My second Marquez, after reading and loving 100 Years of Solitude. Reading a second book by him, the whole Magical Realism, ever-so-slight-warping-of-reality thing starts to feel like a schtick after awhile, but damn, it’s a really excellent and well-executed schtick and it keeps me coming back. This one is a lot more personal and character-based than 100 Years, with several very well-drawn and complex characters, who are more than just avatars for other things. And of course, more of Marquez’s slightly askew world-building genius too. However, in the end, the ambiguity over whether the protagonist and his obsessive love are admirable or monstrous is what really interested me the most. I love me a novel where you end up unsure whether you even like the protagonist or not after you’ve just spent several hundred pages immersed in their world and worldview. Challenging and interesting stuff, though maybe not for everybody because of that.