The General in His Labyrinth

Rating:
Summary: Interesting window on Bolivar's life
Review: "The General in His Labyrinth" is a fictionalized account of the last seven months of the life of Simon Bolivar (1783-1830), the liberator of Gran Colombia (Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador) from Spanish rule. Bolivar's goal was to unite South America into a single great country, but there was constant conflict with separatists and political and military rivals, and in the last year of his life he was expelled from the presidency. He left Bogota with an entourage of close friends, relatives, and servants, and his final months were spent in a journey down the River Magdalena, ostensibly to leave the country. A terminal illness (consumption? tuberculosis? his bedsheets are burned and eating utensils are buried after he uses them for fear of contagion) causes him fits of feverish delirium, in which he recalls glorious episodes in his life.

I once read one of Garcia Marquez's earlier short stories, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," and that story and this novel seem to share a theme. They are both about an important or extraordinary figure (in the story, the title character; in this novel, Bolivar) who falls from a state of grace, comes into contact with common people, and must suffer their treatment, be it awe or indifference. I knew almost nothing about Bolivar and the history of South America, but the fact that this fascinating novel made me want to learn more about the subject is a testament to Garcia Marquez's great skill as a writer.

Rating:
Summary: From the king of magic realism, some real magic
Review: Having read The General in his Labyrinth for the
fourth time, I am still amazed by the story, and
way it is told.

This is the story of the last days of Simon Bolivar
the liberator of South America.He is dying of consumption,
old before his time. He leads a sad and noble group of loyal soldiers
and retainers through the wilds of Nueva Granada. There is no
hope - the General is not wanted any more, having watched the
liberated continent fall in upon itself and fragment. Having
taught the people separatism, the tired General is powerless
to stop the inevitable.

And so the journey proceeds, punctuated by heat, torrential rain,
fever, delirium, memories of great loves, and despair. The General's
state of mind is conveyed to the reader in the minutest detail. We are
shown the destruction and self-destruction of a once powerful
man,and the effect is one of witnessing death itself, with
its mystifying loss of personality.

Bolivar rants in fevers, paces the floor unable to sleep, and talks
of the agony of assassination attempts, treacherous infighting, a fickle
public, and memories of strong women.He goes from town to town
with his entourage,in turn feted or reviled according to local
faction.

He has the protective love of his closest generals, and the dignified
devotion of his servant Jose Palacios to comfort him on his seemingly
ignoble flight.But this journey is the only possible end for a man of
such brilliant but caustic powers.It gives him and us time to think
about the real nature of power, achievement, history and fate.And the
unstated conclusion the General reaches is that even those blessed
with power and influence, even the most rigorous souls will come
to an inevitable stop that will seem at the time to be just like
any other "damn business".

Bolivar says "I'm old, sick, tired, disillusioned,
harassed, slandered and unappreciated" and "despair
is the health of the damned".When at last death
overtakes the General, Marquez closes his story with one
of the most moving scenes I have read in any novel.
("...the heartless speed of the octagonal clock racing
toward the ineluctable appointment at seven minutes past one..")

People who know Marquez for the "magic" novels may be
wonderfully surprised by this exquisitely written book.
The people, the skies, the rains, the nature, the loves
and the sorrows in this book are chillingly real.
Its beauty quite literally haunts me. Anthony Nelson

Rating:
Summary: Distressingly soporific
Review: I have a feeling that Gabo should have just let Alvaro Mutis sit on this project. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author of at least three (really entertaining and pleasurable) masterpieces of fiction (One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, and the short stories of Strange Pilgrims), seems to have entered into a lull during the writing of The General in His Labyrinth. The best expression I can think of to classify this book is "distressingly soporific". The General (Simon Bolivar) always seems to be lying in the "aguas depurativas de la bañera" and the story moves as slowly as an old man's body (with apology to agile old men). There's barely a climax, and you were expecting it anyway: Bolivar dies. Meanwhile, Bolivar reflects on his political experiences and rather libertine love life, and treks with his entourage into exile. If you haven't read a lot of Garcia Marquez, try his masterpieces, and then his deep and satisfying memoir (Living to Tell the Tale), and don't bother with The General in his Labyrinth.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't get through it
Review: I tried and tried to keep reading this book, but it wasn't interesting to me. The General was a pathetic old man who seemed to be living a life of self pity. I got tired of his whining. I know Gabriel Garcia Marquez is very respected for his writing, but I just couldn't get into it. I guess I prefer books that I feel I have something to learn or are atleast entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Bolivar's last days
Review: In this book Garcia Marquez describes, using facts and fiction, the last days of Simon Bolivar, known to many countries in South America as the Liberator. In fact, Garcia Marquez generally refers to Bolivar as Liberator in the book.

