Product Description
La primera biografía completa y autorizada sobre el más querido y admirado escritor latinoamericano

Gerald Martin dedicó más de dos décadas a investigar y escribir esta magistral biografía. Pasó horas con Gabriel García Márquez y entrevistó a más de trescientas personas, incluyendo a la madre, mujer, hijos y familiares del autor, además de a famosos escritores y políticos como Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa y Fidel Castro. El resultado revela tanto al escritor como al hombre.

Nacido en 1927 y educado por sus abuelos en una pequeña aldea colombiana, el tímido e inteligente muchacho se convirtió en un hombre reservado, un periodista que encontró la fama como novelista, a los cuarenta años, tras publicar Cien años de soledad, la novela que dio lugar al Realismo Mágico y obra cumbre de la literatura latinoamericana del siglo XX. Pero a pesar de su fama, nunca perdió el contacto con sus raíces; aunque vivió lejos de Colombia desde 1955, la concesión del Premio Nobel fue celebrada por todos los latinoamericanos que, entonces como ahora, consideran a “Gabo” como uno de los suyos.

Al contar la apasionante historia de su compleja vida, Martin balancea las tensiones entre pobreza y riqueza, popularidad y calidad literaria, política y literatura, y entre poder, soledad y amor. Gerald Martin ha escrito una biografía magnífica: enriquecedora, iluminadora, tan apasionante como el más agudo periodismo de García Márquez y tan fascinante como la mejor de sus novelas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Must Have!
This is a recopilation of all master pieces of our proud latino-Colombian writer. It is intense!!! Magnificient!!!

una gran lectura
La biografia de Gerald Martin es sumamente cautivante sobre la personalidad y la escritura de unos de los escritores claves del llamado Boom latinoamericano revela numerosos tics sobre el proceso de creacion de uno de los genios de nuestras letras.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Una Vida
Gerald Martin is a superb writer and story teller. It is amazing that an English-speaking person can write this colossal history of a famous writer producing such a joy in a reader. I am enjoying the book as if I would be reading "A Hundred Years of Solitude." Garcia-Marquez was wise to let Martin write his story. I highly recommend this book. ... Read more

Product Description

Renowned as a master of magical realism, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has long delighted readers around the world with his exquisitely crafted prose.Brimming with unforgettable characters and set in exotic locales, his fiction transports readers to a world that is at once fanciful, haunting, and real.

Customer Reviews (8)

Three very different, yet thematically connected, novellas that are among the author's most powerful works
A must-have bargain, this volume presents three of Garcia Marquez's four novellas--two written early in his career and one published after he had achieved worldwide fame. The earliest piece, "Leaf Storm" (1955) is, so to speak, a chronicle of a death scorned; it takes place during a mere half hour in the middle of the day in 1928, but it recalls the events of several decades. The story seems to echo deliberately several aspects of the plot, structure, and technique of Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying"; its stream-of-consciousness narrative alternates among three family members--a colonel, his daughter, and her young son--as they muse over what to do about a corpse. Unlike Faulkner, however, Garcia Marquez does not give the dead man--a local doctor--a voice; his life is instead recalled through the memories of the other three characters. The colonel and his family battle against those who would refuse the man a decent burial: the townspeople, because the doctor had refused to treat their wounded during the war, and the priest, who "won't let them bury in consecrated ground a man who hanged himself after having lived sixty years without God." Although the novella lacks the magic realism for which Garcia Marquez is now renowned, it nevertheless is one of his starkest (and, I feel, most powerful) efforts, anticipating many of his later themes and introducing the locales and characters who populate his more mature work.

"No One Writes to the Colonel" (published 1961, but written several years earlier) takes up anti-government themes only hinted at in "Leaf Storm" and makes them central to the story: tyrannical censorship, the insensitivity of officials, the violence of repression, corruption. A retired colonel and his wife endure two related struggles that consume his days of retirement. The old man hopes to receive the pension owed to him by the government; he visits the post office daily, expecting to receive a response to his applications, but "no one writes." Starving and broke, the couple argue over whether to sell the rooster left by their son (who was killed during recent political turmoil) or to raise it for fighting. Although the depictions of life are bleak and desolate, the colonel's repeatedly dashed hopes provide the work with a sardonic, almost Chaplinesque humor.

