No One Writes to the Colonel

This book contains two short stories - the first is the titular story, featuring an un-named Colonel and his wife. The Colonel is retired, and has been awaiting his pension - walking to the post office each Friday expecting it to finally arrive. After 15 years, he has nothing to hold onto but the blind hope it will arrive, while he and his wife slowly starve.

The books opens with the Colonel waking, finding there is only enough coffee for one cup, which he prepares and gives to his wife. “I have had mine,” the Colonel lied. “There was still a big spoonful left.” He then dresses in his best suit and heads out to attend a funeral - “This burial is a special event,” the colonel said. “It's the first death from natural causes which we've had in many years.”

The country is under martial law. Nine months before, their grown-up son, their only child, was shot while distributing subversive leaflets inside a cock fight. The only possession from the son is his rooster, the feeding of which takes food from their own mouths. The couple argue about the rooster - and the fact they should sell it, but the Colonel can't bring himself to do this, believing instead that they will make money when the rooster wins the cockfights - still months away. Instead they have slowly sold all the possessions they can - except a clock and a picture (which no one will buy).

For me this was a story of bleakness, sorrow, pain and hopelessness. The book starts one morning in October, and finishes in mid December, but really it is just a snapshot of life. At the very end, the Colonel reaches a conclusion - one that took him seventy-five years of his life, minute by minute to reach. I won't spoil it for you.

The second story is a bit less orthodox. Presented as one story, but broken up into 8 individual and separate chapter/stories. They all take place in Macondo - like so many of GGM's books (including No One Writes to the Colonel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, etc). They are isolated short stories, but have some characters which run through all. For me it was too fragmented, and if there was an overall theme I didn't pick it up.

First story was 5/5, second was 3/5, so overall four stars from me.