The Lost Novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Book Review: Until August

(The Lost Novel)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

#BookReview #GabrielGarciaMarquez #TheLostNovel #UntilAugust #LessThan500Words #Hardcover

Until August by Gabriel Garcia Marquez has just been published. Thanks, NB, for letting me know. I had read about it. But didn’t know it was out. I ordered it immediately. It’s great to pick up a Gabriel Garcia Marquez book again. Gabo is an author that I’ve kept returning to time after time. Each time different. Each time the same.

Until August strikes a note stringing together into one complete novel (novella?) revolving around a mature woman visiting an island every year to lay flowers at her mother’s grave. And therein unfolds a plot where year after year, it’s a bunch of gladioli at the cemetery and a night of sensual discovery for her. Every year. Every August. Till it almost becomes unbearable to wait until August.

Not sure what I felt with this posthumously ‘unearthed’, edited and then published new book. It was him and not him. I liked that there’s enough of him in the book in the feel of the characters, in the words that weave the magic, in the characters that are so painfully real. I liked that it revolved around a mature woman who while discovering a part of herself on the island also unearths her loneliness and her husband’s infidelity.  I liked that the narrative ends with a grotesque twist to the tale.

But somehow the end feels a bit abrupt though some may say that it does signal an end.

An afterword by the editor reveals much of how the book was put together and gives an insightful glimpse into the working of the pages. It leaves you feeling like it’s not done, and you’ve been lead somewhere and left bereft. Yet, I feel it was left unfinished. And I’d want more. I think I will go back to another of his books.

Until August is a short read. Maybe you should discover it for yourself. Would love to know your views on it.

FACTS AT A GLANCE

Title: Until August
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Translated by: Anne McLean
Genre: Fiction
Type: Hardcover
Verdict: Read if you are a Gabo fan