Marquez is one of my favorite authors. I see magic in his works. I'm not an authority to babble about 'magic realism'. This story is short , sharp and totally realistic. It is about the expectations and hopes of a retired colonel. He has been waiting for his much promised pension for fifteen years and his future lies with his prize rooster and the pension money. A simple and interesting story.
Unusual, unconventional and incredible, The Zahir is about finding love and keeping it aflame within and outside any relationship. A must read for polyamorous couples who are in search of absolute love at any cost. As usual the novel is sandwiched with loads of chewable quotes:
- Stability is inseparable from a deep sense of tedium.
- What is fidelity? The feeling that I possess a body and soul that aren't mine.
- Its not life that matters, but the journey.
- Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering.
- Close the door, change the record, clean the house, get rid of the dust. Stop being who you were and become who you are.
- When someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive - I'll find love again.
During one cold and rainy winter night, Mary , her husband and their friend Lord Byron , make up ghost stories to pass their time. Soon it turns into a story-telling competition. That night Mary sees a monster in her dream. She tells the story to Percy and Byron the following day and Frankenstein is born. Her husband one of the major Romantic poets has many poems , essays and short stories to his credit. She writes only one book and it becomes a classic ! The novel is written in epistolary form and wisely points out what happens when man in his vanity attempts to usurp the role of God.There has been many literary and movie adaptations and remakes based on this horror drama. Unlike the general perception, Frankenstein is not the monster but his creator , the scientist. The monster refers himself as the' fallen angel'. Indeed.
