Well, I finished the book during the reading break, which in hindsight I realize was a bad idea.  I was struggling to figure out what to say this week, so I decided to just focus on the last chapter, which in all honesty was interesting but also kind of disappointing. There was a lot that was done in the last chapter that tied up the book, but also simultaneously left the reader wondering about the ending. Personally, I felt like the ending was kind of abrupt and that there was kind of a build-up throughout the novel that kind of fell through at the end. I don’t know what I was expecting because it was kind of obvious what was going to happen, but nonetheless it felt anti-climatic. I guess the “simple-ish” ending added to the realistic aspect of the book. In reality not everything has or needs a big, splashy ending. Anyways, besides the way the book ended there is one piece of imagery that I can’t forget, and that’s the ants.

When Ürsula and José had their child and it was born with the tail of a pig, I knew the kid was going to end up having the same fate as the rest of the family. However, I never anticipated for it to be so gruesome and quick. I expected there to be a mention of the kid growing up and dying or maybe just being forgotten about, but instead we get told that the baby was devoured by ants. The imagery from the lines “And then he saw the child. It was a dry and bloated bag of skin that all the ants in the world were dragging toward their holes along the stone path in the garden.” (pg.553), is so clear in my mind. I did not expect Márquez to write about a baby succumbing to such a brutal death, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. The imagery is just so haunting and it makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.

Overall, I would say this was a good book and I did enjoy it. I had read Márquez’s “Chronicle of a Death Foretold“, and didn’t really enjoy it but this book made me change my mind about his writing style. He really knows how to capture magic realism in such a beautiful way.

Question to think about: Every character dies a sad death at the end of the novel, however Márquez writes the most gruesome death for the newborn baby. Why do you think he chose to kill the baby like that? Did being eaten by ants add something more to the story?