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Of Love and Other Demons (Vintage International) By Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( Vintage )
Release Date: 2008-06-10
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Product Description
On her twelfth birthday, Sierva Maria – the only child of a decaying noble family in an eighteenth-century South American seaport – is bitten by a rabid dog. Believed to be possessed, she is brought to a convent for observation. And into her cell stumbles Father Cayetano Delaura, who has already dreamed about a girl with hair trailing after her like a bridal train. As he tends to her with holy water and sacramental oils, Delaura feels something shocking begin to occur. He has fallen in love – and it is not long until Sierva Maria joins him in his fevered misery. Unsettling and indelible, Of Love and Other Demons is an evocative, majestic tale of the most universal experiences known to woman and man.
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 Bitter Tears
Of Love and Other Demons / 0-14-025636-9
Painful and Bitter, Of Love and Other Demons explores the life and mind of a young girl abused, neglected, and persecuted to death by the adults around her.
Her father ignores her as inconsequential. Her mother resents her intrusion into her casual affairs so intensely that she places a bell around the girl's neck (like a cat) so that she can avoid the child at all times. The few small kindnesses she receives - from servants who attend her - set her further aside as foreign and unusual. When the poor girl falls ill after a rabies scare, she is deserted at a nunnery and promptly declared 'possessed' by virtue of being an unusual, neglected child.
Those who would be kind to her at the nunnery are limited to a single priest, much older than her and more interested in her body than her soul, to his own shame. Tortured and neglected past all reckoning, the child is pointlessly slain and we alone are left to point the fingers at those who caused her death. Though fictional, this is a superb, scathing piece against those who would neglect their fellow humans to pursue their own pleasures and those who would torture others to assuage their own consciences.
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Of Love and Other Demons...
A superb, exquisitely woven novel from Garcia Marquez. The master of magical realism enchants with another great tale of love, passion and woe. Please savour and enjoy!
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 A Pleasant Read By Most Standards, but Not Quite on Par with Marquez's Other work
Any work by Gabriel Garcia Marquez can really only be compared to his other works, as there are few, if any, contemporaries who capture the mystical spirit of the South American experience as does Marquez.
This was one of the few books of his I had yet to read. Having struggled with Autumn of the Patriarch I have loved nearly all his other works (though his nonfiction News of a Kidnapping barely managed to hold my interest, stylistically speaking).
Of Love and Other Demons was in the same vein as all others, yet missed the spark that I so normally adore. With most of his other pieces there is a sense of returning to the home of the tale; everything feels full circle though time has passed.
Though themes of cross generational amour are staples of Marquez's works, this particular story didn't quite get the right vibe. While Father Delaura's part was well played out, that of young Sierva Maria was often too disengaging. She truly was the demon of love to the human torment Delaura and other characters suffered. And perhaps that was the point.
Overall, this was a quick and enjoyable read. Had it been any other author than Marquez I would have likely given it a 5-star, but when one has written as well as he has and can he sets his own standards for comparison.
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The oppression of religion ( lucreynaert )
In this bitter and emotional tale, G.G. Márquez exposes the `narrowness of mind' and the concomitant fanatical oppression by the Christian authorities, who put a straitjacket even on a perfectly normal child.
The history of the Christian Church is one of death, of anti-life: `The Holy Office is even worse than the witchcraft of the blacks. The blacks only sacrifice roosters to their gods, while the Holy Office is happy to break innocents on the rack or burn them alive in a public spectacle.'
Speaking here is G.G. Márquez's alter-ego, the atheist (`You can't forbid what I think') doctor Abrenuncio, a clairvoyant, not a stinking, healer: `You have a religion of death that fills you with the joy and courage to confront it. I do not. I believe the only essential thing is to be alive.'
He expresses also another recurrent theme in G.G. Márquez's work: `Sex is a talent, and I do not have it. ... Love was an emotion contra natura that condemned two strangers to a base and unhealthy dependence, and the more intense it was, the more ephemeral.'
In his characteristic imaginative and brilliantly colorful style (`the more transparent the writing, the more visible the poetry'), G.G. Márquez painted a dark world dominated by an oppressive religion, the only light coming from those who oppose it.
A must read.
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very well written story
Very sad story of a poor rich girl with messed up parents and disturbed religious figures. This is a very well written story with great descriptions. At times I felt that I might be reading a true horrific family secret. It was also like reading something like a myth created to explain misunderstood tragedies in a time when religion and spirituality was the waking moment of everyone's life. It was almost very real to me. This is the first book I have read from this author and cant wait to read more. I have to say, that I did read it in English and though I can read some what decent Spanish I believe that the story was very well translated. I normally buy books that are written in Spanish and English so that my mother who reads only Spanish and I can share our comments of books and authors. I have no doubt that Gabriel Garcia Marquez will very fast become one of our favorite authors . His talent is so great to have been able to cross languages and has and not lost a bit of its meaning and strenght.
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