Let me say up front I have not read any of his major
works. I think the sole work I read was
one short story, and if I dig long enough into my books I might find which one
it is. I don’t have a distinct memory of
it. So I’m going to let this obituary from CNN outline why Marquez was such an important writer.
Gabriel García Márquez,
the influential, Nobel Prize-winning author of "One Hundred Years of
Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera," has died, his
family and officials said.
He was 87.
The literary giant was
treated in April for infections and dehydration at a Mexican hospital.
García Márquez, a
native of Colombia, is widely credited with helping to popularize "magical
realism," a genre "in which the fantastic and the realistic are
combined in a richly composed world of imagination," as the Nobel
committee described it upon awarding him the prize for literature in 1982.
He was sometimes called
the most significant Spanish-language author since Miguel de Cervantes, the
16th-century author of "Don Quixote" and one of the great writers in
Western literature. Indeed, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda told Time that "One
Hundred Years of Solitude" was "the greatest revelation in the
Spanish language since the Don Quixote of Cervantes."
Magic realism is a genre that blosoomed in the 20th
century and seemed to be embraced by many South American writers. When one thinks of magic realism, Marquez is
certainly one of the first writers one should come to mind. More from the obit:
The author -- known by
his nickname "Gabo" throughout Latin America -- was born in the
northern Colombian town of Aracataca, which became the inspiration for Macondo,
the town at the center of "Solitude," his 1967 masterpiece, and
referenced in such works as his novella "Leaf Storm" and the novel
"In Evil Hour."
"I feel Latin
American from whatever country, but I have never renounced the nostalgia of my
homeland: Aracataca, to which I returned one day and discovered that between
reality and nostalgia was the raw material for my work," reads a mural
quoting the author outside of town.
García Márquez was
tickled that he had earned so much praise for his fertile imagination.
"The truth is that
there's not a single line in all my work that does not have a basis in reality.
The problem is that Caribbean reality resembles the wildest imagination,"
he told The Paris Review in 1981.
What
is most interesting is that Marquez started as a journalist, which one would
think would strip his reality down to the most objective of facts, but his breakthrough
came by going beyond such an objective reality to a collective cultural reality
rooted in the mindset of his surroundings.
For years, García
Márquez had been writing and publishing fiction, including short stories in
Latin American journals and a handful of longer works, including "Leaf
Storm," which was published in 1955. But it wasn't until 1967 with the
publication of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" that he broke through
to a wide audience.
The novel is set in
Macondo, a town founded by the patriarch of the Buendia family, José Arcadio
Buendia. Over the generations, members of the family are set upon by ghosts and
visions, fall in love, dream of riches and fight in wars. Natural events take
on supernatural aspects -- rains that last years, plagues that create memory
loss. It is a tapestry of almost biblical proportions in which reality and
spirit swirl and merge, a world unto itself -- as well as a commentary on the
politics and history of the world at large.
"The narrative is
a magician's trick in which memory and prophecy, illusion and reality are mixed
and often made to look the same. It is, in short, very much like Márquez's
astonishing novel," wrote The New York Times in a 1970 review upon the
release of the English translation by Gregory Rabassa.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
remains the novel for which Marquez is known. It is one of the must read novels, and I have
to admit I have not gotten to it. If it’s
not on your list of reads, put it on.
Perhaps I will place it on my next year’s list of reads.
García Márquez's style
and impact have been widespread.
He is credited with
spearheading "el Boom," attracting attention to a generation of Latin
American writers, including Vargas Llosa and Mexico's Carlos Fuentes. Magical
realism is now an accepted genre, to the point that some critics believe it has
been overused.
And he prompted a focus
on Latin American politics -- protesting the 1973 CIA-aided coup in Chile,
calling attention to corruption and free speech issues in South America and
around the world.
He never gave up
journalism.
"I've always been
convinced that my true profession is that of a journalist. What I didn't like
about journalism before were the working conditions," he told The Paris
Review. "Now, after having worked as a novelist, and having achieved
financial independence as a novelist, I can really choose the themes that
interest me and correspond to my ideas."
He was one of the most
honored -- and highly respected -- authors on Earth, particularly in parts of
the world where literature is taken as seriously as politics.
What
is meant by “el Boom” is the incredible burst of creativity in the
novel form that came from South America in the second half of the 20th
century. Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges,
Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes, and others could one day rank with the
great French novelists of the early part of the 19th century or the
great Russian novelists of the latter half of the 19th century.
However,
Marquez is not free of controversy, not to his writing, which is universally
acclaimed, but of his political sympathies.
Yes, he was critical of right-wing dictatorship in Chile as noted above,
but he was a big supporter and apologist for Fidel Castro and communist
Cuba. Here is a critical obituary from National Review Online, by the Cuban poet and human-rights activist, Armando
Valladares.
All dictators and
murderers have had staunch defenders — Stalin, Hitler, and Fidel Castro.
Perhaps the most
heinous in that fauna supporting dictatorships are writers, poets, and artists.
I’ve been saying for decades that an honest intellectual has a commitment to
society: Tell the truth, fight for respect and human dignity, and do not lie or
skip over the historical reality and thereby abuse the privilege of reaching
millions of people.
This is one of the
biggest crimes in the case of the late Gabriel García Márquez. He put his pen
at the service of Fidel Castro’s tyranny, supporting torture, the concentration
camps, and the murdering by firing squad of whoever dared to oppose the
Communist regime. García Márquez used to say that the only country in the
Americas that respected human rights was Cuba.
As
Vallardes goes on to say, Marquez did more than just support Castro with his
pen. But you will have to go and read
the rest if you are interested.
I
do wish to leave this post on a positive note.
Marquez, rightly or wrongly, will be remembered for his fiction and his
contribution to the art of the novel, of which he will be considered one of the
greatest. One cannot fathom from the outside
the political extremes that South America experienced, and frankly continues to
experience. Those extremes may partly have
been the reason for the creative burst of el Boom. May Gabriel Garcia Marquez be forgiven of his
sins and rest in peace.
Manny, I knew nothing of this man but God Bless his soul just the same and God Bless you also.
ReplyDeleteThank you and God bless you. :)
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