Comedic elements also pervade "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" (1981). By the time of its publication, Garcia Marquez had become known most of all for magic realism, and the enchantment here is to be found in the collective telepathy of the town's residents and the story's dream-like, Kafka-inspired atmosphere. This is basically a murder story that manages to be harrowingly suspenseful in spite of the fact that the reader is forewarned of the event, the victim, and the perpetrators--all in the first few pages. Instead of a whodunit, we have a whydunit--why did Angela suggest Santiago is responsible for her loss of virginity, why did her two brothers reluctantly kill their friend, and (most of all) why, even though "there had never been a death more foretold," were the townsfolk so complaisant about a murder they all knew was about to happen? Tradition, prejudice, apathy--all conspire to make everybody complicit in everyday, senseless acts of violence. In five tightly constructed chapters, Garcia Marquez has given us what may someday be considered his masterpiece.

GGM!!
GGM is one of the great writers of the 20th century.This book contains 3 stories and is a nice collection to catch up on some Latin American literature!

almost as good in Enlish
I've read his books for many years, but have only just tried reading them in Spanish which is not my native language. This English translation does an excellent job of taking his work and some of his nuances and making it perfect for the English reader. Marquez is an astounding writer and those new to his work would be well served by starting with this book. You won't be disappointed!

I have not recived it yet
Sorry I cannot submit a review at this time,the reason being i have not received this book yet.

Gabo is great from the beginning
LEAF STORM:

'Leaf Storm' is known as the first novella published by Gabriel García Márquez. And from this debut is possible to see how big he would become one day.This book tells a very simple story that acquires multiple levels as it is told.

After the death of an infamous doctor of Macondo his only friends, this friend's daughter and her son gather to the funerals. The dead man is known as the devil and everyone hates him. His death made the city very happy. As the story is unfolded, we learn why he's so hated and how come the threesome ended up there to mourn him.

Using multiple points of views, Gabo gives the three protagonists chances to speak to themselves and we can find out how dreadful is to each of one be there. The writer is able to switch the point of view, and also the language --after all, a little boy does not speak as an old man. This is one of the remarkable qualities of this wonderful novella.

This is the very first time that the imaginary place Macondo appears in Gabo's story and it became a seminal place of his stories --among them the masterpiece 'A Hundred years of solitude'. ... Read more

Product Description
El coronel no tiene quien le escriba fue escrita por Gabriel García Márquez durante su estancia en París, adonde había llegado como corresponsal de prensa y con la secreta intención de estudiar cine, a mediados de los años cincuenta. El cierre del periódico para el que trabajaba le sumió en la pobreza, mientras redactaba en tres versiones distintas esta excepcional novela, que fue rechazada por varios editores antes de su publicación. Tras el barroquismo faulkneriano de La hojarasca, esta segunda novela supone un paso hacia la ascesis, hacia la economía expresiva, y el estilo del escritor se hace más puro y transparente. Se trata también de una historia de injusticia y violencia: un viejo coronel retirado va al puerto todos los viernes a esperar la llegada de la carta oficial que responda a la justa reclamación de sus derechos por los servicios prestados a la patria. Pero la patria permanece muda. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

El coronel no tiene quien le escriba
The shipping took a while, but not past the maximum estimate.Minimal writing in the inside cover, otherwise good condition.

Still haven't gotten it
So it's been more than a month and I haven't gotten it.Lost in the mail?Never sent?I don't know.

A journey for the senses!
Is a talent for Marquez to describe daily life events with such maestry that invites your senses to let go and transport to the moment with the characther, you can taste the coffee, smell the rooms, is simply amaizing, strongly reccomend!

A good read
Marquez writes in such a way that you find yourself in Macondo, living along the coronel, seeing what he sees and feeling immersed in a simple life where after all is stripped away through time, hope remains.It is that which we all can feel as we too wait, with determination, with hope, even if there is nothing left.

La esperanza como ultimo recurso!
Historia de penumbras y congojas, de zozobras y desasosiegos; de ilusiones perdidas que reavivan con menor esplendor cada vez que el Coronel recibe un No como respuesta en la Oficina de Correos.

