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Gabriel Garc: Horror Book Reviews
Title: Gabriel Garc
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Author: Gerald Martin
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Review of Gabriel Garc
The first full and authorized biography of the 1982 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature—the most popular international novelist of the last fifty years.
Over the course of the nearly two decades Gerald Martin gave to the research and writing of this masterly biography, he not only spent many hours in conversation with Gabriel GarcĂa Márquez himself but also interviewed more than three hundred others, including GarcĂa Márquez’s wife and sons, mother and siblings, literary agent and translators; Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Alvaro Mutis, among other writers; Fidel Castro and Felipe González, among other political figures; his closest friends as well as those who consider themselves his detractors. The result is a revelation of both the writer and the man.
GarcĂa Márquez’s story is a remarkable one. Born in 1927, raised by grandparents and a clutch of aunts in a small backwater town in Colombia, the shy, intelligent boy matured into a reserved young man, first working as a provincial journalist and later as a foreign correspondent, whose years of obscurity came to an end when, at the age of forty, he published the novel entitled Cien años de soledad—One Hundred Years of Solitude. Within months, the book had garnered spectacular international acclaim, the author hailed as the standard-bearer of a new literature: magical realism. Eight years later, in 1975, he published The Autumn of the Patriarch, and, in 1981, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, each novel rapturously received by critics and readers alike. With his books read by millions around the world, he had become a man of wealth and influence. Yet, for all his fame, he never lost touch with his roots: though he had lived outside of Colombia since 1955—in Barcelona, Mexico City, Paris—his Nobel Prize was celebrated by Colombians from all walks of life who thought, and still think, of “Gabo” as their own. More books followed, both fiction (Love in the Time of Cholera, The General in his Labyrinth, Memories of My Melancholy Whores) and nonfiction (The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, News of a Kidnapping, Living to Tell the Tale). But GarcĂa Márquez’s renown and passion have continued to combine, as well, in a fervent, unflagging, and often controversial political and social activism.
While chronicling the particulars of the life, Martin also considers the overarching issues: the tension between GarcĂa Márquez’s celebrity and his quest for literary quality, and between his politics and his writing; the seductions of power, solitude, and love. He explores the contrast between the exuberance of the writer’s Caribbean background and the authoritarianism of highland Bogotá, showing us how these differences are manifest in his writing and in the very shape his life has taken. He explores the melding of experience and imagination in GarcĂa Márquez’s fiction, and he examines the writer’s reasons for—and the public’s reaction to—his turning away in the 1980s from the magical realism that had brought him international renown, toward the greater simplicity that would mark his work beginning with Love in the Time of Cholera.
Gerald Martin has written a superb biography: richly illuminating, as gripping as any of Gabriel GarcĂa Márquez’s powerful journalism, as enthralling as any of his acclaimed and beloved fiction.
Over the course of the nearly two decades Gerald Martin gave to the research and writing of this masterly biography, he not only spent many hours in conversation with Gabriel GarcĂa Márquez himself but also interviewed more than three hundred others, including GarcĂa Márquez’s wife and sons, mother and siblings, literary agent and translators; Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Alvaro Mutis, among other writers; Fidel Castro and Felipe González, among other political figures; his closest friends as well as those who consider themselves his detractors. The result is a revelation of both the writer and the man.
GarcĂa Márquez’s story is a remarkable one. Born in 1927, raised by grandparents and a clutch of aunts in a small backwater town in Colombia, the shy, intelligent boy matured into a reserved young man, first working as a provincial journalist and later as a foreign correspondent, whose years of obscurity came to an end when, at the age of forty, he published the novel entitled Cien años de soledad—One Hundred Years of Solitude. Within months, the book had garnered spectacular international acclaim, the author hailed as the standard-bearer of a new literature: magical realism. Eight years later, in 1975, he published The Autumn of the Patriarch, and, in 1981, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, each novel rapturously received by critics and readers alike. With his books read by millions around the world, he had become a man of wealth and influence. Yet, for all his fame, he never lost touch with his roots: though he had lived outside of Colombia since 1955—in Barcelona, Mexico City, Paris—his Nobel Prize was celebrated by Colombians from all walks of life who thought, and still think, of “Gabo” as their own. More books followed, both fiction (Love in the Time of Cholera, The General in his Labyrinth, Memories of My Melancholy Whores) and nonfiction (The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, News of a Kidnapping, Living to Tell the Tale). But GarcĂa Márquez’s renown and passion have continued to combine, as well, in a fervent, unflagging, and often controversial political and social activism.
