The Night Of The Curlews by Gabriel García Márquez, 1953
The magic trick:
The more you learn about this story, the less you know
G is for Gabriel.
Like many a good story – especially in that mid-century Latin American world of magic – the first paragraph drops you unprepared for its world. This reality isn’t quite normal. So you’re playing catch-up from the start, trying to look for clues. The masterful contradiction here goes likes this: the more you learn about the story, the less you know.
And that’s quite a trick on García Márquez’s part.
The selection:
“I think it’s a boy.”
And we told him.
“Fine. Ask him if he knows us.”
He asked the question. We heard the apathetic and simple voice of the boy, who said:
“Yes, I know you. You’re the three men whose eyes were pecked out by the curlews.”
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