It took me almost a year since the first time I read OHYOS to get to a bird's eye view. It resists traditional attempts at understanding: neither a Hollywood plot structure (with, say, protagonists/antagonists) nor a classic structure (themes explored within a constructed story) apply. The closest it gets to a High Concept is "an exaggerated retelling of Real Life as Márquez knew it". Actual events mix with folklore mix with references mix with imagination. The end result is that you, the reader, are overwhelmed - the 350-ish pages easily feel like 1500 worth of story.
That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you are and how much effort you're willing to give the book, but you can get something out of it even if you do get lost. There is continuity, but in a very Real Life way, and the overall structure is more of a tangled web than a story where everything combines to make sense in the end. It's more about the journey than the destination.
And the journey is well constructed: The language is beautiful and funny, all the characters feel like people one would like to get to know, and even if they often do self-destructive or evil things, there is no spite in the narration.
So I recommend it fully, and trust you to figure it out on your own.
Literature Get enough minutes and you have days, have months, have years, the whole of your life...
It took me almost a year since the first time I read OHYOS to get to a bird's eye view. It resists traditional attempts at understanding: neither a Hollywood plot structure (with, say, protagonists/antagonists) nor a classic structure (themes explored within a constructed story) apply. The closest it gets to a High Concept is "an exaggerated retelling of Real Life as Márquez knew it". Actual events mix with folklore mix with references mix with imagination. The end result is that you, the reader, are overwhelmed - the 350-ish pages easily feel like 1500 worth of story.
That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you are and how much effort you're willing to give the book, but you can get something out of it even if you do get lost. There is continuity, but in a very Real Life way, and the overall structure is more of a tangled web than a story where everything combines to make sense in the end. It's more about the journey than the destination.
And the journey is well constructed: The language is beautiful and funny, all the characters feel like people one would like to get to know, and even if they often do self-destructive or evil things, there is no spite in the narration.
So I recommend it fully, and trust you to figure it out on your own.