Gabriel García Márquez's The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975) | Book Review and Analysis

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 1982 was awarded to Gabriel García Márquez. This is a reflection on The Autumn of the Patriarch (El otoño del patriarca), which took 17 years to write and was finished in Barcelona in 1975 as Francisco Franco lay dying. English translation by Gregory Rabassa published by Harper & Row in 1976.

My thoughts on Miguel Angel Asturias' Mr. President (El Señor Presidente):
   • Miguel Ángel Asturias' Mr. President ...  

My thoughts on Carlos Fuentes' The Death of Artemio Cruz (La muerte de Artemio Cruz):
   • Carlos Fuentes' The Death of Artemio ...  

My thoughts on J. M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians:
   • J. M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barba...  

Contents:
00:00 – Intro
00:58 – Context
02:47 – "Story" and structure
04:17 – Style and mode
06:38 – Themes
07:55 – Content
10:14 – Violence and pathos
12:17 – Psychology (comparison with Asturias' El Señor Presidente)
14:01 – Power, and a quote from Erich Fromm
16:42 – A note on dictator novels
19:49 – Connection with another Latin American novel
21:18 – Bottom line

Works cited:
Bazin & Seymour, eds. Conversations with Nadine Gordimer.
Fromm, Erich. Escape from Freedom.
García Márquez, Gabriel. El olor de la guayaba.