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Gabriel García Márquez

I've read a couple of GGM's books in French and English and I thought the translations were excelent (I read them in Spanish first).

(and on a different note, why do most people refer to GGM as "Marquez" when his name is "Garcia Marquez"?)


About the ending of "memoria de mis putas tristes": GGM did change the ending at the very last minute but (according to the articles published in the Colombian press) it had nothing to do with the pirate copies. In fact, because of the different ending, the pirate copies are expected to become "collector's items".
 
I just bought his book 'Love in the Time of Cholera'.
Has anyone read it? I'm finding it a little hard to follow...but I've only read 20 pages.
Anybody??
Lani
 
Look in 'search'. I'm sure there has been a lot of blather about it.

I've read it, and another of his, the one in which it rains all the time.;)

Magical realism, I believe it's called. A couple of my friends, who are 'arty farty' pretentious, insecure, due to failing their 11 plus - you may be too young to remember it, but it sorted the wheat from the chaff.:D ;) - recommended it.

I found them draggy and unfulfilling.
 
jaybe said:
A couple of my friends, who are 'arty farty' pretentious, insecure, due to failing their 11 plus

Or maybe they are just normal and you are an ignorant thicko who dismisses stuff you can't get into.

I've only read some short stories of Marquez, so can't comment on his novels. They weren't my thing, I suppose, but I didn't think there was anything arty about them; certainly nothing hard to understand.
 
Yes, there's an existing thread about Marquez here.

And Stew, jaybe is being satirical, just like in the Room 101 Pet Hates thread. At least I think he is. :eek:
 
Shade said:
And Stew, jaybe is being satirical, just like in the Room 101 Pet Hates thread. At least I think he is. :eek:

Oh, right. Fair enough, if he is. I'd only the Ulysses and Marquez comments to go on; thought there was consistency in the cry of pretentiousness rather than an ongoing attempt at satire.
 
No Stewart, I'm not a satirist. Clever of you to notice.

I'm a bitter, twisted, cynical old fart.

I missed the bit where I said there was anything difficult about Marquesz.:p
 
hi wilderness,
i love Marquez. i read love in time of cholera, but my favourite is the autumn of the patriarch. in any case, i approach Marquez's style by not trying to understand anything out of it. i just follow his sayings, and the ideas unexpectedly formulate in my head after a while. i do not think it is his purpose to be very tightly followed. i never struggled to remembered the characters' genealogy or the order of the events. i see Marquez's charm more in his power to get you carried away on the folds of the story creating a whirl where you are deep into the story and away from such notions as time, identity, action even.
 
I find that I enjoy Marquez's short stories, but his novels leave me cold. I've only read two novels (Cholera and Solitude) and have forgotten most of them. "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" though, is one of my all-time favorite short stories.
Also, my little brother borrowed Strange Pilgrims a while back and got hooked on Marquez...he's a sharp kid, my little brother, but he's an econ. major and doesn't tend to read fiction. His taking so well to Marquez really impressed me-- you've got to be a great writer (or a filthy one) to get non-readers interested.
 
I tried to read 100 Years of Solitude, and I think it would take said amount of time for me to really get thru it. I forget how far into it I got, maybe one quarter or one third of the way, and something came up that made absolutely no sense to me, and I was too bored by the whole thing to go back and figure out what I'd missed (if anything). I probably fell asleep and missed a page or so. :rolleyes:
 
It sounds like I am not doing too poorly for having got half-way through 100 Years of Solitude before stalling. :rolleyes: Do we get a prize for three-quarters? :confused: :cool:
Peder
 
Peder said:
It sounds like I am not doing too poorly for having got half-way through 100 Years of Solitude before stalling. :rolleyes: Do we get a prize for three-quarters? :confused: :cool:
Peder
Three quarters of the milky way I have sitting in front of me right now. :D
 
My wife bought 100 Years of Solitude for me for our wedding anniversary. I was going to read it next but after these comments are a little concerned; perhaps there is hidden meaning in her gift; hard slog and the like comes to mind:eek:
 
blueboatdriver said:
My wife bought 100 Years of Solitude for me for our wedding anniversary. I was going to read it next but after these comments are a little concerned; perhaps there is hidden meaning in her gift; hard slog and the like comes to mind:eek:
Well, I'm not quite sure it is that bad! Ordinarily I don't mind slow novels -- in fact I rather like them, because they are not over so fast -- so it was partly extraneous things, like getting caught up in Nabokov, that slowed me down to a stop. I suspect that reading it to the end will leave a much better impression. It will just take patience .... as you have already noticed. :rolleyes:
peder
 
I'll step in to "defend" Marquez. I read 100 Years of Solitude a couple of months ago and really liked it. It is a little slow, but the characters are well-developed and I got caught up in the journey of this family. It does take a little work to get into it, but I found it to be worth it. I recently picked up Love in the Time of Cholera and it's high on the TBR list.
For those that haven't read him yet, go ahead and give him a start.
 
curiouswonder said:
I'll step in to "defend" Marquez. I read 100 Years of Solitude a couple of months ago and really liked it. It is a little slow, but the characters are well-developed and I got caught up in the journey of this family. It does take a little work to get into it, but I found it to be worth it. I recently picked up Love in the Time of Cholera and it's high on the TBR list.
For those that haven't read him yet, go ahead and give him a start.

This is good to hear. I was getting scared since I have One Hundred Years of Solitude waiting to be read, and I like fascinating reads, but hate boring books.
 
For Gabriel Barcia Marquez fans:

New biography gets to the heart of Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gerald Martin's biography of Colombian writer Gabriel Garci´a Márquez, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature, is so terrific, it makes a reviewer want to lurk around bookstores, urging readers to buy it. Really.
One reason is Martin's rich material. Garci´a Márquez has led an extraordinary life, not just as a writer but as a journalist and a public figure in the turbulent world of Latin American politics. Like soccer star Pelé or Madonna, he's known by "Gabo."

aimages.usatoday.com_life__photos_2009_06_11_marquez_coverx_large.jpg
 
love all his books, well most of them, favourite latinamerican writer
i enjoy "Cien Años de Soledad" a lot, I think I could read that book many times, Macondo's story is amazing for me. I remembered I like drawign the relation between the Buendía
also his tecnique "lo real maravilloso" is what keeps me looking into his books again and again :)
 
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