No one writes to the Colonel

The second novel by the Colombian master, a story of injustice and violence.

El coronel no tiene quien le escriba was written by Gabriel García Márquez during his stay in Paris, where he had arrived in the mid-fifties as a press correspondent and with the secret intention of studying cinema. The closure of the newspaper he worked for plunged him into poverty while he wrote this exceptional novel in three different versions, which was later rejected by several publishers before its publication.

After the Faulknerian baroque style of La hojarasca, this second novel represents a step towards asceticism, towards expressive economy, and the writer's style becomes purer and more transparent. It is also a story of injustice and violence: an old retired colonel goes to the port every Friday to await the arrival of the official letter that will respond to his just claim for his rights for services rendered to the homeland. But the homeland remains silent...

"The colonel opened the coffee can and checked that there was no more than a teaspoonful. He removed the pot from the stove, poured half of the water onto the dirt floor, and scraped the inside of the can with a knife over the pot until the last shavings of coffee powder mixed with tin rust came off. While he waited for the infusion to boil, sitting next to the clay stove in an attitude of confident and innocent expectation, the colonel felt that poisonous mushrooms and lilies were growing in his guts. It was October. A difficult morning to face, even for a man like him who had survived so many mornings like that. For fifty-six years - since the end of the last civil war - the colonel had done nothing but wait. October was one of the few things that arrived."

Writer Mario Benedetti said...

"I believe, and I have stated it more than once, that García Márquez's masterpiece is called El coronel no tiene quien le escriba."