Country, and we like it that way.

Ever wonder why those dang Colombians are so fascinated by the fantastic? Never quite able to wrap your taste around a literature obsessed with localized, pure, drunken, magical gore? It's because the national literature is country, m'am. Other Latin nations may be expert at narrating the clash of urban and rural world views, like Mexico with Carlos Fuentes' profound Terra Nostra, or Cuba with José Lezama Lima's staggering, twisted, Three Trapped Tigers, or they may be unsurpassed at examining the city life, as with Argentina's Cortázar and Borges. But no one does country like Colombians, little missy, not ever. If you want to get into Colombian literature, best not to bother with political history, which is way too complicated to worry over. Best instead, start with bucolic tales. Like thissa one here in that fancy New York Times news report. This pastorale is set inland a couple hundred miles from Cartagena de las Indias, near abouts the same place as Macondo, Gabriel García Márquez's mythical departamento and setting for One Hundred Years of Solitude and other stories. Yeehaw!