Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
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Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#2Can someone provide a quick summary of what was it that made Marquez so prominent? I had not know much about him at all.
FYI, if like me, you have trouble accessing the article, and using Chrome, right-click and open in an incognito window.
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#3Can someone provide a quick summary of what was it that made Marquez so prominent? I had not know much about him at all. FYI, if like me, you have trouble accessing the article, and using Chrome, right-click and open in an incognito window.
He is the maximum exponent (and arguably the creator) of the genre "Magic Realism" and quoting wikipedia:
"where magic elements are a natural part in an otherwise mundane, realistic environment" [0]
He got most of his fame from "One hundred years of solitude".
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#4Can someone provide a quick summary of what was it that made Marquez so prominent? I had not know much about him at all. FYI, if like me, you have trouble accessing the article, and using Chrome, right-click and open in an incognito window.
His best known work is "One Hundred Years of Solitude", which sold 20 million copies.
Or, as the OP describes it:
> The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda called it “the greatest revelation in the Spanish language since ‘Don Quixote.’ ” The novelist William Kennedy hailed it as “the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race.”
It's an excellent book, and he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. That said, I'm kind of surprised (but pleased) to see that his passing was noted by HN readers.
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#5Can someone provide a quick summary of what was it that made Marquez so prominent? I had not know much about him at all. FYI, if like me, you have trouble accessing the article, and using Chrome, right-click and open in an incognito window.
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Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#6Can someone provide a quick summary of what was it that made Marquez so prominent? I had not know much about him at all. FYI, if like me, you have trouble accessing the article, and using Chrome, right-click and open in an incognito window.
His best known work is "One Hundred Years of Solitude", which sold 20 million copies. Or, as the OP describes it: > The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda called it “the greatest revelation in the Spanish language since ‘Don Quixote.’ ” The novelist William Kennedy hailed it as “the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race.” It's an excellent book, and he wo…
"Chronicle of a Death Foretold" also appears in a lot of US advanced (IB/AP) high school English classes, which I suspect many HN users took.
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#7“Many years later, in front of the firing squad, colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember that distant afternoon his father took him to see ice."
Best opening line of a book ever. RIP.
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#8His books were part of my adolescence, but "One Hundred Years of Solitude" was the essence of my formal education, I am sad he died but I am utterly glad he's lived.
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#9"One Hundred Years of Solitude" was the only book that everyone in my family ever read, me, my wife and my three kids.
"Mr. García Márquez, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, wrote fiction rooted in a mythical Latin American landscape of his own creation, but his appeal was universal. His books were translated into dozens of languages. He was among a select roster of canonical writers — Dickens, Tolstoy and Hemingway among them — who were embraced both by critics and by a mass audience." from the article.
But the article doesnt begin to do the book justice. The mythology is Colombian but it all is real to the reader. It is very worthwnile to read One Hundred Years along with a literary biography of Marquez. It was a wonderful experience for me. BTW my taste is purely science fiction.
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#10I read six of Garcia Márquez's stories in school - my favorite was "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World"[0] ("El Ahogado más Hermoso del Mundo"). If you're looking to get a taste of his writing but don't have time to read an entire book, this short story captures his style very well.
In a similar vein is "An Old Man with Very Enormous Wings" [1] ("Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes"), which was referenced in R.E.M's music video for "Losing My Religion[2]
[0] https://hutchinson-page.wikispaces.com/file/view/The_Most_Ha...
[1] http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/CreativeWriting/323/Mar...