I really enjoyed the read, as GM paints a picture of someone who once was powerful and begins to degenerate, both in terms of power and body. He re-lives many of Bolivar's loves, while the general becomes more and more disheartened by the lack of love the people show for him. He reminices about the times when the arrival of Bolivar in any city was cause for tremendous celebration. We almost join the general on his last few days, as one former lover, who once was young and beautiful, joins him, and we enjoy the loyalty of his last few warriors, who refuse to leave him.

It is definitely a departure from GM's usual novels, but worth a try especially for the historical nature of Bolivar and the novel. I also read "The October of the Patriarch", which seems to touch on the same issues (of a powerful man getting old and weak), but I thought this book was better because of the realism GM brings into it, which Latin America's prime independence figure as protagonist.

Rating:
Summary: A Master Work
Review: Marques remains an international literary treasure, a writer of passion and eloquence whose work defines his generation. Many readers have found his work daunting and given up, but those who persevered discovered a world where magic and passion reigned. With Oprah Winery's choice of Marques's most famous work, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" for her book club, I can only hope that readers will not stop there and will continue on to his other works. "The General and His Labyrinth" would make an excellent stop for those wanting to further explore this author's imagination.

The work follows Simon Bolivar, the liberator of his South America, as he wanders towards an early grave, destitute and nearly friendless. Through this lens Marques examines the idea of loss, futility, dreaming, desire, friendship, and humanity. As a man who achieves so much but ends with so little, Bolivar's life makes an excellent cautionary metaphor for modern society. Readers will find little of the humor this author so cleverly places in his other work, but his style remains both unique and haunting. Marques here builds a complex and perplexing world and when the reader becomes confused, it is because that was the authors goal.

"General" is quite a bit shorter than most of Marques's other works, but his powerful language and masterful imagery rings out from the page. Bolivar has a long and painful trip to take and you will not regret deciding to join him.

Rating:
Summary: The end days
Review: Master novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez comes through again with another winner with his portrayl of a dying Simon Bolivar. The story is comprised of reflections and anecdotal information on the liberators life, going back and forth in time ,shifting decades with memories of times past and how Bolivar sees the end days approaching. As he travels down the Magdalena River ( a sort of farewell tour) the ghosts of his past surface, including the many loves, his enemies, his allies, his fading dream of unification and those who betrayed him. His memories assault his journey making death nearly a desired relief for the sick and shadow of the great man of vision for Latin America. When reading a historical novel like this one the question arises as to whether the information is factual or purely imagination. I finished reading this book wanting to believe some of the memories of Simon Bolivar were true and accurate to his life. In the end Marquez clarifies this point saying he was not concerned about the accuracies of the final days since those with him left no written record of the final days. However, Marquez does go on to say that he did considerable research(2 years) revealing often contradictory information filled with inaccuaracies while he labored through voliminous documentation. He also consulted with various historians, from several different countries, who are experts on the life of Simon Bolivar to further enrich the exactitude of the novel. Many changes were made from the original manuscript. That said, there are things to be learned from this novel that only the simplicity of historical novels can provide. For furthe exploration of the life of Simon Bolivar it is suggested to read Eugenio Gutierrez Celys "Bolivar Day by Day " or the work of Bolivar biographer Vinicio Romero Martinez. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the writtings of Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the life of Simon Bolivar and his dream for Latin America.

Rating:
Summary: Anticlimactic.
Review: Maybe G.G.M. should have given it up after Love in the Time of Cholera. It was a fine novel that attempted to bring together the disparate strands of the man's style into a more accessible form, and present an epic and unforgettable story. Largely, it worked, and became his second best book. But he didn't give up there; instead, he wrote The General in His Labyrinth, a book about the final days of Simon Bolivar. And if you get a sense of deja vu while reading it, you're not alone. Bolivar comes across not as a historic figure, but as another incarnation of Marquez's running archetype - the old, weary politician and fighter. We've been seeing this figure since Marquez's career started. In One Hundred Years of Solitude this was Aureliano Buendia; in Autumn of the Patriarch - a book devoted entirely to this subject - it was the title character; in Love in the Time of Cholera certain aspects of this archetype could be found in Florentino Ariza. Thus, when we meet Marquez' Bolivar, we feel like we've already seen him countless times in other Marquez books. This is only reinforced by the fact that Bolivar is only mentioned a couple of times by name, as if to further distance him from reality. Either Marquez has been writing about Bolivar all his life, or he just made Bolivar fit his own mould when he decided to write about him. Either way, it feels like a retread.

Since we've seen the author mine this subject so many times before, The General in His Labyrinth doesn't have much to tell us. It continues the trend of Love in the Time of Cholera by being more accessible than some of his earlier works; in fact, I daresay it's his most accessible book yet. Don't get me wrong, it's still a fine book - Marquez remains a master storyteller, after all, and so it's plenty compelling reading even if it often feels like you've seen what you're reading before. It isn't, however, a creative peak, since it breaks no real new ground; nor is it a good introduction to Marquez, since he has illustrated these same themes more powerfully and memorably in the past.

