Rating: 
Summary: The Noble laureate returns to his journalistic roots
Review: "News of a Kidnapping" is a stunning account of a tragic chapter in Colombian history. Gabriel García Márquez's powers of mind, imagination and literature create a powerful and dramatic book.
Rating:
Summary: García Márquez as a journalist
Review: "News of a Kidnapping" reveals García Márquez first passion: journalism. Though it's a novel, it's inspired on a series of real events that happened on Colombia several years ago. There's no evident criticism, but it reveals and illustrates the political situation of Colombia at that time (though it is still happening at the present). If you read this book, you're going to suffer both the hostages situations as their families' (as if you were either one).
But besides the dramatical situations, what is extremely interesting is the way the events are narrated. The odd chapters narrate the kidnapped people situations, their suffering. The even chapters narrate their families situations.
Though García Márquez always tend to jump back and forward into time in the same page, here the plot is more lineal and, as i said before, more journalistic.
Evidently, the kidnapping is one of the most awful crimes a human-being and his family can suffer, and by reading this, you will find out why.
Rating: 
Summary: Pablo Escobar kidnaps and kills people.
Review: A great book about the narco terrorism in Columbia. Pablo Escobar kidnaps 9 prominent people and holds them until he gets the government to change the extratadition policy. The author details the kidnapping, but leaves out the story of the two drivers that were killed in the kidnapping. What about their families? The story is about the kidnap victims families and the effect on government policy.
Rating:
Summary: Good journalism from a great fiction writer
Review: Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "News of a Kidnapping" is a non-fiction work of journalism. This is unusual in that Señor Gabo, as he is known by his Colombia countrymen, usually writes fiction. Of course, he is best known as the nobel-prize winning author of the novels "One Hundred Years of Solitude", "Love in the Time of Cholera", and "The General in his Labyrinth". This fiction has been called "magical realism"."News of a Kidnapping" was translated by Edith Grossman. She translated all the Marquez novels listed above and has been praised by the author. "News of a Kidnapping" tells the tales of the kidnapping of a dozen or so Colombian citizens by the drug lords who came to be called the "extraditables". That name is no longer in the news since Pablo Escobar and other kingpins have been killed and the drug cartels broken into smaller groups including the guerrilla army which is, of course, no small group at all. The "extraditables" name refers to the fact that Colombia had signed a treaty allowing the extradition of drug lords wanted by the U.S. to the U.S. for trial. The kidnapping described in this book was a campaign of terror designed to roll back this legislation. This pretty much worked since the extradition laws were overturned. The journalism in this book reads like a novel. We are witness to the horror of the kidnapping of people who are then help captive in Medellin and elsewhere. The prisoner's psychological torment is made worse by the attitudes of their captors. At one moment they could be gentle the next they would be brutal. They were not physically tortured or psychologically abused. But their absence from their families for up to a year and lack of news wore them down. Some captives could have easily jumped out of windows and escaped. But they had been blindfolded or stuffed onto the floorboards of a car when they were taken. Consequently they did not know where they were even though most were in a city. The captives were also hidden with the complicity of neighbors. So if they fled to freedom they would no doubt have been betrayed by those around them. There was a profile of Gabriel Marguez in "The New Yorker" magazine a year or two ago. It seems he serves as a go-between and unpaid diplomat ferrying messages between the United States and Fidel Castro's Cuba. Marquez has long been friends of Castro. Riding around Colombia in an armored convoy he is a jet-setting politician traveling to Panama and beyond. Like Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, or Gore Vidal, this is a novelist who is involved in politics as well as writing. If you have not read them, the fiction of Gabriel Marquez is a worthy pursuit. My math teacher in college, no doubt being frustrated with kids who lacked a humanistic education, offered extra credit to those who read "One Hundred Years of Solitude". Only after that class ended did I read that novel. It is a "Buddenbrooks" for Latin America. Much of it's settings and ideas are drawn from the jungle where Marquez grew up. "Love in the time of Cholera" is just that: a love story set in the time when cholera ravaged the population. The vision of dead bloated bodies floating in the river remains vivid in my mind. "The General in His Labrynth" is a fictionalized look at the like of Simon Bolivar, liberator of Ecuador, Peru, and Columbia. I like these books so much I have read each several times. This business of kidnapping and civil war has ruined Colombia. I would like to go there as a tourist. Bogota is high in the sky and consequently cool like Quito, Ecuador. It is surrounded by pleasant mountain vistas. Cartagena is on the coast and I am sure has great beaches and fishing. Maybe this madness of war will end one day. Do as George Shultz, William F. Buckley, and George Soros say and legalize marijuana, heroin, and cocaine. Then we would cut off all that violence at its pocket book source.
Rating:
Summary: News of a Kidnapping
Review: I have read the original book in Spanish and I have to say it is great. The detail in which Garcia Marquez describes the events is impressive. I admire the people that were held hostage and the fact that they revived those horrible days for a book. The sad thing about this novel is that when you finish it, it seems like the war and kidnappings in Colombia are over. Unfortunately that is not true and you have to realize that today, hundreds of people are held hostage and the date of their release is unkown. Anyway, this is a must-read book if you are interested in Latin America and even if you sincerely don?t care about it.
Rating:
Summary: To live under the guerillas sword.
