Gabriel García Márquez (photo from Goodreads author profile)
One of my favorite authors, Gabriel García Márquez, will end his writing career due to dementia. At eighty-five, he has produced prolifically since 1947. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, three years prior to the publication of my favorite (and the best-known) of his works: Love in the Time of Cholera. The announcement by USA Today is somewhat uncommon – it seems that most authors simply fade away. To me, it seems like a stoic announcement by García Márquez that he will begin his own solitary march into solitude. Fortunately, he has written dozens of stories, so there is enough of his existing work to occupy a reader for years.
It’s a tragedy to see anyone’s mind begin to fail, particularly those we love and those we feel we know (like García Márquez) through the intimacy of closely following their work and accomplishments over many years. I’ve found myself strangely drawn in by a number of authors from Latin America: García Márquez (Colombia), Isabel Allende (Peru), Cristina Henríquez (American-born, Panama-focused) and Paulo Coelho (Brazil). My all-time favorite author, Ernest Hemingway, had a straightforward and simple style similar to that of García Márquez.
Buena suerte, Señor Márquez. Do him and his career the honor of visiting his website and picking up one of his books or exploring a new author.
“Then he made one last effort to search in his heart for the place where his affection had rotted away, and he could not find it.” ― Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
“Both looked back then on the wild revelry…and they lamented that it had cost them so much of their lives to find the paradise of shared solitude.” ― Gabriel García Márquez
At university orientation, the cute guy leading the campus tour raved and raved about Garcia Marquez. My first introduction to the man! I’ve never forgotten it.
How funny! I remember going to orientation together – do you remember that? How did I miss this guy’s comment? Thanks for reading, cousin!
This put a lump in my throat as a lover of literature. And it’s so funny because I’ve asked myself several times this year if it was time to read Love in The Time of Cholera. Did you read it???! Or is there another one of his that you love even more?
IT’S TIME!!! Please read. I adore it. Definitely, Love in the Time of Cholera is my favorite, but I’m a bit gun-shy because so many readers I adore have hated it. I steadfastly think it is fabulous, though. Let me know what you think and by all means (by golly!) let’s connect on Goodreads! 🙂
oh I’m so excited then. You better believe, I’ll come back to you and discuss it with you while I read it. It just makes it that much better. Marquez and I are hookin’ up at the library tomorrow. 🙂
You familiar with Zora Neale Hurston?
I love folklore, and she’s one of my faves!
Shut UP!!! We are obviously soul sisters. Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of my all time faves, as is ZNH along with
Voila: http://littlemagpie.wpengine.com/2011/06/21/my-summer-reading-list/
And voila (in case you also love Ernest J. Gaines): http://littlemagpie.wpengine.com/2011/07/03/a-gathering-of-old-men/
And now you know why I almost jumped out of my skin at you when you mentioned the English degree. Book chat soon!
Whaaat?!! Is it weird that the lump is back in my throat…I mean, when you love something …you love it…and it’s awesome when someone else gets it.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is definitely one of my favorite books ever. Oh and Beth, I got to teach it to high school students…and cried through some of my lessons. haha, they weren’t feeling it as strongly as I. Imagine that.
Okay, okay…I’ll stop clogging up your comment feed, but I’ll be messaging you soon!
Not clogging!! I love hearing that… honestly, it’s the book that revealed to me how deeply I love excellent writers. Have you read her other work? I’ve been planning to start quite a few – she has produced so much work! We’ll have to discuss further. I think I’ll reread it!!