And now we may never know why Mario Vargas Llosa punched him in the face.
Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
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Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#12“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.
Not to be pedantic, but the Rabassa translation reads:
"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#13Can 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's “a man terribly pleased to have hobnobbed with so many Presidents and Archbishops”
He opened the flood gates of saccharine magic realism which haunts Latin America literature to this day.
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#14“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.
And many years after reading that book, I have that line memorized in my head.
I also regret not learning Spanish well enough to read his books untranslated as I understand his writing is gorgeous in Spanish. I'm thankful that his books translated well enough into English for me to appreciate his genius. Farewell, Gabo.
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#15Oh my. A paragon of magical realism and my second favorite author. Rest in peace.
Liking storytelling alone is sometimes not enough to like Marquez, you have to love language too. He uses (some might say abuses) language to impact his storytelling, often using incredibly long, convoluted sentences to weave his narrative. It can be hard to follow, sometimes intentionally, but I find it enormously satisfying to read and follow along with his brain. Like slowly drinking a maple syrup of words.
One of the best examples is the first 15 or so[1] pages of Autumn of the Patriarch[2], where the narrator winds this thread of what has happened slowly, using sentences that span pages, until you realize a shift from what has happened to a sort of what is about to happen. Then a fist slams on the table and the realization strikes you that the first part of the description was a kind of set up, this beautiful ruse. I wish I could be more descriptive but it would give away the delight. It's a great book about terror and despotism.
Marquez is not the kind of thing you can read in a noisy environment. At least I can't. I adore him so much. I could write a eulogy for days.
If you've never read him, please take a moment to read one of my favorite short stories, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings
http://simonsarris.com/lit/a-very-old-man-with-enormous-wing...
(I've hosted a copy of it (and many more short stories) for ages because most of the copies on the web are plagued with ads and miserable formatting)
If One Hundred Years of Solitude seems too long for you, I urge you to look into some of his very excellent shorter books, such as Autumn but also Of Love and Other Demons[3] and Love in the Time of Cholera.[4]
(Chronicle of a Death Foretold is even shorter, but I do not recommend it as the first Marquez book you read!)
[1] It could be the first 10 or 30 pages, it's been several years, but I am certain it's one of the better (and shorter) examples of his style.
[2] http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060882867
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#16His 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.
I am indifferent that he died and I hate to say this, but it should have been better to literature if he never existed as writer.
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
"Chronicle of a Death Foretold" (Crónica de una muerte anunciada) is a beautiful piece of fiction, and hugely influential. When I first read it, suddenly a number of other books and films seemed to spring from this single point of inspiration.
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#18“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.
Not to be pedantic, but the Rabassa translation reads: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."
Prefacing pedantry with "not to be pedantic" doesn't make what you're about to say not pedantic.
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to be pedantic, but the Rabassa translation reads: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."
Prefacing pedantry with "not to be pedantic" doesn't make what you're about to say not pedantic.
Fair enough. My intention was to avoid attacking the original quotation while still maintaining the actual translation.
Re: Gabriel García Márquez, Literary Pioneer, Dies at 87
#20OT but tangential any magical realism authors to read? So far, I got Marquez, Jorge Louis Borges and Murakami. And preferably recommendation should be good to provide philosophical consolation to a code monkey worker-bee in the capitalist society.