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Book Reviews of Of Love and Other Demons

Of Love and Other Demons
Of Love and Other Demons
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Edith Grossman (Translator)
ISBN-13: 9780679438533
ISBN-10: 067943853X
Publication Date: 5/2/1995
Pages: 160
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 23

3.9 stars, based on 23 ratings
Publisher: Knopf
Book Type: Hardcover
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

4 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

althea avatar reviewed Of Love and Other Demons on + 774 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
It's a little bit mystifying to me that people get all hissy-fit-like about how 'The Golden Compass' is anti-religious when there are books like this around! I'm like, now THIS is an anti-religious book!

Set in colonial Latin America, the story is told in Marquez' beautiful, 'magical realist' style. A neglected young woman is nipped by a rabid dog in the marketplace. She shows no symptoms of disease, but, in fear, against the recommendation of the only shown-to-be-sensible character in the book, (an atheist jewish doctor), her father brings her for treatment at a convent. Once in the hands of the priests and nuns, it is decided that she is not ill but possessed (mainly because, having been brought up mostly by the slaves in her household, she speaks African languages). Although one of the men assigned to exorcise her believes that nothing is wrong with her, and falls in love with her, he really does not understand her, and he fails in every way to free her from the clutches of the Church, and she dies under torture.
Quoting the review from Publishers' Weekly: "This tragic tale is in essence an outcry against intolerance and bigotry and an indictment of a degraded Church that used its power with narrow-minded cruelty."
Excellent.
reviewed Of Love and Other Demons on + 224 more book reviews
This was a strange story, well-written but somewhat of an odd premise. Here is part of what it says on the book jacket:
Unsettling and indelible, Of Love and Demons haunts us with its evocation of an exotic world while it treats, majestically, of the most universal experiences know to woman and man.

I wouldn't say it's a ten, but if you like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, you're bound to find this an interesting read.
jadaskye avatar reviewed Of Love and Other Demons on + 122 more book reviews
Scary scary scary...........
reviewed Of Love and Other Demons on + 15 more book reviews
Another great Garcia Marquez book! The story of a love affair between a priest and a copper-haired girl, who is incarcerated in a convent.