"As Mr. García Márquez observes in the opening pages of Vivir para contarla (Living to Tell It), the memoir of his life to early manhood, "until adolescence, the memory is more interested in the future than the past, so my memories of the town were not yet idealized by nostalgia." The first volume of his memoirs has been eagerly awaited; now here, it is lording it over the Spanish-speaking world's bestsellers lists, including that for the Hispanic market in the United States. Mr. García Márquez's fans will not be disappointed. Once again, he mines the rich seam of his memories of Colombia's Caribbean coast from the 1920s to the 1950s which provide the material for his novels."
During the week of February 8, 2004, One Hundred Years of Solitude ranked in the number one slot in Fiction of the paperback best sellers' list in the New York Times. The magical realist novel about the Buendía family and the mythical town of Macondo was first published in 1967.
This is a review of García Márquez's memoir, Vivir para contarla. Mujica states: "The book functions as a kind of guide to works such as One Hundred Years of Solitude, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, and Love in the Time of Cholera, illuminating material familiar to readers and placing it in its real-life context. Vivir para contarla covers approximately the first thirty years of the author's life, the formative period that stretches from his birth until the mid-1950s."
Christenson focuses on the book Vivir para contarla (To Live to Tell the Tale), a memoir by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. She relates the anticipation for the book in the Spanish-speaking communities of the United States and mentions the pirated imports and photocopied versions of the book.
Pearl reviews the fiction book One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, presenting us with a brief summary of the plot and commenting that One Hundred Years of Solitude "records the tumultuous lives of the Buendia family and the town's other inhabitants in a compulsive narrative that follows their loves, madnesses, wars, alliances, compromises, dreams, and deaths-- sweeping us up in its exquisite and poetic rendering of the passions and the pains of life."
"So much of what García Márquez lived in these early years would feed his fiction, and Living to Tell the Tale is a delightful companion to those incomparable novels and stories. It covers just the first third of his life, but the now 76-year-old García Márquez has promised two more volumes of memoirs. For our sake, may he live to tell those tales as well."
Viewed on 28 January, 2008.||"Gabriel García Márquez-philes will instantly recognize it as the mythical Macondo of García Márquez's fiction. In Living to Tell the Tale, he describes Aracataca by citing One Hundred Years of Solitude's opening-paragraph depiction of Macondo. Linearly put, Tale traces the author's life to age 28, shortly after he completed his first novel, Leaf storm (1955; translation, 1979). It also retells his saga of the Gabriel García Márquez clan, now stripped of the magic-realist filigrees of Solitude (1970). García Márquez name-checks all his novels and catalogs the real-life events and persons that inspired their fictional counterparts. More importantly, the book lets us peek behind the curtain to see the wizard at work. It's a master class in the art of writing, as well as the art of living a writer's life, which isn't always the same thing."
"October 2002 was marked by the publication of Vivir para contarla, the intensely anticipated first volume of Gabriel García Márquez's memoirs. In this 579-page text (Argentine edition), the Colombian Nobel laureate recounts with the brilliant imagination and stylistic virtuosity that have characterized his literary production the first thirty years of his life, from his childhood in Aracataca to his first trip to Europe in 1957 as a foreign correspondent for the Bogotá newspaper El Espectador. These years were highly influential in his development as a writer and in the creation of the fictional world of his early short stories and novels, the "Macondo" cycle. It is a text that can be read as a memoir or a fictional text, or an amalgam of the two forms."
Bradu reviews Del amor y otros demonios and in the process includes some similarities and differences between Del amor y otros demonios and El general en su laberinto. Bradu says that García Márquez has become the best imitator of himself; Del amor y otros demonios is a brief summary of rhetorical and identifiable figures that the reader could suspect to be a plagiarism if it weren't for its genius inventor. Del amor y otros demonios oscillates between fairy tale and a machiavellic version of the Colony.
