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RIP: Gabriel García Márquez

Gaius46 said:
Oddly I've always had trouble with Spanish authors. I've tried reading Cervantes several times and have started and stopped "The General in His Labyrinth" three times over the years. Marquez is a great writer - I know my wife told me so :) - but I can't seem to get engrossed in the book. Maybe something's lost in the translation and it works better in Spanish? I know that's for certain with Don Quoxite.
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I've read Don Quijote in English and although it took an age to get through, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a tough ask though. There are plenty of modern Spanish authors worth trying. See if you can find some Arturo Pérez Reverte, The Queen of the South is especially recommended. Or try Carlos Ruiz Zafón (The Shadow of the Wind)and Ildefonso Falcones (The Hand of Fatima) - they are all translated into English and great story-tellers. If you're looking for something a bit more literary, Borgés short stories are great, as are those of Julio Ramón Ribeyro. Reinaldo Arenas and Roberto Bolaño are great novelists too, but quite tough to read.
 
Andalublue said:
Oh, okay. He hasn't appeared yet (p. 160 in my version), so I'm now intrigued. That he couldn't find another attractive character in it seems bizarre. The matriarch, Úrsula is a wonderful character, as is Melquíades and José Arcadio senior, before he becomes uncontrollably obsessive. I can see why some might find the style of the novel odd or over-complicated (it doesn't help having so many Arcadios, Aurelios and Josés) or that they might jibe at the whole magical-realism bit, but to say there are no admirable or likeable characters probably says more about the person making the comment than about the novel.
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Keep reading. Brown is the only responsible character.:peace
 
Andalublue said:
I've read Don Quijote in English and although it took an age to get through, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a tough ask though. There are plenty of modern Spanish authors worth trying. See if you can find some Arturo Pérez Reverte, The Queen of the South is especially recommended. Or try Carlos Ruiz Zafón (The Shadow of the Wind)and Ildefonso Falcones (The Hand of Fatima) - they are all translated into English and great story-tellers. If you're looking for something a bit more literary, Borgés short stories are great, as are those of Julio Ramón Ribeyro. Reinaldo Arenas and Roberto Bolaño are great novelists too, but quite tough to read.
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Thanks. I'll check out some of those. I'm going to give Marquez and Cervantes another go as soon as I work through some of the backlog of books I'm reading right now. Is "General" typical of Marquez writing style?
 
Gaius46 said:
Thanks. I'll check out some of those. I'm going to give Marquez and Cervantes another go as soon as I work through some of the backlog of books I'm reading right now. Is "General" typical of Marquez writing style?
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I haven't read The General... My favourite GGM is Love in the time of cholera. I can't recommend it enough, although OHYOS is wonderful so far - half way through.
 
Jack Hays said:
One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the worst books I ever read. Mr. Brown is the only admirable character.:peace
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His characters tended to annoy me no end....and yet his writing was beautiful and made the story worth reading.
 
Lursa said:
His characters tended to annoy me no end....and yet his writing was beautiful and made the story worth reading.
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I agree with that. In OHYOS the character Amaranta is bugging the hell out of me, but I'm loving the book.
 
Ben K. said:
I can only guess at the motivation. I think you'll reach a similar conclusion once you're finished.
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Yes, I get it. I just finished the book and understand why someone like Jack Hays would find a minor character of pure malevolence 'admirable'.

What a book!
 
Andalublue said:
Yes, I get it. I just finished the book and understand why someone like Jack Hays would find a minor character of pure malevolence 'admirable'.

What a book!
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[h=2]He Chose Wrong[/h] Gabriel García Márquez’s ignoble decision to embrace Fidel Castro
BY LEE SMITH Bookmark this

While the encomia from world leaders and cultural figures continue to pour in after the death of Gabriel García Márquez at the age of 87 last month, a Charles Lane column in the Washington Post last week on the 1982 Nobel Prize-winning novelist threatened to reopen a 40-year-old wound. Lane recalled the Padilla Affair​—​the arrest, imprisonment, and show trial of a Cuban poet, an episode that once divided writers and intellectuals across the world, with García Márquez coming down on the wrong side.
In 1971 Cuban state security jailed the poet Heberto Padilla for a book that appeared to criticize the revolution and its father, Fidel Castro. Padilla was forced to confess his sins and denounce other transgressors, a handful of Cuban writers including his wife Belkis Cuza Malé, also a poet. Padilla apologized to Castro, to whom, as Padilla said, he had ...
 
Jack Hays said:
[h=2]He Chose Wrong[/h] Gabriel García Márquez’s ignoble decision to embrace Fidel Castro
BY LEE SMITH Bookmark this

While the encomia from world leaders and cultural figures continue to pour in after the death of Gabriel García Márquez at the age of 87 last month, a Charles Lane column in the Washington Post last week on the 1982 Nobel Prize-winning novelist threatened to reopen a 40-year-old wound. Lane recalled the Padilla Affair​—​the arrest, imprisonment, and show trial of a Cuban poet, an episode that once divided writers and intellectuals across the world, with García Márquez coming down on the wrong side.
In 1971 Cuban state security jailed the poet Heberto Padilla for a book that appeared to criticize the revolution and its father, Fidel Castro. Padilla was forced to confess his sins and denounce other transgressors, a handful of Cuban writers including his wife Belkis Cuza Malé, also a poet. Padilla apologized to Castro, to whom, as Padilla said, he had ...
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Funny, you applaud a character in one of his books who kept slave labour, lied on oath, corrupted politicians and engineered a massacre of 3,000 people. All those were acts described in a work of fiction, but anyone who looks into it knows that such treatment of workers by US fruit companies really happened. The massacre really took place in Ciénaga in 1928, and Gabo, who knew the truth of it, strangely enough took the side of the victims. And there you are calling its authors 'admirable'. Then you execrate Gabo for siding with the Cuban revolution. It's all very unsurprising: his political leaning and your apologism for corporate imperialism.

BTW, you do know this is an RIP thread, don't you? If you wish to attack García Márquez, you'll have to start a new thread. Rule V on Breaking News:
V - R.I.P. Tag rules
• As per this announcement, threads marked with the R.I.P. Tag are for respectful remembrance of the dead and should be approached with the same etiquette one would show at a funeral.
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Andalublue said:
Funny, you applaud a character in one of his books who kept slave labour, lied on oath, corrupted politicians and engineered a massacre of 3,000 people. All those were acts described in a work of fiction, but anyone who looks into it knows that such treatment of workers by US fruit companies really happened. The massacre really took place in Ciénaga in 1928, and Gabo, who knew the truth of it, strangely enough took the side of the victims. And there you are calling its authors 'admirable'. Then you execrate Gabo for siding with the Cuban revolution. It's all very unsurprising: his political leaning and your apologism for corporate imperialism.

BTW, you do know this is an RIP thread, don't you? If you wish to attack García Márquez, you'll have to start a new thread. Rule V on Breaking News:
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Historical accuracy is never out of place.:peace

Had there been more Mr. Browns, GGM's part of the world would be better off today.:peace
 
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