El Coronel es una aguda e incisiva metafora que se anida en la memoria maltratada y desamparada de seres quienes vieron pasar lo mejor de sus vidas al arraigo de una promesa, del pago puntual de una merecida pension por servicios prestados. El tiempo y el olvido son dos viejos amigos, y esa espera cotidiana se convierte en el unico asidero esperanzador que alimenta el deseo de vivir de un hombre ya olvidado, relegado por los nuevos tiempos, protagonista de hazanas crepusculares que inflaman la imaginacion historica y poetica, pero que poco o nada dicen a las nuevas generaciones.

Una de las joyas cimeras de la Literatura Latinoamericana, El Coronel tiene ese sabor obsesivo del Tango, de lo que pudo haber sido y no fue. Este militar es un miembro mas de una legion de seres quienes vivieron seducidos por la palabra y aplastados por el burocratismo y el populismo. Poco importan las coordenadas geograficas y el entorno historico. El subdesarrollo, entendido como la incapacidad de transformacion, no tiene edad, pues como mala hierba, se reproduce en cualquier rincon de la naturaleza.

Soberbio e inolvidable relato de este ilustre escritor colombiano, Premio Nobel de Literatura 1984.

... Read more

Product Description
De jóvenes, Florentino Ariza y Fermina Daza se enamoran apasionadamente, pero Fermina eventualmente decide casarse con un médico rico y de muy buena familia. Florentino está anonadado, pero es un romántico. Su carrera en los negocios florece, y aunque sostiene 622 pequeños romances, su corazón todavía pertenece a Fermina. Cuando al fin el esposo de ellamuere, Florentino acude al funeral con toda intención. A los cincuenta años, nueve meses y cuatro días de haberle profesado amor a Fermina, lo hará una vez más. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (65)

Las novelas más inspiradoras sobre la mujer latinoamericana
Las novelas más inspiradoras sobre la mujer latinoamericana son "La casa de los espíritus" de Isabel Allende, "El amor en los tiempos del cólera" de García Márquez, "Las hermanas Agüero" de Christina García, "La casa en Mango Street" de Sandra Cisneros y la que acaba de aparecer sobre la mujer de la inmigración, "El amor de Carmela me va a matar" de Eduardo González Viaña.

The Latin American Balzac
I have enjoyed the book immensely. He describes everything in such detail that one feels totally imnmersed in the plot. No wonder Garcia Marquez, like Hemingway, earned a Nobel Prize in Literature.
Highly recommended.

Andrew J. Rodriguez
Award-winning author: "Adios, Havana," a Memoir

Unico Relato
Los caracteres centrales son Fermina Daza, Florentino Ariza, y Juvenal Urbino, un medico. Fermina rechaza el amor de Florentino y pues se casa con Juvenal. Juvenl ofrece la securidad pero el matrimonio no crea mucho romanticismo. Una retorcida historia desarrolla entre estas personas y otras. El libro produce un cuento imprevisible, fascinante y lleno de emociones diversas. Translator's Kiss

NO PIERDAN SU TIEMPO
Es aburrido ! aburrido. Que clase de historia de amor la protagonista no le hace caso y se la pasa 50 años esperandola mientras fornica con cuanta mujer se le atraviesa. Eso es amor ? Y le hace caso hasta que esta sola y vieja ?

El Amor en los Tiempos del Cólera
Even better than the movie.It has some strong vocabulary that begins in the middle of the book.I bought it for high school students, only mature ones should read it. ... Read more

Product Description
En Barcelona, una prostituta que va entrando en la vejez entrena su perro a llorar ante la tumba que ha escogido para sí misma. En Viena, una mujer se vale de su don de ver el futuro para convertirse en la adivina de una familia rica. En Ginebra, el conductor de una ambulancia y su esposa acogen al abandonado y aparentemente moribundo ex presidente de un país caribeño, sólo para descubrir que sus ambiciones políticas siguen intactas.

En estos doce relatos magistrales acerca de las vidas de latinoamericanos en Europa, García Márquez logra transmitir la amalgama de melancolía, tenacidad, pena y ambición que forma la experiencia del emigrante. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

fast shipping
it came in very good conditions and faster than i expecteded. thank you very much.

