Leaf Keith

Read from Wednesday, December 15^th to Saturday, December 18^th.

Leaf Storm, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  This was a collection of stories by one of my favorite authors, Garcia Marquez.  I bought it over a year ago, and have been meaning to read it for awhile now.  It is centered around the main story, Leaf Storm, which takes up the first two thirds of the small book, and then follows with a few short stories, only a few pages each.

Leaf Storm is the story of a family in Macondo, Colombia, in the early 20^th century.  The “Leaf Storm” is a metaphor for the rapid growth of the town after the banana company came, and then left it just as suddenly.  The town is now in decline, and bitter, as they were used to the populated, urban, and developing atmosphere.  Told from alternating perspectives, an aging colonel, his daughter and his grandson have to bury a doctor who died alone. He is the most hated man in town because he refused to treat some wounded men who came to his house one night.  The rest of Macondo would rather he rot in the street.  Although it takes place at the funeral, the crux of the story is the rehashing of memories surrounding the entrance of the Doctor into the family’s life. 

The Doctor arrived mysteriously one day, with no past, and asked to stay at the house of the Colonel.  He arrived with a letter of recommendation from a famous general.  When the leaf storm hit Macondo, the Doctor lost his patients and he became a shut-in.  He had an affair with the house maid, Meme, and they went off to live together down the street. He never left his house until the day he died. 

The rest of the family objects, but the Colonel had promised the Doctor to give him a decent burial.  There is also a back story about the daughter, Isabel, and her husband who left her, and the Colonel lost his first wife in childbirth.  Leaf Storm is not one of my favorite works by Garcia Marquez.  It is slow, and repetitive.  It is more just a glimpse into these character’s lives, and they are not as well-developed as his characters in other books.  There are traces of magical realism here, my favorite of his stylistic techniques, but nothing near some of his later works.

I enjoyed the shorter stories at the end of the book.  They were more like fables and tall-tales, full of wonder and magical realism.  There was one about a drowned man who washed up on the beach of a small town, and the town becomes enamored with him, creating an elaborate background and eventually adopting him as their own.  I also enjoyed the story about a boy who sees a ghost ship once a year in the harbor, but no one believes him, and so one year he goes out in a small boat, and using a light, guides the ghost ship to crash along the coast of the town.  Also, there are stories about an old angel that fell to the ground, and a boy who can perform miracles but goes around as a side show attraction. 

This is Garcia Marquez’s first published book, in 1955, and it is possible to see traces of his later techniques that I love so much.  It was enjoyable, but nothing spectacular.  Three out of five stars.