No One Writes to the Colonel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Review)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a Colombian writer, is the author of the novella "No One Writes to the Colonel" (Spanish: "El coronel no tiene quien le escriba"). It was one of Marquez's earlier works and was originally published in 1961. The novel takes place in a small Colombian seaside town and centers around an elderly retired colonel (whose name is never given) and his wife, simply referred to as "the colonel's wife."
The colonel has waited fifteen years for his pension after fighting in Colombia's "Thousand Days' War." He checks the mail every Friday in the hopes of hearing something regarding his pension. Sadly, no letters appear week after week. The colonel and his wife manage to maintain a feeling of dignity and hope despite their poverty and the difficulties they encounter.
The novella examines issues including injustice, survival, the impacts of war, and poverty. It focuses on the colonel's disappointments and goals because he stands in for many Latin Americans who battled for a cause but were ultimately forgotten by society.
Marquez clearly depicts the characters and their hardships in his poetic and evocative style, while also capturing the spirit of the coastal hamlet. He uses his distinctive brand of magical realism, which combines parts of the extraordinary with reality, to craft a compelling story.
A moving and contemplative work, "No One Writes to the Colonel" exemplifies Marquez's command of narrative and his capacity to portray the human experience in the face of difficulty. Alongside novels like "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera," it is regarded as one of his most illustrious creations.
