available? Seriously, The Da Vinci Code has been out since early 2003. It's time for a new format, and I?m not talking about the even more expensive hardcover special illustrated edition.

This reminds me of my quest to find the Lemony Snicket books in paperback and makes me think the publisher wants to squeeze as much money out of the reader as possible. Of course, it all boils down to supply and demand. Why would a publisher bother to release a paperback when the hardcover still sells well? Because they should, damn it. I want one.

Update: The U.S. paperback will be released on 03/28/06. Thanks to Brian at Bookland in Keene, NH, for the tip.