While chronicling the particulars of the life, Martin also considers the overarching issues: the tension between GarcĂa Márquez’s celebrity and his quest for literary quality, and between his politics and his writing; the seductions of power, solitude, and love. He explores the contrast between the exuberance of the writer’s Caribbean background and the authoritarianism of highland Bogotá, showing us how these differences are manifest in his writing and in the very shape his life has taken. He explores the melding of experience and imagination in GarcĂa Márquez’s fiction, and he examines the writer’s reasons for—and the public’s reaction to—his turning away in the 1980s from the magical realism that had brought him international renown, toward the greater simplicity that would mark his work beginning with Love in the Time of Cholera.
Gerald Martin has written a superb biography: richly illuminating, as gripping as any of Gabriel GarcĂa Márquez’s powerful journalism, as enthralling as any of his acclaimed and beloved fiction.
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Comments for Gabriel Garc
- Posted on 2009-09-16
Disapponted by greed
Enough said. Overpriced and no text-to-speech. There have been many long-anticipated new releases lately that have been refreshing in their refusal to squeeze an extra 3 or 4 dollars out of kindle readers. To those who make the purchase, this is a case of the emperor's new clothes: they charge you more so you think it must be worth it.
- Posted on 2009-07-24
Most insightful biography of Marquez
If you love real latin literature, this book is the most insightful biography of Marquez and his colleagues I have read. It lends itself to understanding the influences on his writing and his political stance. it is well researched and organized for the student but also most enjoyable for avid readers.
- Posted on 2009-07-16
fascinating literary and regional history : much more than macondo deciphered
this captivating book at once encapsulates the idiosyncracies of latin american history experienced by GGM and explains his writing in the context of the world as he has lived it, in the way only a gifted literary critic could do. inmensely readable, entertaining, relatively objective, and truly informative. It is only "relatively" objective because Professor Martin is clearly not immune to the charms and charismatic appeal of his subject; however he strives to explain the positions of those who disagree or dislike his subject. This is an engrossing and most readable introduction to latin american intellectual and political life in the later 3/4's of the 20th century, and includes important references to the complex relationships of its intellectuals with its former colonizer, with France, and with the US. Professor Martin interviewed an impressive array of intellectual and political power brokers from Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, France, and the US, in addition to a very extensive network of his subject's lesser known friends and relatives. Despite the participation of so many high powered personae, the book does not dwell on their fame, but rather limits their participation to shedding light and understanding on this most remarkable of writers. Additionally, this book serves as a fascinating, informative and remarkably clear portrayal of Colombian history since c. 1920 that will be helpful to all who are either curious about the country or who struggle to understand its labyrinthine and violent complexities.
- Posted on 2009-06-28
A true insight into what makes Gabo tick
I have long been an avid reader of Latin American literature, but this biography sent me running to the Internet to find out more details about people and places mentioned in Gabriel GarcĂa Márquez' life. Gerald Martin does a superb job of letting the reader penetrate the backgroud and the events that produced what many consider to be the world's masterpieces in Spanish. I read the entire book in two days, and I will read it yet again...well worth your time. Extremely well done. I especially loved the last paragraph!
- Posted on 2009-06-23
Why So Much for Kindle Edition??
This is the most expensive Kindle edition I've seen. Why? I could buy the hardcover $2 more??? What's up with this??
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