How can a book be so beautiful and yet so disturbing at the same time? This is something that Marquez seems to excel at; he uses prose that is lyrical and poetic to describe situations and characters that are deeply unsettling, even horrific. He presents both the best and the worst of human nature with the same exquisite charm that makes the best more beautiful and worst more shocking. Of Love and Other Demons is classic Marquez.
It tells the tragic story of Sierva Maria, the daughter of a Spanish colonial Marquis, her upbringing in a bizarrely dysfunctional family and her eventual end at the hands of the Catholic church. It is never stated exactly when it is set or where, but I assume it is Columbia in the 18th Century during the decline of the Spanish Inquisition. At the start of the book Sierva Maria is bitten by a rabid dog and, whilst others who have been bitten by the same dog suffer and die, Sierva does not and yet the Church take an interest deciding she must be possessed and should be exorcised, but the priest assigned to perform the exorcism falls in love with her.
The juxtaposition of the title is reflected throughout this short book. The sweet and innocent twelve-year-old Sierva Maria is also an inveterate liar. Her jailor nuns are deeply religious and yet have a long running feud with the Bishop. The Church is intensely superstitious and the local doctor who lis consulted is an atheist. Caught in the middle, in love and beset by his own demons, is the priest charged with the exorcism. And those contrasts keep the reader off balance throughout as the chain of events moves inexorably towards its inevitable tragedy.
How better to tell such a grim and beautiful story but with the language of magical realism? An extraordinary book that cannot help but leave the reader deeply disturbed.
5 stars
It tells the tragic story of Sierva Maria, the daughter of a Spanish colonial Marquis, her upbringing in a bizarrely dysfunctional family and her eventual end at the hands of the Catholic church. It is never stated exactly when it is set or where, but I assume it is Columbia in the 18th Century during the decline of the Spanish Inquisition. At the start of the book Sierva Maria is bitten by a rabid dog and, whilst others who have been bitten by the same dog suffer and die, Sierva does not and yet the Church take an interest deciding she must be possessed and should be exorcised, but the priest assigned to perform the exorcism falls in love with her.
The juxtaposition of the title is reflected throughout this short book. The sweet and innocent twelve-year-old Sierva Maria is also an inveterate liar. Her jailor nuns are deeply religious and yet have a long running feud with the Bishop. The Church is intensely superstitious and the local doctor who lis consulted is an atheist. Caught in the middle, in love and beset by his own demons, is the priest charged with the exorcism. And those contrasts keep the reader off balance throughout as the chain of events moves inexorably towards its inevitable tragedy.
How better to tell such a grim and beautiful story but with the language of magical realism? An extraordinary book that cannot help but leave the reader deeply disturbed.
5 stars
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