Review: I read News of a kidnapping(Noticias de un Secuestro) of colombian writer, Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez in spanish, and for me it was one of those book that I found myself cryng while reading it. Does it loose something with the translation?,I don't know; Does it loose something with the cultural gap?, maybe.Maybe if you don't live in a country were your physical integrity its in constant risk, you'll find this novel an odd version of Magic realism, but one musn't forget that GarcÃa Márquez began his career as a journalist, and in his collected journalist works you could find in seed what you can fully appreciate in News of a kidnapping: That Gabo is almost as talented in non-fiction as he is in fiction. He might not be your typical or classical journalist, his works are so interesting and well written that you might think that you're reading fiction. Lástima that this is not the case: in Colombia, and lately in Venezuela, people live in constant fear of beign the next prey of the kidnappers,or maybe even worse, their loved ones. These menace is for everybody: Young, old, women, men, children, poor people, rich people. I think that GarcÃa Márquez dared to write about something that few would: the kidnappings of a number of colombian journalists.How they lived during their endless months in captivity; their families and their desperation; the negotiations; the sacrifices of human life for what: An ideal...or greed? News of a kidnapping its a wonderful books of a horrible contemporary latinamerican issue.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the fainthearted..
Review: Let me say this first: this is not a book for the fainthearted! If you have someone you care about in Colombia, you will drive that person (and yourself) crazy if you read this book!! (Unfortunately, I speak from experience.. *gentle smile*) Nobel Prize winner Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez is best known for his beautiful classic novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude". "News of a Kidnapping" is very different from the other novels I have read of GarcÃa Márquez, but still very interesting and well written. If one were not familiar with the kidnappings that have occurred in Columbia, one might just believe this was just another brilliant novel by Garcia Márquez. "News of a kidnapping" is a true-life story of one of the evils of Colombia and Latin America. GarcÃa Márquez writes about the kidnappings of Colombian journalists, and other well-known persons or their relatives, ten in total. "News of a kidnapping" is the story of how these people lived during their endless months in captivity. While held hostages they were not tortured nor abused, but just being away from their families and loved ones for many months and the lack of news from the outside world wore them out. The emotional suffering was made even worse by the attitudes of their abductors. One moment they could be very nice to them, and in the next moment they could be behaving like wild animals. Parallel to the memoirs of the imprisoned journalists, we follow their families and their anxiety; and the fight to have the ones kidnapped set free. In Colombia people live in constant fear of being the next victim of kidnapping, or maybe even worse, that their loved ones will be. All too often we hear of famous athletes, celebrities, or other high profile people being held ransom for money or to achieve other political goals. That Garcia Márquez has dared to write such a book is rather amazing, bearing in mind that he probably risked his life by doing so. This book will for sure change the way you look upon your personal freedom! After finishing this book I realized that living in Norway is maybe not that bad after all. It is not the belly on earth, and not much is happening here, but Hey! maybe that's not so bad after all..
Rating: 
Summary: History of a Kidnapping
Review: This book was very dull. I was hoping for an account of the true-life kidnappings of several Colombian journalists in 1990 by a terrorist drug cartel. Instead, what I got was a news story of the kidnappings. This book was nothing but a narrative of the events. Garcia-Marquez did not capture the raw emotions that he normally does. This book had a very cold, remote feel to it. Furthermore, it was full of allusions to Colombian life and events surrounding it. Not having much of an understanding of Colombian history, I was lost in these passages. Even with the author's descriptions and histories of all the various laws and coups that had taken place, I still could not make sense of it and became confused and irritated. The only redeeming quality that I did find in this book is that Garcia-Marquez is a brilliant writer and he paired up with an excellent translator in Edith Grossman. With this combination the book provides a good resource of talented writing - it is a shame that is clouded with a monotonous story. Why 3 stars?: While the story is rather uninteresting and is bogged down with long descriptions of Colombian history that are hard for Americans to relate to. What boosts the rating however is the wonderful writing and subsequent translation by Garcia-Marquez and Grossman receptively.
Rating:
Summary: Well documented, well translated
Review: This is my first attempt at GGM's work. The author's writing style is very different in accounting the events happened during that kidnap saga. As he explains the events unfolding, he carefully adds the background information of the appropriate character(s) involved in the scene and he gets back to the present by providing the correct dose of the past. Though the reader aware of the victims killed, the heart races every time the government forces goof up and we wonder whom going to get killed. That means successful writing. The book details the exhaustive account of how all the sides acted during the period of kidnapping, how professionally and emotionally the victims' families handle the situations. The author explains them in a measured quantity rather than tiring the reader with too many deatils. The translation is great and I can't help feeling that Edith Grossman got into GGM's mind and translate it exactly what he was trying to put it. Very rare I come across a translator like that. Worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Well documented, well translated
Review: This is my first attempt at GGM's work. The author's writing style is very different in accounting the events happened during that kidnap saga. As he explains the events unfolding, he carefully adds the background information of the appropriate character(s) involved in the scene and he gets back to the present by providing the correct dose of the past. Though the reader aware of the victims killed, the heart races every time the government forces goof up and we wonder whom going to get killed. That means successful writing. The book details the exhaustive account of how all the sides acted during the period of kidnapping, how professionally and emotionally the victims' families handle the situations. The author explains them in a measured quantity rather than tiring the reader with too many deatils. The translation is great and I can't help feeling that Edith Grossman got into GGM's mind and translate it exactly what he was trying to put it. Very rare I come across a translator like that. Worth reading.
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