Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: It's okay Review: This is not the type of book I would normally read, but I was forced to for my English class. It is one of the better books we have read this year, but I still don't think it's that great. If you like surrealism and magical realism, this would be a good book for you. Personally, though, I wouldn't read it on my own.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: HARD TO PUT DOWN Review: I was required to read this for a modern literature class. At first I was unsure of what to expect, but as I read it I was enthraled by the story telling. It's so limiting to look at this book as only a story. There is so much more meaning behind Marquez's words, but even in its simplicity it is a wonderful book.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: A fantastic social drama Review: Marquez creates the appearance of a murder mystery, when, in fact, he is writing a social drama. I think the novel's true protagonists are the Vicario brothers, who give society countless opportunities to stop them, and who desire to be free of their social obligation to avenge their sister's disgrace. The Vicario brothers are not the murderers of Santiago Nasar--the villagers who collectively ignore the brothers' warnings are. This is Marquez's ultimate message in this book--Nasar was killed by society, not the Vicario brothers.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: the meaning of boredom Review: A slow and non-well conceived book. It will be shunned by the ages, locked in a vault where some postal worker (let's call him "Dusty") loses it at the bottom of a pile of plague infested rats and dead bodies.
Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: good but confusing Review: I thought this book was okay. However, in order for me to really understand it I had to make a list of all the characters because there were so many. That was the confusing aspect of the book. Also, the plot was told right at the beginning and the ending was therefore plain because of that. It's a good book if you like murder mysteries.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Very descriptive Review: The book was pretty interesting and was written very well. The plot seems to be orginal and some what unique.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: Not his best, but wonderful. Review: Although this is not on a par with Marquez's great works, 100 Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, it is a good introduction to the skill of this writer. He tells you the climax in the first few pages yet gets you to want to read how the climax comes about. It is worth the trouble to read. My students love it.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: GREAT murder story Review: The book is great, but slightly confusing. I needed to reread a couple of sections afterwards to make sure I understood what had happened. The way Marquez presents the story is very unique and effective. The multitude of allusions to the Jesus story are also very intriguing. I definitely recommend it.
Rating: ![4 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-4-0.gif) Summary: This book was very interesting. Review: This book was about a man named Santiago Nasar. He was blamed for the loss of Angela Vicario's virginity. Because of this, on the night of her wedding, she was returned to her home. Her brothers then sought to kill Santiago to restore Angela's honor. They told many before they actually were to carry out their plans. When anyone tryed to tell him though, he would do something unscheduled and could not be found. In the end the Vicario brothers proved their manhood and restored Angela's honor.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Magical work of suspense , murder, and memory Review: CHRONICLE is an excellent study of suspense. Within the first few pages, we know who will die, who the killers are, and (soon after) we learn why. With these traditional prompts removed, we are left with the stories surrounding the central murder of Santiago Nasar. This is storytelling-journalism at its finest. The unnamed narrator returns to his "forgotten village" in an attempt "to put the broken mirror of memory back together from so many scattered shards." These shards focus as much upon a village's complicity in a murder as upon the victim. What makes this even more enjoyable is that the story is not handled with deadly seriousness. Marquez' prose is as exuberant as ever and touched with moments of comedy--the bishop on the boat who hurriedly blesses the villagers waving roosters at him from the shore is a good example. But eventually the novel hinges upon the death scene, which is what sustains the suspense. In an era where gruesome murders are de rigeur and almost expected (and indeed occur within the opening pages of a crime novel, or in the first few minutes of a suspense movie), Marquez reminds us of the physical horror of murder, and the luminous beauty of life, as if these are fresh discoveries that we stumble upon in reading his story. We laugh and weep at the ridiculous adventures and catastrophes that besiege the characters in this novel, much as we react to the events in ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, yet we hold our collective breaths as Santiago approaches his death in the final pages. You close the book knowing that you have finished a short and brilliant masterpiece, and then you read it all over again.
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