Review: Strange Pilgrims: Stories

Strange Pilgrims: Stories by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Strange Pilgrims is a short story collection about Caribbean or South American Hispanics finding themselves, either through fate or misfortune, living lost in the streets of Europe. There were elements of these stories which I quickly dismissed as beautifully crafted nonsense, but then there were also those moments that resonated with me a truth that I thought no one else shared. An understanding of being a superstitious and emotional outsider in a world of fact and logic, where listening to your heart is a high risk maneuver. The alternative though, is commonplace pleasantries that come from constructed order. There's an honest and sad sincerity about living in the former, but then there is a soulless emptiness that comes from the latter. I thank Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez for creating a fictional family where I know I wasn't the only outsider in that alluring yet distant continent I once called home. And for showing me why Europeans think we're all crazy; because in the end, we are.

I have never read a word before from this author, this Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez, with his interesting use of sentence composition and character development. His ability to tell stories that I can not believe in, yet which move me with such passion that I'm left speechless after each chapter. I still have no idea how this book came into my possession, how it ended up on my grateful shelf. Finishing this book I thought how sad and bleak life seems but it did leave me wanting more. It's no surprise if his other works end up on my reading list.

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