مجموعة قصص ماركيز القصيرة شبيهة لدرجة كبيرة برواياته حتى في إسهابها وتفاصيلها الكثيرة وطولها في حالة بعض القصص، لدرجة جعلتني أتذكر رواياته المذهلة.

وقبل تعليقي على القصص، أبدي حزني على الترجمة، على رغم كونها جيدة بعض الشئ إلا أن هناك الكثير من الأخطاء في ترجمة الكلمات لبعض القصص التي قرأتها بالانجليزية من قبل والتي أعرفها، لذلك لاحظت الكثير من الأخطاء وهذا سئ، لأن القصص جيدة فعلا!

بالعودة إلى القصص، أعجبني معظمها مثل:
"عينا كلب أزرق" وكيف أنها تدور في حلمي شخصين مختلفين على ما يبدو ويتقابلان في الحلم وربما في الواقع أيضاً دون أن يعرف ذلك
أو "الإذعان الثالث" المرعبة والتي تدور أحداثها من وجهة نظر شخص "ميت" قضى حياته بأكملها ممداً في تابوت.
و "جنازة الأم الكبرى" والتي شعرت كما لو أنها امتداد لرواية "مائة عام من العزلة" كما لو أنها فصلها الأخير أو ما شابه.
أما أطول القصص وأروعها هي "الحكاية العجيبة والحزينة لطيبة القلب إيرينديرا و جدتها القاسية"، وهذه ليست قصة قصيرة عادية. هي ملحمة فتاة ظلت تتبع جدتها القاسية وتنصاع لأوامرها لسبب لازلت أجهله، ولكن هذا ما أضفى على القصة روعتها.
أما في "جئت لأتصل بالتليفون فقط" فقط شعرت برعب ماريا، وبداية القصة كانت مبهرة، رغم أنني لم أفهم نهايتها جيداً.
وفوجئت من تصرف الأطفال في قصة "الصيف السعيد للسيدة فوربس" وأعجبتني قصة "رحلة طيبة يا سيدي الرئيس" للغاية!

أسلوب ماركيز ساحر ويجعلك تغرق في تفاصيل قصصه سواء أكانت عشر صفحات أم مائة صفحة. لم أمل منه يوماً، أعتقد أن فكرة أن أبدأ بأكبر أعماله "مائة عام من العزلة" نجحت في منحي تلك المناعة والقدرة على قرائته دون كلل أو ملل.

a collection of three of marquez's short stories collections. I feel like this big bindup is really the best way to begin with marquez. it gives the same magical feelings of most of his novels, but at the same time since these are all short stories (with a couple of novellas), it's more compact and packs a punch with the endings.
trying to choose a favorite collection is hard, but truly this book had some of the best literary/magical realism stories i've ever read. no wonder he is the godfather of the genre (to me, at least). also the english translation conveyed that better than the arabic translations i read almost 10 years ago, or maybe my taste in literature has just matured.

1- The Third Resignation:
2- The Other Side of Death:
3- Eva is inside her Cat:
4- Bitterness for Three Sleepwalkers:
5- Dialogue with the Mirror:
6- Eyes of a Blue Dog:
7- The Woman who Came at Six O'clock:
8- Nabo:
9- Someone has been disarranging these Roses:
10- The Night of the Curlews:
11- Monologue of Isabel watching it rain in Macondo:
--------
12- Tuesday Siesta:
13- One of These Days:
14- There are no Thieves in this Town:
15- Balthazar's Marvelous Afternoon:
16- Montiel's Widow:
17- One Day after Saturday:
18- Artifical Roses:
19- Big Mama's Funeral:
-------
20- A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings:
21- The Sea of Lost Time:
22- The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World:
23- Death Constant Beyond Love:
24- The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship:
25- Blacaman the Good, Vendor of Miracles:
26- The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and her heartless Grandmother:

He really is a master storyteller! While some of the stories flew over my head, the others kept me intrigued. And the thing about his stories is that even if you think something is missing or is not making sense, the writing style and beautiful prose keeps you hooked. Also, Innocent Eréndira broke my heart.

This was not what I was expecting, in a very good way!

In the first set of short stories Márquez writes in a very visceral and surreal way -- describing various states of death/after death in unique ways that I rather liked.

