<i>The General and His Labyrinth</i> by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This is a historical novel set in 1830 in South America as the Spanish are being ousted and the countries we currently know are being formed. Marquez handles the material well, balancing the historical fact with extrapolation of the characters' thoughts and actions. I didn't get the feeling that any part was patently untrue---his interpretation of the events were quite believable. In both the balancing and believability, I think Marques comes quite close to matching Shaara in The Killer Angles---one of the best pieces of historical fiction I have read.

Marquez's style here was as engaging as in 100 Years of Solitude, despite the historical setting. I like how the General was portrayed: as a man dedicated to an ideal even through sickness and lack of support. Most of the supporting characters---other than Jose Palacios and Manuela---tended to blend into each other and I was often forgetting who was who.

One of the best aspects of this book was the descriptions of the countryside and people. The General is moving about northern South America for much of the book and it is interesting how the reaction to him changes as he travels and how the description of the countryside tends to mirror those reactions: poor reactions in a swamp area, great reactions in the mountains. I really got a sense of the variety of political and environmental landscapes that existed during that time.

I was loaned this book by my thesis advisor. I'm not quite sure if he was trying to say anything with it. The General's labyrinth is his life's work: freeing and uniting all of South America. It seemed that as hard as he tried he was not able to find the way through to the ending he wanted. I hope my advisor isn't trying to say the same about my research---this method, though, seems a bit too subtle for him.