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Review title: Marginally magical, rarely realistic
Product review: Yes, this book probably lost a star or so being read by me in translation. There's good reason - at times, the English version of the Spanish text feels like a moderately-paced plot synopsis, at others like a stack of stage directions. Surely Marquez's prose is more poetic than that.On is own merits, the book never seems to establish the right pace. Issues concerning the Marquis, Sirva Maria, and her mother (as well as other characters) are brought up vaguely and left inadequately explored. Perhaps this book would have benefited from a fleshing out of the characters and themes Marquez wanted to explore.The idea of love as a demon (especially when set against the backdrop of Spanish religious draconiansm and cruel colonialism) is compelling, but these kinds of single-metaphor investments are always a liability for onerous anticlimax. Too short to make itself poignant, too long for what it purports to show.