His middle section focused more on social commentary, and I often felt like Márquez was either too subtle or I was too dull to find them particularly interesting.

my becoming-a-genius project, part 22!

the background:
i have decided to become a genius.

to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity.

i took like a 2 month break from this project because i decided to deal with my reading slump (and then spent 2 months forcing myself to read and ignoring it), and i'm happy to be back!!!

also i want to read some marquez but i'm intimidated by the copy of one hundred years of solitude i've had for, well, a hundred years, so this seems like a good compromise.

PROJECT 1: THE COMPLETE STORIES BY FLANNERY O'CONNOR
PROJECT 2: HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES BY CARMEN MARIA MACHADO
PROJECT 3: 18 BEST STORIES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE
PROJECT 4: THE LOTTERY AND OTHER STORIES BY SHIRLEY JACKSON
PROJECT 5: HOW LONG 'TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH? BY N.K. JEMISIN
PROJECT 6: THE SHORT STORIES OF OSCAR WILDE
PROJECT 7: THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK BY ANDREW LANG
PROJECT 8: GRAND UNION: STORIES BY ZADIE SMITH
PROJECT 9: THE BEST OF ROALD DAHL
PROJECT 10: LOVE AND FREINDSHIP BY JANE AUSTEN
PROJECT 11: HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD BY OTTESSA MOSHFEGH
PROJECT 12: BAD FEMINIST BY ROXANE GAY
PROJECT 12.5: DIFFICULT WOMEN BY ROXANE GAY
PROJECT 13: THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK
PROJECT 14: FIRST PERSON SINGULAR BY HARUKI MURAKAMI
PROJECT 15: THE ORIGINAL FOLK AND FAIRY TALES OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM
PROJECT 16: A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN BY LUCIA BERLIN
PROJECT 17: SELECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK
PROJECT 18: HIGH LONESOME: SELECTED STORIES BY JOYCE CAROL OATES
PROJECT 19: THE SHORT STORIES OF ANTON CHEKHOV
PROJECT 20: COLLECTED STORIES OF COLETTE
PROJECT 21: JABBERWOCKY AND OTHER NONSENSE: COLLECTED POEMS BY LEWIS CARROLL
PROJECT 22: COLLECTED STORIES BY GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ

DAY 1: THE THIRD RESIGNATION
this is like if someone rewrote an edgar allan poe story to be, like, better.
controversial maybe. but i am not sorry.
rating: 4

DAY 2: THE OTHER SIDE OF DEATH
back to back stories about being obsessed with death. honestly it seems like more content should be about this. we are maybe too okay with the state of our mortal coil as a society.
rating: 4.25

DAY 3: EVA IS INSIDE HER CAT
immediately insane and i love it.
a third death-obsessed story, but this one also about being a woman. these get better and better???
rating: 4.5

DAY 4: BITTERNESS FOR THREE SLEEPWALKERS
confession time: i DID google "bitterness for three sleepwalkers analysis" to see if i got it. and in return i have discovered a class that each had to do a PREZI (!!!) on a GGM story.
remember prezis???
rating: 4

DAY 5: DIALOGUE WITH THE MIRROR
relatable by title alone.
never mind. i've never looked in a mirror to see my dead brother looking back.
rating: 3

DAY 6: EYES OF A BLUE DOG
this is possibly the corniest last line of any short story ever. it reads like those reddit horror stories people post on twitter.
rating: 3

DAY 7: THE WOMAN WHO CAME AT SIX O'CLOCK
something you learn when you read a lot is that women are endlessly interesting, and men are, say, 8 times out of 10 very boring. even when it's an especially interesting woman, up to especially interesting things, if it has a male author and a male narrator...might be a bust.
rating: 3.5

DAY 8: NABO: THE BLACK MAN WHO MADE THE ANGELS WAIT
could tell by title alone this one wouldn't be my favorite.
rating: 3

DAY 9: SOMEONE HAS BEEN DISARRANGING THESE ROSES
now this title...this i like. this is giving alice's adventures in wonderland.
kind of spooky and fun, if you've ever wanted a weird little ghost friend haunting your room and messing with your stuff.
rating: 3.5

DAY 10: THE NIGHT OF THE CURLEWS
kind of have to hand it to a story for being no plot, just bad vibes.
rating: 3

