The Columbian author and nobel prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez now published the first volume of his autobiography, "Living to Tell the Tale". Most readers will know Marquez for his bestseller "One Hundred Years of Solitude", which is the epic story of the rise and fall of the Buendia family in the mythical Columbian town Macondo.
Reading the first chapter of his autobiography you will find yourself once again within the setting and persons of "One Hundred Years of Solitude", for the house of his childhood in Aracataca was the model for his best known novel. Marquez grew up in poverty - with eleven children his parents moved from town to town, his father trying desperately to improve their living standards. Yet they always failed. However, Litte Gabito had a lot of talents, he loved to read, write, sing Columbian songs and he drew well. These talents allowed him to go to university in the capitol Bogota. His parents hoped he would become a lawyer, but he was more and more interested in writing. His first short stories were published in newspapers and he was part of several literary circles. He started working as a reporter and the autobiography ends when Marquez is 28 years old and send to Geneva as a correspondent.
Marquez planned three volumes for his autobiography and is forced to work fast and seriously since doctors diagnosed cancer. Probably written quickly, "Living to Tell the Tale" doesn't have the precise prose of his other works, yet it still is a beautiful read. Marquez doesn't only write about his colorful and adventurous live, he also gives an introduction on Columbian history and the Latin American literary scene of the 1950s. The book is full of anecdotes, interesting persons and a humorous attitude towards live.
In his native country, "Living to Tell the Tale" was sold out immediately. In the US the book will only be published this November, yet the American publisher Alfred A. Knopf saw the potential and published the book in Spanish. If you're a fan of Marquez or of the Magical Realism in general, be sure to put "Living to Tell the Tale" on your "To-Read-List", even if you have to wait a few more months till the book will hit American bookstores. It gives exciting insights into a great writer's mind and I promise you, you won't be disappointed!
Article comments
1 - mahi
when will the other 2 books of Garcia's autobiography be out?
2 - Lindsay
This is a nice review, but for future reference: the country is ColOmbia, not ColUmbia.
3 - Andrea
Hey i just wanted to tell you, like i tell everybody else...COLOMBIA is spelled with an O not an U....is not the state of Coulumbia.....so next time have that in mind.
COLOMBIA
4 - Richard Brodie
COLOMBIA is spelled with an O not an [sic] U
Is that because it was Christopher Colombus who discovered America :)
Seriously, I recommend that the American spelling have TWO U's, because whether Spanish purists like it or not, the way we are going to continue pronouncing it is "Culumbia" - in English it's all about pronunciational efficiency, not about avoiding deviating from precise vowel values.
Different countries can have different names for the same geographical place. It's perfectly fine with me for Hispanics to refer to America as Ahmayreekah instead of Uhmerikuh, like we do; or to write Estados Unidos in their Atlases, instead of United States.
I'm for anything that promotes and emphasizes cultural diversity, and frustrates the one-world globalist agenda that seeks to destroy diversity by imposing uniform U.N. mandated laws, standards, and regulations on the entire earth.