Rating: 
Summary: magic realism at its best
Review: garcia marquez gives us a chilling account of a murder that has occurred 20 years ago.a newly wed bride is returned to her parents when her husband finds out that she is not a virgin.the bride in question names Santiago Nasar as her violator.Santiago is notorious for his seductive nature and the brothers of the bride decide to kill him as a means of protecting the family's honour. before dawn the whole town knows their design of murdering Nasar. some people try to warn him, some dont but eventually Nasar is murdered in broad daylight by the brothers in a most gruesome way.
a mix of magic realism ,journalistic mode of writing and a constant shift from the present to the past makes the book extremely interesting. this gripping novella is one of the best crime stories written.
read the book to get a flavour of the tension, the anxiety and the helplessness that is portrayed so very wonderfully by garcia marquez
a book not to be missed by any avid reader....enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Obra maestra de la literatura universal!
Review: "Crónica de una muerte anunciada" es una de las obras maestras de la literatura universal y latino-americana. ES una obra breve, pero escrita con una calidad de un maestro. He leído dos veces esta obra pero una tercera y cuarta vez no serían inútiles. García Márquez, en esta novela corta, demuestra cómo se puede manejar los tiempos paralelos en la narrativa.Altamente recomendado!
Rating: 
Summary: Highly overrated
Review: In my view, this is an overrated work. Words put together on paper do not necessarily make literature. Marquez is good in describing situations, he paints with words. But whoever thinks that literature should contain messages between lines, does not have to bother to buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Magical Realism of Marquez
Review: I believe that imagination is the particular faculty artists possess that enables them to create a new reality from the one they live in," writes Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author of Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Coming from the Caribbean, though, has made it virtually impossible for Marquez to depart from reality, even with liberal use of his imagination. Marquez claims, " . . . nothing has ever occurred to me, nor have I been able to do anything, that is more awesome than reality itself. The most I've been able to do has been to alter that reality." This seems an awesome claim after reading Chronicle of a Death Foretold, in which some episodes seem completely impossible. That impossible reality, however, is what, according to Marquez, gives Latin American writers the ability to create fantastic stories. The ambiguous Latin American setting of Chronicle of a Death Foretold is what gives Marquez the opportunity to use his imagination to create an altered version of his own magical reality. The events that transpire in Chronicle of a Death Foretold hinge on the setting. Marquez is purposefully not very specific about the location or identity of the small Latin American town in which Santiago Nasar dies. He reveals that the population is small, which is very important to the plot progression. Marquez would not have been able to create the same story in the middle of a bustling city full of strangers; he needed a small intimate setting that would allow him to twist reality within reasonable bounds. One of the elements of the plot that best exhibits magical realism is the fact that everyone in the town knows Nasar is going to die without Nasar finding out until the last minute. It seems impossible for everyone to know someone is going to die without the future victim having any knowledge of his fate. Marquez has "alter[ed] reality," but made his alterations more plausible by his choice of setting. First, Marquez presents the town as being very small and intimate. Consisting of many large and intermarried families, the town is filled with friends and family, who would spread news of Nasar's doom relatively quickly. There is also the shop in which the Vicario brothers sit to wait for Nasar. Since the town is small, it is reasonable that many of the town's residents would pass through the same store on their morning's rounds and see the two men. This makes it more plausible that everyone might hear a piece of gossip within a couple hours. Marquez also chooses to make the residents of the town relatively poor and not disclose the exact era during which the events occur. Through these two choices of setting development, Marquez makes it possible to remove the presence of automobiles, save the one brought in by Bayardo San Román. This lack of automobiles explains why everyone in the town walks everywhere, and lends further credence to the fact that everyone knew Santiago Nasar was going to die. Marquez's choice of setting has allowed him to create a reality that seems impossible, yet somewhat plausible, all at the same time. The choice of setting only makes more reasonable a story line that otherwise seems impossible. Marquez may have created a setting in which it is reasonable to believe that an entire town would know a man was going to die soon. Even Marquez, though, cannot offset the mystery as to how Nasar himself could not know his fate. In his essay, Marquez speaks of "Latin America's impossible reality," so in the end perhaps it is enough to know that Chronicle of a Death Foretold is set in Latin America. There is nowhere else that such an impossible reality could be possible.