Un cierto vacío.
García Márquez escribe muy bien, es un gran profesional... Y quizá sea por eso por lo que algunas de sus obras no acaban de convencerme. Me cuesta trabajo encontrar el sentimiento detrás de su virtuosismo. Prefiero escritores quizá no tan hábiles pero que narran más a flor de piel, como Arlt. Estos cuentos están, sin duda, bien hechos, pero me han dejado indiferente.

Little Gems
This collection of short stories is a perfect introduction to the work of the master writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Each is finely crafted and has an intensity that only a author of his genius would be able to contain within the confines of this genre.Each story is a gem of literature.

Magical, Unforgettable Stories
A man carries the perfectly preserved body of his daughter around in a carrying case. A woman whose car breaks down by the side of the road wants to use the telephone, but finds herself committed to a mental institution. A young woman, newly married, pricks her finger on a rose, and begins bleeding to death. A young couple spend the night in a hotel where a horrific murder took place long before. Twelve remarkable stories that begin in a low key, almost believable manner and quickly go off into another dimension. A magical dimension. The endings are unexpected, haunting, and often tragic.

I won't tell you how any of these stories turn out, you'll have to read them. There are twelve, of varying length, and every one of them is brilliant. You will not only enjoy these stories but they will stay with you. Despite my limited command of Spanish, I found the stories quite readable, lucid, written in a simple, spare style, with great economy of language. What a gift!

Marquez is a master story-teller. I recommend this book very highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

tan peregrinos
He vivido en siete paises, dieciocho ciudades, tengo seis profesiones y mas mudanzas de las que me acuerdo. a donde voy "doce cuentos peregrinos" peregrinan conmigo. Gabo y yo hasta el fin del mundo. ... Read more

Product Description
Written just before One Hundred Years of Solitude, this fascinating novel of a Colombian river town possessed by evil points to the author's later flowering and greatness. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

The sanctity of the ballot
`In Evil Hour' is G.G. Márquez's version of the French `film noir' `Le Corbeau' shot by Henri-Georges Clouzot, where a person terrorizes a village with lampoons out of sexual jealousy.
`In Evil Hour', however, centers on more important subjects: social justice and politics.
`The sanctity of the ballot' has been desecrated by a `ruler by the gun': `a fine business: my party gets in power, the police threaten my political opponents with death, and I buy their land and livestock at prices I set myself.'
The lampoons are `a symptom of social decomposition'. They are `a case of terrorism in the moral order', because `death is feeding on this town.'
A final confrontation puts the mayor-ruler and his thugs against the majority of the population. If no other solution is possible, `justice depends on bullets'.

With its brilliant images (`He felt like an ox with a ring in his nose, being led to the poolroom'), its magical creation of a menacing atmosphere, its mix of hidden alliances and innocent (until the masks fall) bystanders (the judge and the priest), Gabriel García Márquez wrote a formidable masterpiece.

A must read for all lovers of world literature.

Decent Read
After having read "Love in the Time of Cholera," this book was certainly a step down.Although there are a few interesting passages worthy of deeper thought and discussions, overall the book isn't as captivating as his more popular works.

The dawn of the dead
"In Evil Hour" is one of the early novels written by Gabriel Garcia Márquez. Published in 1962, it was previous to his "A Hundred Years of Solitude" and "The Autumn of the Patriarch", some of his most famous novels and that consolidated his style. Considering that, one can say that this novel is really good. It is not as fine tuned as his best works, there is no Magical Realism in here -- actually, the book is quite realist -- but it is such an engaging and well conceived story that it is impossible to stop reading.

The narrative is set in a small town ruled by a peculiar mayor. He fills the role of both mayor and deputy -- in other words, he is the law in that place. The citizens having been facing a small problem. Every morning someone finds in his, her door a bulleting anonymously written telling a gossip about him, her or the family. The strange thing is that the fact stated in the piece of paper is known by everyone, despite people not talking about it. So what is making the citizens tense is not what will be said but who is saying those things.