Reviewing El general en su laberinto, Castañon offers that fans and readers of the book were so into the novel, distraught, tired from staying up to finish it, somber, and then went back to reread the novel as characters who were locked in stone and mud. For some, the novel was or is a tribute or a betrayal to Fidel Castro. For others, the novel was about Che Guevara, a symbolic imitation of the failed guerrilla that we all carry inside.
Viewed on 28 January, 2008.||Same content as article also written by Freeman in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Latin American Beauties: García Márquez memoir shows how family made him a writer."
Atlanta, Georgia : The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Location:
Library, University of Illinois
Related Item Details:
4D
Notes:
Freeman's review on Living to Tell the Tale: "The verdict: A maestro at work. Full of rich researched anecdotes from the writer's childhood in a small Colombian village, the book has all the weight and exquisite storytelling prowess of Márquez's two fiction masterpieces, Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude."
"One Hundred Years of Solitude is so ingrained in world culture that it has assumed the feel of an epic folktale- it's strange to think there was a time, not so long ago, when it wasn't around. Love in the Time of Cholera, Autumn of the Patriarch, and others aren't far behind. So it's cause for rejoicing that Gabriel García Márquez has chosen, while still clearly at the height of his powers, to embark on his autobiography, of which this book is the first in a projected trilogy. Readers will relish the chance to sift the Colombian author's life for the seeds of his magic realism, and the master doesn't disappoint."
Cryer begins by comparing Living to Tell the Tale by García Márquez to the most recent Nobel honoree, J.M Coetzee, then leads into solely Living to Tell the Tale.||"Living to Tell the Tale, the first volume of a projected autobiographical trilogy, is a self-portrait in vivid colors and bold strokes. It is as ebullient and nonjudgmental as the memoirs of the most recent Nobel honoree, J.M. Coetzee's Boyhood and Youth, are restrained and quietly furious."
Subscription required to view full text. || One Hundred Years of Solitude is deemed the fourth spot on the Top 10 bestseller paperback list of the Birmingham news.
Viewed on 28 January, 2008.||Reviews Living to Tell the Tale through a series of collected reviews from sources such as Daily Telegraph, FAZ, The LA Times, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, New Statesman, The NY Times, Newsweek, The Observer, Sydney Morning Herald, and The Washington Post. The overall assessment was of a grade of A: considered an utterly engaging memoir and generally found it very enjoyable.
Staples provides background information on Colombia, or Macondo, as the connection has been made between the made up location and the country. Gives us insight into the Colombia where García Márquez grew up, leading into an analysis of Living to Tell the Tale.
"Living to Tell the Tale-- a title that conjures memories of Moby Dick, as well as this Nobel laureate's own nonfiction book, The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor-- is the first volume of a planned autobiographical trilogy. But its most powerful sections read like one of his mesmerizing novels, transporting the reader to a Latin America haunted by the ghosts of history and shaped by the exigencies of its daunting geography, by its heat and jungles and febrile light. The book provides a memorable portrait of a young writer's apprenticeship as the one William Styron gave us in Sophie's Choice, even as it illuminates the alchemy Mr. García Márquez acquired from masters like Faulkner and Joyce and Borges and later used to transform family stories and firsthand experiences into fecund myths of his own."
Viewed on 28 January, 2008.||"One Hundred Years of Solitude: Read the book that the New York Times calls "The first piece of literature since the book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race.""
Viewed on 28 January, 2008.||"As it implies, Gabriel García Márquez's widely acclaimed Love in the Time of Cholera is a creative amalgam of two starkly contrasting elements: the sacredness of love and love's embodiment in often horrific, everyday experience. Ultimately, the transcendental power of spiritual love emerges as the beautifully rendered theme of this evocative, paradoxical masterwork."
Viewed on 28 January, 2008.||Review of several books by other authors, revolving around the upcoming BBC2's "The Big Read." At the end of the article, there is a list of the "Top Ten Suggested by Boyd Tonkin, Independent literary editor." One Hundred Years of Solitude is included with this review: "The Earth's formerly silent cultures find their voice in this exuberant mythic history of oppression and liberation."
