Many of you may have already read too many novels belonging to that current that made the magic and heritage of Latin American literature known to the rest of the world in the 60s. Others, on the other hand, may appreciate certain references when choosing new stories far from everything you've read before, in which the everyday and the supernatural come together in an irresistible cocktail.
These 4 books to appreciate magical realism they can become a good start for all those who decide to go in search of the yellow butterflies.
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez
The most famous novel of magical realism, and possibly Latin America, was the story of the Buendía and of Macondo, the town that Gabriel García Márquez gave life to in this classic published in 1967. Ghosts that swarm among mud houses, you mention yellow butterflies and, especially, ants are some clear components of the magical realism that dwell in the pages of this book in which, if you let yourself be transported (and you have controlled the genealogical tree via Google) it will conquer you.
The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende
The first novel by the Chilean writer was a success, thanks in part to the magnetism of that family plot spread over four generations during the post-colonial period of Chile. Throughout the pages of the book, spirits rub shoulders with mortals and the political events of the time immerse us in a magical Latin America not without a certain air of a soap opera and even influences from the novel in code. The novel would be adapted to the cinema in 1994 and starring Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep.
Pedró Páramo, by Juan Rulfo
Still from the film adaptation of Pedro Páramo, one of the great exponents of magical realism.
According to experts, the only novel by this Mexican author was the first to start the magic realism movement. It does not lack some of the key elements of the genre: characters in a poor and devastated environment, the presence of spirits, or the rupture of the concept of time evoked by the visit of that young Juan Preciado to the town of Comala, in the desert of Jalisco , in search of his father: Pedro Páramo.
Like water for chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
Also adapted to the cinema in the 90s, this novel by the Mexican Esquivel published in 1989 narrated the love story between Tita and Pedro during the Mexican Revolution, a key framework of Mexican magical realism. The contribution of this novel lies in the use of ingredients and Mexican recipes used as a metaphor to tell the feelings of the characters. Like One Hundred Years of Solitude, the outcome of the book is one of the reasons why it is worth being seduced.
These 4 books to appreciate magical realism become the best recommendations when starting a genre adapted by writers from other countries such as Haruki Murakami (Kafka on the shore) or especially Salman Rushdie (Children of midnight).
Do you like magical realism? What other recommendations would you like to contribute?
Without a doubt. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is the most magical of the four.
But "Pedro Páramo", which I have read more than eight times, is a novel that grabs me and every time I read it I find various nuances that I did not find before.
I have read the four, the one that I liked the most is One Hundred Years of Solitude. Desoués Like water for chocolate and The house of the spirits. Pedro Ppáramo I read it many years ago, I don't remember anything about it. It caught my attention, because it was very different from all the novels that had passed through my hands.Happy times when I lived in Cuba,
A fundamental novel is missing to understand magical realism and it is a novel that is chronologically ahead of the four mentioned, it is "The memories of the future", by Elena Garro, published in 1963 and which has gone unnoticed by many readers and literary critics.
Missing "The Lord President" by Miguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala) with which he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. For some, the initiator of magical realism.
To complete this fantastic cast, there is missing "The dance of the lizards" by David de Juan Marcos, published by Planeta. This man from Salamanca has captured the magical essence of his predecessor García Márquez.
I am a lover of this genre, I have read all the novels mentioned but without a doubt I believe that Gabo when writing One Hundred Years of Solitude did so in a simply majestic way, in this way almost surpassing the master Juan Rulfo; It is my humble opinion!