Solving this mystery is a job to the nameless mayor, but he is not very interested in it. To his knowledge this kind of gossip will stop sooner or later. He has a very interesting role in the book, since he is such a dubious character. As the reading progress, one can notice that he can't be simply described as good or evil. It is much more complex than that. So are townspeople. Márquez make them appealing folks with very interesting background stories to keep the pages moving.

"In Evil Hour" deals with politics, but in a very subtle way. Hints are given here and there about the recent changes the town has faced. The past seems to have been obscure, but we are never certain of that. Márques exploit heavy subjects that darken Latin American History with grace and seriousness and his peculiar sense of humor. And in the end we seem to have spent some time in that village, and however much we may have enjoyed it, we may not be willing to come back to that place -- although one may want to reread this book one of these days.

Off-stage action
"In Evil Hour" is a swift portrait of a Colombian town that connects the awful force of oppressive regimes to the bald paranoia of a town feeding itself rumor after rumor about its own citizens.The themes are there, but might seem obtuse upon your first reading.Still, the book pretty clearly says that tyranny leads to an abandonment of sense and a mean discontent, a desire to assert yourself by shaming the powerful when you have no democratic outlet for expression.This is a novel of the quietly disenfranchised and supposedly pious succumbing to the base desires of an evil hour.

The salilent point in grasping it all comes when you realize a lot of essential action is implied.Marquez has called Faulkner his "master" and here, while Marquez is still developing his own voice, he borrows heavily on Faulkner's style of orcing the reader to infer basic plot action.For example, Trinidad is arguably a lampooner.She's the one who first mentions them and she mysteriously falls sick when the curfew is set.Note thhe relationship betwen joyfully killing mice and her taking glee in the misfortunate of the lampoons. She's abused and belongs to a clergy robbed of real holiness and indepedence from the state; it's no small wonder she's vicious ... or that her replacement, Marquez implies, has placed more lampoons as the story concludes.

Another chief feature of Evil Hour is that it has no moral protaganist.The mayor is a government bully: his character is a wry, generous picture of a bored, opportunistic tyrannical hoodlum -- and the judge?The judge is lazy and corrupt beyond measure.

The priest is the most sympathetic main figure because he is devout and fatalistic at once.He lives his days in a sullen guilt at placing his church at the mercy of the state and offering people a brittle faith in the face of brutal dictatorship.

It's worth noting, biographically, that Marquez's bittersweet attitude toward tyranny comes from a correspondence and relationship with Castro.

Underrated, b/c people just don't understand it.
In Evil Hour hasn't enjoyed the respect it should, as a contemporary masterpiece, at least on par with Love in the Time of Cholera.

Readers who cite a lack of plot have not fully explored this book. The reality of this novel is that all of the messages, most of the plot, and a good part of the action are implied, rather than explicitly stated. If one were available, I would recommend picking up a Cliff's Notes or Sparknotes for this book, due to the confusing structure and dense, recondite prose; none of the editions I have read so far has included an introduction or explanation of the book more thorough than what is written on the dust jacket.

Ultimately, If you're looking for some good, light, poolside reading, skip In Evil Hour - this is not that sort of book, and you will be left confused and unsatisfied with the book. However, if you are prepared to read it twice, carefully, in order to understand the subtexts and allusions, this book will enchant you and become a favorite. ... Read more

Product Description
This the most important novels written by this author whicheveryone must read. With this novel he won the 1982 Novel Prizze inLiterature.Amazon.com Review
A dense jungle of magic and literary gusto, this book pullsyou in and engulfs you with its richness and beauty. Saying it is astory of a family is like saying the New Testament is a book about acarpenter. Following the family here reveals the history of severalgenerations, and the passions, thoughts, and myths of a labyrinth ofpeople, related and not. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a gifted writer,and nowhere does he write with the fervor that he does in OneHundred Years of Solitude, a pleasurable ride unmatched in modernliterature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (71)

Cien Años...
I haven't read the book yet, but it's in good condition, and arrived very quickly.

García Márques Es Un Dios Literario
Esta obra es uno de los libros mas bellos y perfectos que existe. García Márques es un dios literario y demuestra toda su meastria en este libro. Sin duda alguna, este es uno de los libros que todo amante de la letra escrita debe de leer por lo menos una vez en su vida.

