Inevitable End

"Chronicle of a Death Foretold" is a short novel by Gabriel García Marquez. To classify it as a political novel would be to sub-estimate its originality.

Imagine a story when you know, from page one, that a crime was committed. You know the victim and you know the killers. With the certainty that gives to talk about successes that happened twenty years ago, there's no possible doubt about the facts. Vicario brothers killed Santiago Nasar, they confessed and even proclaimed their intentions beforehand.

So, the novel spends its pages describing the circumstances that conduce to the death foretold. You'll learn, chapter by chapter, how almost everybody in the little town knew about the intention of Vicario brothers. Almost everybody could do something to stop them. In fact, the brothers seemed not to be very committed to carry the murder.

Nonetheless, nobody did anything. Someone didn't believe that the brothers would in fact carry their vendetta. The butcher that sharpened the knives the Vicario used notified the Sheriff. But the sheriff though it was just drunk talking.

Even Santiago's mother played a tragic role in the events, when she locked her house door, to avoid Vicario brothers could trespass. But in doing so, she avoid her son could scape the persecution that lead to his dead.

The amazing thing about this story is that even after you know how thing will end (the author remembers you Santiago's fate each few pages), you'll find yourself desperately hoping that something different happens, that someone could stop that madness.

It's its tragic and inevitable nature what makes "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" so fascinating. Like life itself.