Chronicle of a Death Foretold—Prefiguration, Augury, Dream: the Novel as Spiral

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Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez is a marvel, a 128 page novella that loops through time, community, social class, destiny, dream, truth while refusing to follow a linear path. And yet the book is all about time since we are told from the start that within a day Santiago Nasar will be murdered. It’s a book that defies conventional narrative—to whom does the story belong? Who is the protagonist? From the get-go Márquez is having fun. From the first sentence—no, the novella’s title—he challenges himself to weave a tale where the dire outcome is known. It’s an anti-whodunnit where complicity is everywhere. The novel is an adventure in structure that I’ve returned to again and again; and the more I unpack, the greater its pleasure.