Two of García Márquez's novels, Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude, are part of the Contemporary Literature Big Read from the BBC.
Viewed on 28 January, 2008.||"The top 50 essential contemporary reads (as nominated by a sample of 500 people attending the Guardian Hay festival. In alphabetical order)." One Hundred Years of Solitude is included.
Viewed on 28 January, 2008.||"The novel has an epic air to it, crossing so much time and carefully interweaving the development of the characters. The aged love of Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza impresses with the wisdom and patience of age. Long sections of the book are devoted to Juvenal Urbino, including his ethical struggle over his desire for his patient, his horror at the medical conditions of his country after studying abroad, and his negotiations with Fermina Daza, who expects him to be a husband as well as a doctor."
Viewed on 28 January, 2008.||Orrin rates One Hundred Years of Solitude as an F, saying, "I understand that many people think that this book is the greatest thing since canned beer, but I find it nearly unreadable... I find this magical realism stuff almost uniformly annoying... Literature, intentionally or not, serves political purposes and the literature of Gabriel García Márquez serves evil purposes."
Viewed on 28 January, 2008.||Colombia is preparing to celebrate Gabriel García Márquez's 70th birthday, an event he will not attend because he said that Colombia "had become an uncomfortable country, uncertain and troubling for a writer," and announced that he was going to exile himself in Mexico.
Viewed on 28 January, 2008.|Lawson reviews of Strange Pilgrims but comments on One Hundred Years of Solitude as well, providing insight and possible interpretations. Lawson rants and raves about how Gabriel García Márquez's works have changed his life, "After reading it I could not look at fiction, or life for that matter, with the same expectations, the same traditional preconceptions."
Gómez reviews of Por la libre: Obra periodística, v.4, 1974-1995, disclosing that Gabriel García Márquez focuses completely on the most important theme of that time: national and international politics during the 1970s, although the book includes work from the 80s and 90s. Most articles in Por la Libre, are dedicated to leftist political activity during these years in Colombia, Latin America, Europe, and Africa. All of Gabriel García Márquez's articles are written with his usual documentary objectivity in terms of the facts, although his comments and point of view correspond to his personal appreciation. Por la Libre can only have the validity that each of its articles, chronicles, surveys, and interiews had in the past, especially as a compilation. Few like Gabriel García Márquez could offer the mastery that has made him famous world wide, whether it is with his journalistic work or his works of fiction.
Washington, DC : Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Location:
Library, University of Illinois
Related Item Details:
(135) : 78-79
Notes:
Castro reviews the book Vivir para contarla or Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel García Márquez, in relation to the beginnings of their friendship and their similar experiences.
Morales reviews the video recording "El gallo de oro (The Golden Cockerel), directed by Gabriel García Márquez and written by Juan Rulfo. Morales states, "Although the father of magical realism is intimately tied to the script, the story is a fairly straightforward allegory about the corruption of modern life... Despite several typos in the English subtitles, this film is highly recommended for all libraries and institutions."
Viewed on 28 January, 2008. ||New York Magazine reviews the book Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel García Márquez, by saying, "The first part of a planned trilogy, covering the Colombian-born magical realist's first 29 years, arrive in translation already a Spanish-language best seller. Fans will find the seeds of many a setting and story, but the real fun might be in spotting Márquez's acknowledged embellishments."
Hoyos reviews the first volume of Gabriel García Márquez's autobiography, Vivir para contarla (Living to Tell the Tale). Hoyos states, "At first glance, García Márquez's vivid and detailed portrait of his early life seems like a testament to a photographic recollection. Yet as he explains... he warns readers that memories are not just fact or fiction but maybe a mix of both, depending on how one recalls past events. Overall, this first volume reflects García Márquez's experience as both a novelist and a journalist: Although his prose is literary, recalling his imaginative signature style, the historical content is as rigorously researched as his journalistic writings."
