No one writes to the colonel.

Name of the book - NO ONE WRITES TO THE COLONEL

Author - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Year of publication - 1968

Genre - Fiction

General introduction -
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a Nobel prize winner in literature(1982). He had a special style in his creations from which a whole new genre was born later on. It's called 'Magical realism'. Now we can put his other novels like 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings', 'Of Love and Other Demons' etc in this genre, but surprisingly enough the novel we are talking about here is an exception. Garcia Marquez came out of his own realm and wrote the very thing he observed with his own eyes. For a break, he entered the genre of 'realism' because maybe at the aftermath of a war, he realized that there's nothing magical in this reality. The novel illustrates the cruel consequences one had faced in the trail of war. The writer juggles with emotions like love, envy, loss, hope, denial throughout the novel and portrays the circus of life beautifully. 

Short summary -
It's a story of an old colonel putting up with his life along with his feeble wife after their son was shot down for distributing clandestine literature in the time of socio-political unrest at the country. The country was at the aftermath of a civil war. The colonel was waiting for 15 years since he was promised a war veteran pension. Every Friday he dawdled to the dock looking for the postman with a shimmering flame of hope in his heart that someday he would receive a letter from the government about the pension. After waiting this long, did he finally gets acknowledged? The story centres a cockfight which would be held in January. But before that, the colonel and his wife had to survive the winter with the help of their very little resources. The rooster was the only hope left for the family. It was initially raised and trained by their dead son, Agustin. Throughout the entire story, the colonel stumbles between selling the rooster or to keep it. Did he finally manage to sell it or the emotion and memories of their dead son stopped him to do so?
The reader must find out.
Analysis of the characters -
I) Colonel -
If I've to allot the colonel with a single specific word, it'd be 'Hope'. From the very beginning we can see how hopeful and consistent he is. It took him 8 years to prove his claim about getting the pension and another 6 more to be included on the rolls. During this time, most of his colleagues had died. But he didn't lose hope even for a single moment. Every Friday the postman used to see a familiar face in the crowd at the dock and yet with a sigh every time he had to say 'Nothing for the colonel'.
We see the colonel taking care of his ill wife all the time. He even tried to hide his high fever just not to bother her. He was respectful to her and even in the darkest times he indeed valued her perspective. It was her idea to sell the rooster in the first place.
Colonel trusts people easily, despite having zero results for 15 years when he decided to change his lawyer, we can clearly see the trouble to do so through his actions. He trusts people a little too much. Sasbas was a fraud; having all the proofs in front of his eyes, the colonel didn't once question Sabas's intentions and still thought him as a friend. This honest trait led the colonel to numerous problems in his life.
The colonel was a part of the movement against the notorious government of his country. The doctor and Agustin's company were his allies in this. Bypassing on confidential news and other means, the colonel never really opposed the cause of his son's death. Rather he respected that and helped whatever he could.
The colonel was most passionate about the rooster. It seemed, that the rooster was his last hope. Buying food for the rooster instead of his own and his wife showed how intense the situation was for him. One time he stated that he could easily kill it and had a great meal but he felt bad for the young boys of the town who were saving up their money for the upcoming cock-fight. On that very moment, one can feel that the rooster indeed was a property of the whole town rather than the colonel alone.
The colonel was very conscious of his image in society. He didn't want to carry the old watch out of his house for selling it because Rafael Escalona would put him in a song out of pity. The colonel didn't like to ask favours from anyone but the situation he was in, made him do that more than once.
In a nutshell, the colonel was the man one can look upto. He was a man of ideals. The humble caring side of his is the most beautiful side of him. The reader can idealize his strong and kind soul. One can learn what compassion is from his character. And surely the most powerful trait of his character was not to lose hope at any point in time. 

II) Colonel's wife -
The biggest support the colonel could get in his entire life was undoubtedly his wife. Despite being gravely sick, she was very observant. The colonel couldn't hide a single thing from her, eventually, she found out everything. But compared to the colonel she was a lot more rational and often stated his distrust about the government, paying pension to the war veterans.
Sometimes she used to get mad at the rooster for its existence. She couldn't tolerate it. She concluded that the rooster was the one bringing bad luck. But after all that remembering Austin's face when he first bought the rooster made her stop from taking any drastic measures. The reader can feel the grievance she felt for her son's death.
She was the one who came up with the idea of selling the rooster. As I said earlier, being a realist she knew 900 pesos had much greater importance than clinging on to their son's memories and to sacrifice their own comfort for a stupid cockfight.
The family needed a strong soul like her than a kind one like the colonel. She filled the gap. Her bold character convinced the colonel to try to sell their household items. To survive, it was needed. We can see how her powerful presence led to the survival of both of them without a firm income for this long. She never ever complained about what they were going through. She even agreed to feed the rooster despite being ill and having an empty stomach.
In a nutshell, without her vivid personality surviving in that tough time would have been more difficult for the colonel.

III) The doctor -
The doctor had a little to contribute to the story compared to previously mentioned two characters. But as a character, he was an attractive one. He had a fabulous sense of humour. 'The patient is healthier than I am', 'I'll send you a fat bill when the cock wins'. Comments like these can surely illustrate the lighter side of his character. On the other hand, he was one of the members actively participating in the movement against their government. In the story we see him passing the controversial unauthorized illegal documents to the colonel and asking the colonel to pass it on further. As he was very popular in the town, he made a good fortune. He knew the colonel's economic situation and thus never charged a penny from them. He made a perfect balance between two lives he was leading. This humble and gentle character attracted me in the first place because if we dive into world history we can find numerous examples like the doctor throughout the globe who had played crucial roles in many resistance, revolution and revolt. The doctor was more of a real-life inspiration of Garcia Marquez than a mere fragment of his imagination.  
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Conclusion -

'Ever since there's been censorship, the newspaper only talks about Europe'

This line is relevant even after 50 years. Garcia Marquez painted an alluring picture of an ordinary man entangled in the complexity of the country ruled by a worthless government. The poverty and hunger we see here is haunting - 

'Several times I've had to put stones on to boil so the neighbors wouldn't know that we often go for many days without putting on the pot'

All the characters are very carefully knitted to the main story-line. The story never looses its tight grip on the reader. This very detailed presentation is what one will like about the writer. The political tint over the mainframe of a socioeconomic delineation is what makes this story so compact and intense. It's a good quick read. I'm ending this review with my most favourite dialogue. This will surely encourage others to give it a look.  

'You can't eat hope.'

'You can't eat it. But it sustains you'.