DAY 11: MONOLOGUE OF ISABEL WATCHING IT RAIN IN MACONDO
a woman talking uninterrupted at length is my idea of a good time. fictional or otherwise.
also i am currently watching it rain, and am capable of saying a lot, so...this is going to be like an immersive 4D experience.
it's important to remember that we are all always just one weird thing away from complete breakdown.
rating: 3.75

DAY 12: TUESDAY SIESTA
tuesday goals.
nothing really happens here, which is cool. like this takes place mostly in a graveyard and it's by far the least spooky and death-obsessed story so far.
the tie between siesta and death is fun, and very subtle, relatively.
rating: 3.5

DAY 13: ONE OF THESE DAYS
getting political!
rating: 3.5

DAY 14: THERE ARE NO THIEVES IN THIS TOWN
feels like where the last section was about death, this one is about "the idea of a town."
rating: 3

DAY 15: BALTHAZAR'S MARVELOUS AFTERNOON
title is giving roald dahl. content is giving john steinbeck.
rating: 3.5

DAY 16: MONTIEL'S WIDOW
"Their letters were always happy, and one could see that they had been written in warm, well-lit places, and that the girls saw themselves reflected in many mirrors when they stopped to think." damn that's good.
this takes place in the same universe as the last one, which is fun.
rating: 3.5

DAY 17: ONE DAY AFTER SATURDAY
i do find myself consistently gripped by the stories in this section, even as they feel less...special? i don't know. plenty of days to think about it.
rating: 3.5

DAY 18: ARTIFICIAL ROSES
i love a short one. the analysis goes by quicker.
rating: 3.5

DAY 19: BIG MAMA'S FUNERAL
titular!!!
well, for the section.
the old ways do be dying and leaving garbage in their wake!
rating: 3.5

DAY 20: A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS
part 3!! we're cruising right along.
i think i've read this one before. i have vague memories of analyzing why this story, which is filled with SAT words, would have the subtitle "a tale for children."
or maybe my brain is just giving me that false remembrance as a way to be b*tchy.
anyway this is kind of basic-curriculum fodder but it is good.
rating: 4

DAY 21: THE SEA OF LOST TIME
i love this title extremely.
this has everything i like: time, roses, the ocean, daily occurrences imbued with metaphorical significance.
rating: 4

DAY 22: THE HANDSOMEST DROWNED MAN IN THE WORLD
another alleged "tale for children." which is good because i have roughly 1/2 a brain cell to devote to this.
the first recorded case of a parasocial relationship.
rating: 3.5

DAY 23: DEATH CONSTANT BEYOND LOVE
another short one! thank heaven for small mercies. (these are like...all short, but there's gotta be a big one coming.)
view of woman starting to get supremely grating.
rating: 2

DAY 24: THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE GHOST SHIP
skipped a day. maybe 2 days. maybe 3 days. i am too tired to either figure it out or catch up. at least this story has ghosts in it (one of my top 5 favorite things).
cruel and unusual for my fatigue day to include a story that is ONE FIVE-PAGE SENTENCE LONG.
luckily it's stunningly written.
rating: 4.5

DAY 25: BLACAMAN THE GOOD, VENDOR OF MIRACLES
another cool and fun one...
i am also doomed to never catch up because the next is the last story and it's a hundred thousand million pages long and, in other words, absolutely no way am i doing that right now.
rating: 4

DAY 26: THE INCREDIBLE AND SAD TALE OF INNOCENT ERENDIRA AND HER HEARTLESS GRANDMOTHER
last day! and this story is somehow even longer than its title implies.
this story won me for the first 5 pages, then lost me for like 45, and then won me back in the last paragraph.
rating: 4

OVERALL
i don't feel like this was the best way to start with gabriel garcia marquez (not to contradict the nobel committee), but i did enjoy it, and it did make me even more excited (which is to say less intimidated) to get to a hundred years of solitude.
rating: 3.5

a weird collection of stories. a few were really brilliant, some were confusing, some were boring. a bit like reading fairy tales-- even the stories I didn't really connect with felt like they very firmly already existed, and were being told rather than created, if that makes any sense. the one where the ocean smelled like roses is the one that's sticking most with me, though I also liked the eyes of the blue dog and there are no thieves in this town.

i initially read (a portion of) this in college, but this was my first time reading this collection as a whole. there is a very clear reason that gabriel garcia marquez is one of the greats.