In Evil Hour

The famed Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez published his first novel while living in Paris in 1962. Originally conceived as a short story, he rewrote the novella as In Evil Hour (in Spanish, La mala hora), winning a literary prize in Colombia. Set in a nameless village on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, and using some of the same characters Márquez would write about in future works, the story follows the descent of the townspeople from an uneasy peace in the middle of a violent period for the country to martial law and corrupt tyranny.

The novel takes place in the 1950s, a period when Colombia was mired in La Violencia, a period of fighting between opposition groups “roughly paralleling the traditional Colombian Liberal and Conservative parties.” During this time, summary execution of political enemies is common, and any lulls in the violence are tense, as people wait for the brutality to start up again.

In one of these periods of relative calm, a small town tries to go on with its daily life. Nevertheless, even aside from the stress of waiting for civil war, there is a sense of foreboding that is the result of the oppressive weather. The town’s tropical climate brings intense heat and humidity, followed by torrential rain leading to floods. As the floodwaters recede, many animal carcasses are strewn throughout the town. A dead cow fills the air with the stench of its decay, and even the holy water basin in the church has dead mice floating in it.



In the midst of these unpleasant phenomena comes a man-made disturbance. Someone posts satirical notices around the town, describing in detail the shameful secrets of the inhabitants. Márquez’s word for these postings is pasquinades, which tends to be translated as “lampoons” – but the mockery inherent in this English word isn’t necessarily present in the Spanish. Instead, the notices seem to be straightforward renderings of local gossip, specializing in speculations about things like adultery.

The townspeople are terrified of being exposed in the posters, which are just harsh enough to destroy their carefully curated public images by juxtaposing them with reality. The public shame inherent in being the subject of a lampoon is not only unbearable, but also potentially destabilizing enough to lead back to the violence that has for now been repressed.

After one such lampoon exposes the possible affair between the wife of César Montero, a rich lumberman, and a local pastor, Montero openly murders his wife’s supposed lover. Unable to cope with being thought of as a cuckold, he wants to reclaim the image of a macho man – and violence is his best way of going about this. The irony, of course, is that his wife has been completely faithful, but it is the idea of being gossiped about that is enough to undo Montero.



The town’s mayor is at first eager to dismiss the anonymous notices as a silly prank, not the destabilizing influence they actually are. Politically, he worries that if he admits that they are a problem, then what does that mean about the newly installed national government, which he represents, and its ability to keep order? Personally, the mayor is preoccupied with a horrendous toothache that he refuses to treat because he hates the town dentist.

Nevertheless, in response to growing public pressure, the mayor announces that he will find the culprit responsible for the bothersome notices. To do this, he enlists the help of Judge Arcadio, another member of the town’s political establishment, to declare martial law. Then the mayor sends a team of six armed thugs – now renamed soldiers because they are working under the auspices of the politicians in power – to find out who is putting up the signs. They come up empty, so the mayor imposes a curfew of eight o’clock on every resident – since the lampoons were going up at night, the theory goes, this will stop them.

However, this doesn’t work either. The only thing that happens as a result of the curfew is that the traveling circus which has just rolled into town, and which is one of the few entertainments the residents have for blowing off steam, is no longer accessible since its shows start after curfew. Townspeople congregate in the barbershop to air their grievances, ignoring the prominent sign in the barber’s window that “discussion of politics prohibited.” Tension keeps rising higher and higher.



The mayor’s thugs finally round up a suspect – the man they claim is responsible for the gossipy notices, who protests his innocence. With the man in custody, the lampoons seem to stop. When the suspect attempts to escape, the thugs beat him to death, knowing that they don’t have to answer to anyone.

After the man’s death, the notices start once again. In a fit of rage, the mayor responds by almost shooting the dentist and the town’s stalwart priest, Father Ángel. The novel ends ambiguously, as their eyes meet during this confrontation. Perhaps this moment is the start of the “Evil Hour.”