Viewed on 29 January, 2008.|Cobb reviews Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel García Márquez as translated by Edith Grossman. Cobb states that the volume ends up in the air, with a double drama about to unfold in his late 20s. "Perhaps the surest sign of the success of this book comes in the reader's enthusiasm to await its sequel, so as to hear Márquez's account of the subsequent episodes in his distinguished life of love and literature."
"Tracing his personal history through the 1950s, Márquez applies the same skill and lyricism he demonstrates in his fiction to the genre of autobiography. The first in a series of three volumes chronicling his remarkable career, Living to Tell the Tale is a fluid, fascinating account of the Nobel Laureate's upbringing in Colombia and his development as a writer."
Viewed on 29 January, 2008.||Last year Gabriel García Márquez published Vivir para contarla, a best seller that broke all sales records in Peru. With his new novel, Memoria de mis putas tristes, he is expected to have a similar sales outcome, despite the bootlegging controversy surrounding this novel. The edition printed in Peru is very peculiar: it's cheaper, it's hardcover, and it has textual differences in relation to other volumes distributed in Latin America. The Peruvian edition was printed before García Márquez submitted his last corrections.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada : CanWest Interactive
Location:
Library, University of Illinois
Related Item Details:
D22 Books
Notes:
"Literary powerhouse Gabriel García Márquez is at the height of his powers in Living to Tell the Tale, the first in a projected autobiographical trilogy. The volume ends in the 1950s, when he was in his early 30s, set to test whether he could succeed as a writer and be "one of the great ones." A Montreal Gazette reviewer wrote that readers will relish the chance to "sift the Colombian author's life for the seeds of his magic realism, and the master doesn't disappoint.""
"At 76, Gabriel García Márquez, as Gabriel García Márquez is known in the Spanish-speaking world, has written an erotic novella about an affair between an old man and a pubescent girl, set in Colombian coastal town reminiscent of Barranquilla. The unnamed protagonist is a bachelor who for decades has lived alone (with the exception of a veteran maid) in his parents' house and who makes his living as a second-rate newspaper columnist and by selling off family heirlooms."
"It was heartening, then, to read the next day of the new Gabriel García Márquez novel, Memories of My Melancholy Whores, which has just gone on sale in the Hispanophone world. García Márquez is 76 and unwell, but his book seems to be about sex,love and age, not age, death and funerals. Its principal character is a retired journalist, just turning 90, who decides to mark his birthday by sleeping with a 14-year old virgin prostitute (the book is set in Colombia in the 1950s, putting plenty of cultural distance between us and the uncomfortable morality of that time and place)."
"The Latin American writers recounts his early years in a book that John Freeman said, "has all the weight and storytelling prowess of his two masterpieces, Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude."
On Living to Tell the Tale: "This first volume (two more are in progress) takes us into his mid-twenties, beginning with his eight years of uncertain if idyllic childhood with his maternal grandparents in the dusty village of Aracataca, on through his stint as rising staff writer for the Bogotá daily, El Espectador. The book ends in suspense: Gabito (his nickname) departs for Geneva on assignment to cover a "Big Four" summit, and in the last line he finds at his Swiss hotel a letter from his sweetheart Mercedes, who is replying to his marriage proposal."
"The life of Gabriel García Márquez, the magical realist whose much-loved fifth novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, helped him secure the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature, has already been assembled in fragments. Lacking from a book such as The Fragrance of Guava, an extended interview published in the year of the Nobel, is the whimsical grace of the fiction. Márquez's own account of his early years, Living to Tell the Tale, is first and foremost a storyteller's story, a languid spell cast by a master of language."
"It's a violent, intense narrative, but that's how kidnappings are. García Márquez describes with perfection everything that occurs around the kidnapping of ten people perpetrated by drug dealer, Pablo Escobar."
Viewed on 29 January, 2008.||"The New York Times described Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) as "the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race." This is the most ludicrous gesture of literary hype I have ever encountered... The book is so in love with its own cleverness that it is profoundly unreadable."