The Autumn of the Patriarch

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1. noduermeNov 2025
   The lower case "I" stands out very much in reading it as a self-annihilating affectation.

   However, the sentences are well formed. If you really want to lose your breath, try "The Autumn of the Patriarch" by Marquez. You really won't be able to put it down.

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2. spaceman_2020Jun 2023
   If you like that kind of writing, you would enjoy “Autumn of the Patriarch”. Probably Marquez’s best prose work.
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3. distancesMay 2020
   Very tangentially, my favourite long sentence book is The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez. It was very hard to put down, not because it would've been especially gripping, but because I'd like to pause at end of a chapter, or at the very least at end of a sentence, and those sentences just went on and on for page after page.
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4. simonsarrisApr 2014
   Oh my. A paragon of magical realism and my second favorite author. Rest in peace.

   Liking storytelling alone is sometimes not enough to like Marquez, you have to love language too. He uses (some might say abuses) language to impact his storytelling, often using incredibly long, convoluted sentences to weave his narrative. It can be hard to follow, sometimes intentionally, but I find it enormously satisfying to read and follow along with his brain. Like slowly drinking a maple syrup of words.

   One of the best examples is the first 15 or so[1] pages of Autumn of the Patriarch[2], where the narrator winds this thread of what has happened slowly, using sentences that span pages, until you realize a shift from what has happened to a sort of what is about to happen. Then a fist slams on the table and the realization strikes you that the first part of the description was a kind of set up, this beautiful ruse. I wish I could be more descriptive but it would give away the delight. It's a great book about terror and despotism.

   Marquez is not the kind of thing you can read in a noisy environment. At least I can't. I adore him so much. I could write a eulogy for days.

   If you've never read him, please take a moment to read one of my favorite short stories, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

   http://simonsarris.com/lit/a-very-old-man-with-enormous-wing...

   (I've hosted a copy of it (and many more short stories) for ages because most of the copies on the web are plagued with ads and miserable formatting)

   If One Hundred Years of Solitude seems too long for you, I urge you to look into some of his very excellent shorter books, such as Autumn but also Of Love and Other Demons[3] and Love in the Time of Cholera.[4]

   (Chronicle of a Death Foretold is even shorter, but I do not recommend it as the first Marquez book you read!)

   [1] It could be the first 10 or 30 pages, it's been several years, but I am certain it's one of the better (and shorter) examples of his style.

   [2] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060882867

   [3] http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400034922

   [4] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307389731

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5. convolvatronApr 2024
   in Marquez's Autumn of the Patriarch,he repeatedly mentions that the sea had been sold to the Americans. and in the background, we can see how much poorer everyone there is for it. before, they had easy wealth, and now just squabbling over dirt.

   maybe people should have the right to not choose not to sell their homes

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6. GeoAtreidesDec 2023
   Other difficult books, in a somewhat increasing order of difficulty:

   0) The autumn of the patriarch, by Marquez

   1) Gormenghast series, by Mervyn Peake

   2) The third period of Henry James (The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, and The Golden Bowl).

   3) The Death of Virgil, by Hermann Broch

   I do suggest trying Gormenghast, it's an amazingly written fantasy series.

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