Roxanne reviews Until August by
Gabriel García Márquez
Though tourist season will soon wane, for those still lingering here on the beach, I highly recommend Gabriel García Márquez's posthumously published novella Until August.
The annual solo pilgrimage the main character, Ana, takes to her mother’s gravesite, leads her to self-discovery and spicy encounters. The joy of reading this is in the reverberation of lingering questions. Was she happy in marriage? Or are these explosions of independence simply her search for autonomy in a marriage cloaked in deception? All seemed pretty affable and fulfilling with her husband at the outset, so were her suspicions paranoia and acting out the chicken or the egg? Or perhaps she was fulfilling the destiny of her mother, unable to escape the fate of her ancestry? Are the books she takes to read on these trips (including The Stranger, The Day of the Triffids, Martian Chronicles just to name a few) a key Márquez is giving us to the answers?
Anyone married, middle aged with adult children or a single who travels can take something away from the last work of the Nobel Prize winner.