Rating:
Summary: Larger Than Life
Review: One of my good friends is the person whose opinion I trust most when it comes to books and literature. And, I'm happy to say, we usually agree on what's good and what's not so good. Although my friend loves Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "The General in His Labyrinth," however, is one book my friend didn't like and I did.

"The General in His Labyrinth" tells the story of the melancholy and sad final journey of General Simon Bolivar, fondly known as "The Liberator" in many South American countries. Bolivar is the man who drove the Spanish from the northern part of South America during 1811-1824, even though the local aristocracy chose to fight against him. In the end, he became a sad and defeated man, old before his time and burdened with the knowledge that his dream of a unified South America would not be realized during his lifetime.

Although Bolivar is revered in much of South America (and the world in general), his final days were quite unhappy. In this book, Garcia Marquez takes us along with Bolivar on his final cruise along the Magdalena River from Colombia to the sea. Bolivar was sad, disillusioned, in shock from the after effects of an assassination attempt and suffering from an unspecified illness; in short, this mythic man had become old at the very young age of forty-six.

After Bolivar had been denied the presidency of Colombia he decided to spend his final days in Europe, far away from political strife of any kind. But Bolivar wouldn't have been Bolivar had he not given his life to the people. His dreams of living in peace in Europe were dashed when the government that replaced him failed.

It didn't take years of history to make Bolivar larger than life. He was larger then life to those who knew him intimately as well as to those who knew him only by reputation. And no wonder...he possessed a terrible temper, a extraordinarily passionate nature and his political and leadership abilities were virtually unsurpassed. Everyone paled next to Bolivar, in life just as (almost) everyone pales next to him in this book. (His enemy, Santander, and his commander, Sucre, are two notable exceptions. His lover, Manuela Saenz is also a well drawn character, but Bolivar's valet, Jose Palacios lets us know that, other than saving Bolivar from assassination, she was really nothing special, just one more lover among very many.)

I read, in a interview with Garcia Marquez, that the voyage along the Magdalena was chosen to be fictionalized since this was a little-known episode in a very publicly-lived life. Personally, I think it was a wonderful choice. The voyage was one that was no doubt filled with melancholy and nostalgia and no one writes of melancholy and nostalgia, especially South American melancholy and nostalgia, as well as does Garcia Marquez. This is a book in which real memories become confused with the hallucinations of delirium, a confusion that is only enhanced by the descriptions of the steamy jungle interior. The floods, the oppressive heat, the epidemics that Bolivar and his weary band of supporters encounter only serve to enhance "The Liberator's" own physical decline.

I also think that showing us Bolivar, not at the height of his glory, but at what was no doubt one of the lowest points of his life, was also a wonderful choice. Bolivar was, apparently, a man of contradictions. He was flamboyant and mythic, yet ultimately tragic; he could be elegant in public matters yet coarse in private; he was obviously a genius at strategy, yet his last days were filled with the incoherence of illness. And, all along the way, through this maze of contradictions, Garcia Marquez never loses sight of the one driving force in Simon Bolivar's life: his desire for a unified South America.

I also love the way Garcia Marquez twists and folds the narrative of this book until the reader isn't quite sure what's real and what's fevered hallucination; what really happened and what didn't. Of course, Garcia Marquez is a master at just this sort of narrative and he really outdoes himself in this book.

In the end, Bolivar, himself, decides that South America is ungovernable; it is, he declared, a land that will inevitably fall into the hands of tyrants, both large and small. Sadly, Bolivar's prophecy seems to be, at least in part, true. And, even more sadly still, although the world has come to love and rever "The Liberator," "The Liberator," himself, died a sad and defeated man.

Rating:
Summary: A twisting and winding maze of enchantment
Review: This is the first and only Gabriel Garcia Marquez book that I've read to date, and I must admit that I was somewhat disappointed by the work. Marquez is a celebrated Nobel prize-winning author, so I had singificant expecations that were not met in the end.

The book follows the last months of General Simon Bolivar, the famed South American revolutionary who sought to unite the entire continent into a single power. Bolivar takes one final trip--a sort of "retirement" cruise--down the meandering Magdalena river where he recounts and reflects on his past experiences--his victories, failures, loves, enemies, etc. The book is part historical hearsay (the records of Bolivar's final days are sketchy and contradictory) with a considerable amount of literary license from Marquez.

The book is a simple one and its strongest point is the superb character development of Bolivar as the reader learns more and more about the initially enigmatic general. By the end of the novel, Bolivar is a much deeper character into whom the reader has been given tremendous insight through Marquez's pen.

All in all, I found the book to be a slow read. Partly, I think Marquez matches the book's pace to Bolivar's yawning journey down the river. In addition, I suspect that there was something lost in the translation into English. Fundamentally, I am not really interested in Latin American history and therefore wasn't engaged by Bolivar's experiences. People more interested in this field will undoubtedly find the book much more interesting and accessible than I did.