IMPORTANT : The notes that I took for myself. I hope they will help you too.
Overview
Kırmızı Pazartesi by Gabriel García Márquez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I do not know in which motivation was brought in the Turkish translation of the book as “Red Monday” to the literature. Sometimes I happen to see the weird Turkish translation of the names of movies and tv shows as well, even though their English translations are quite clear.
Anyway, before I jump into the book reviews, I’d like to share an explanation that I came across in one of the footnotes with you. I realized that, in South American countries, people of Arab origin who migrated from the Middle East were looked upon as Turks. For those who don’t know, Turkish and Arab origins are completely different.
“Give me a prejudice and I will move the world. “ — quote from the book.
I liked the book. It’s a book with the subject of a murder that took place under everyone’s very nose. It is about a violence that everyone knows(except for a victim named Santiago Nasar) but does not turn a hair to stop, and on the contrary, lead to the murder.
“But most of those who could have done something to prevent the crime and did not, consoled themselves with the pretext that affairs of honour are sacred monopolies, giving access only to those who are part of the drama. “Honour is love,” I heard my mother say.” — quote from the book
I thought honor killings were unique to middle eastern societies, but it was a bit of a surprise to me to see similar ones in different societies. In fact, you can easily see how the Vicario brothers committed this murder under the pressure of customary traditions. The fact that they even told everyone they saw that they would commit the murder with the hope that someone would prevent them, shows how much pressure these brothers were under.
Most of us think that every tradition we have been taught from the past to the present is something that should be preserved. When we realize that such traditions are a product of ignorance, then we can move on to the next stage, I think.
“Fatality makes us invisible.” — quote from the book.
A sentence uttered by the author after Santiago Nasar took refuge in his fiancee’s house upon learning of those who had come to kill him, and after no one saw him enter the house! I wanted to share it because I like it so much. In fact, as impressive as this phrase is, the belief that “destiny cannot be avoided” is just as well-known doctrine.
Overall, a book I can recommend!
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Goodreads Ratings
You can find the rating of the book and the comments about it on the Goodreads page. –> Goodreads ratings