Rating:
Summary: a Masterpiece
Review: This is probably the strangest book I have read in my entire life, and yet I found it fascinating. It is full of suspense and while it makes you feel part of the story it makes you at the same time feel powerless at what is about to take place. You know since the beginning what will happen, who will die, how, when, and even who will kill him, in fact, all the town knows except the unsuspecting Santiago Nasir... poor Santiago, and all for the love of a woman... Gabriel Garcia Marquez proves he is a genious when it comes to innovation, and brilliantly conceives this tale of murder, suspense and love.
Rating:
Summary: macedonian,serbian
Review: Im fascinate with one ingenious sentence which is the key where The World belong.Could YOU imagine that world where we are living with that sentence" My personal impression". Someone of us pronounethis sentence,but someone cover up,still thinking such as pronounce. brainstorme
Rating:
Summary: A Traditional Circular Narrative
Review: This book is a traditional example of circular narrative. Although that type of narrative can be used to keep the reader interested, it did not occur in this novel. The form of circular narrative used made the book more difficult to read because the reader continued to say "I know this already." However, overall, it was fairly good.
Rating:
Summary: Marquez demonstrates his mastery of the storytelling art
Review: I do not like to give 5 stars, but this novel is so good on so many levels. Besides being just a great page-turner, the author demonstrates a few very unique and engaging storytelling techniques: The gimmick of the book is that the main character's death is "foretold" from the beginning. Readers know from the opening chapter that Santiago Nasir is going to die, and when, and why, and by whom. The story generates suspense, not because we do not know the outcome, but because we see the inevitable happening and feel powerless to stop it. Like watching a train wreck, we cannot keep from staring, and we feel guilty when we enjoy it so much. The murder is also foretold to other characters. Almost everyone in the book has the opportunity to intervene but for a variety of reasons-apathy, malice, fear, coincidence-do not. Marquez heaps irony upon irony, mingling both comedic and violent scenes, highlighting the role of fate in our lives. On another level, this novel is also a scathing indictment of Latino "machismo", a culture that turns two young boys into killers to protect their sister's honor and makes an entire town of bystanders accessories to the fact. The narrator tells his story in a pseudo-journalistic style, through interviews and flashbacks. This allows Marquez to tell and re-tell scenes from different vantage points, jumping back and forth in time, adding details and exposing layer after layer of hidden motives. By the time we actually see the murder scene, we already know all the actions that led up to it and the repercussions that will result. Although Marquez is known for his use of magical realism, this tale is told without the use of the supernatural, excepting one small incident near the end, when a young girl sees an apparition of Santiago climbing the stairs to his bedroom, just before he is murdered outside her door.
Rating: 
Summary: Some frustration
Review: I enjoyed this novel and found it paced nicely with an increased rhythm at the end. However, for me, there was a tension of frustration. I knew there could be no resolution of the uncertainties (who had dishonoured Angela before her wedding? why was Nasar prepared to accept this? who was he protecting? why did Angela point at Nasar anyway?) because for these to be revealed at the end would have required the author to have engaged in the device of having the narrator withhold information from us. It may, in fact, have been more satisfying as a STORY had some answers been given. But in the almost journalistic (albeit a sophisticated journalistic) style adopted by the author this would have been unacceptable. So why did the author adopt this style? Perhaps, as EM Forster claimed with 'A Passage to India' the author didn't actually know the truth of the matter. The narrative helps in the telling of the story in a manner that disallows a resolution - the reader has to speculate just as the narrator has. But this did gnaw away at me as I read the novel and compromised my enjoyment somewhat.
Rating:
Summary: Great starter book for those just trying out Garcia Marquez
Review: This is one of my favorite books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez... I think it even outshines One Hundred Years of Solitude in terms of the innovation of the storytelling within such a brief work. I found myself drawn in and touched, hoping against hope for the doomed Santiago Nasar. Caution: this story is somewhat different from the magical realism for which other Garica Marquez books are known. I loved it -- try it!
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