Seventeen Poisoned Englishmen
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15
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Average rating3
Every book tells a story . . . And the 70 titles in the Pocket Penguins series are emblematic of the renowned breadth and quality that formed part of the original Penguin vision in 1935 and that continue to define our publishing today. Together, they tell one version of the unique story of Penguin Books. Admired by millions across the world, Gabriel Garcia Marquez first came to prominence as an imaginative writer of genius with his fantastical novel One Hundred Years of Solitude , published by Penguin in 1972. Alternately enchanting and disconcerting, the four tales in this volume describe the frailty of humanity and the bewitching force of the imagination, in a world where the lines between reality and dream are hopelessly blurred.
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A Pocket Penguin 70 year publication - a excerpt of short stories by GGM. Three taken from [b:Strange Pilgrims 22175 Strange Pilgrims Gabriel García Márquez https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1411334612s/22175.jpg 791346], the third story from [b:Collected Stories 759 Collected Stories Gabriel García Márquez https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1324392308s/759.jpg 750435].Plotlines given away, so a spoiler it is...Seventeen Poisoned Englishmen - A religious woman, an unsuccessful pilgrimage to meet the pope stays in a hotel, a floor above seventeen Englishmen. 2/5.'I Only Came to Use the Phone' - a horror story of circumstance. A woman whose car breaks down attempts to solicit help - to use their telephone, only to be locked away with the other lunatics. 4/5.The Woman Who Came at Six O'clock - the story of a barman and his lady patron, and his love for her. 4/5.Light is Like Water - Magical realism in the wild imagination of two children. I have never really been a huge fan of magical realism presented as a story in a 'normal setting'. One of the boys asks why the lights went on with just a flick of the switch, and the narrator flippantly responds, “Light is like water. You turn the tap and out it comes.” After that the boys ask their parents for a boat, and each time their parents go out they break a light-bulb and let light pour out to a depth of three feet, and go sailing around the house. 2/5So 2, 4, 4, 2 - sounds like 3 overall!