Avoid Catedra edition
This volume will fall apart as fast as you can read it. I am still in the introduction and the pages are coming loose from the crummy European glue as soon as I turn them. There are several Spanish-language editions of "Cien Años"-- avoid this one

La mejor novela de nuestros tiempos! Es obligatorio leerla!
Este es un libro fascinante, lleno de realismo mágico, aventuras, drama y pasión. Un libro con el que se puede identificar cualquier latinoamericano por todo lo que tiene de cotidiano y de supersticioso. La historia tiene ciertas similitudes con la Biblia (Génesis, Exodo, Evangelios) , con las Mil y Una Noches y otras literaturas; lo que hacen que leerla le parezca a uno muy familiar aparte de que el lenguaje que utiliza García Márquez es muy sencillo y cotidiano. Nadie que la lea olvidará jamás a Ursula, o a Fernanda del Carpio, a Remedios la Bella o a cualquiera de los Aurelianos o José Arcadios. Es un libro adictivo para aquellos que dan sus primeros pasos en la buena literatura.

Después del Quijote, la mejor novela escrita en español, pero también la mejor novela contemporanea de nuestros tiempos. Es por eso, impresindible leer esta genial novela.

Un atractivo extra de esta edición son las notas al pie de página que da Jacques Joset, que permiten al lector aclarar muchas dudas acerca de donde tomá el autor nombres de personajes o de lugares. A mi en lo personal, me resulto mucho más interesante, ya que tenia ciertas dudas como de donde se inspiró García Márquez para hablar del Duque de Marlborough, de Rocamadour, o de Francisco El Hombre.

I hate this book!!!!
It's well-written and the characters arewell developed, but I must say that the story is just horrible. I'm sorry, but if this is the best literature of Latin America, I'd rather not read anymore of it. I really don't know why people like this book!
I'll stick to good Brazilian literature, such as Machado de Assis. ... Read more

Product Description
“¿Qué hago yo encaramado en esta percha de honor, yo que siempre he considerado los discursos como el más terrorífico de los compromisos humanos?” —Gabriel García Márquez
 
Los textos que Gabriel García Márquez ha reunido en este libro fueron escritos por el autor con la intención de ser leídos por él mismo en público, ante una audiencia, y recorren prácticamente toda su vida, desde el primero, que escribe a los diecisiete años para despedir a sus compañeros del curso superior en Zipaquirá, hasta el que lee ante las Academias de la Lengua y los reyes de España al cumplir ochenta años.
            Estos discursos del premio Nobel nos ayudan a comprender más profundamente su vida y nos desvelan sus obsesiones fundamentales como escritor y ciudadano: su fervorosa vocación por la literatura, la pasión por el periodismo, su inquietud ante el desastre ecológico que se avecina, su propuesta de simplificar la gramática, los problemas de su tierra colombiana o el recuerdo emocionado de amigos escritores como Julio Cortázar o Álvaro Mutis, entre otros muchos.
            El lector tiene entra sus manos el complemento indispensable a una obra narrativa que nos seguirá hablando en un largo porvenir.

****

“What am I doing here on this perch of honor, when I have always considered speeches the most terrifying of human obligations?”
 
The speeches that Gabriel García Márquez has gathered in this collection were written by the author with the intention of being read by him before an audience, and span the course of nearly his entire life; from the first, a farewell written at seventeen to his fellow students at Zipaquirá, to his appearance before the Spanish-language Academies and the kings of Spain on his eightieth birthday.
Combined, these speeches provide a more profound understanding of the life of this Nobel Prize winner, revealing his fundamental creative and civil obsessions: his intense aptitude for literature and writing; his passion for journalism; his concerns over looming environmental dangers; his proposal for the simplification of grammar; the problems facing his beloved Colombian homeland; and the loving memory of fellow writers like Julio Cortázar and Álvaro Mutis, among many others.
In Yo no vengo a decir un discurso (I did not come to give a speech), the reader holds in his/her hands the essential complement to a body of work that will continue speaking to us for a long time to come. ... Read more

Product Description

This collection of fiction, representing some of García Márquez's earlier work, includes eleven short stories and a novella, Innocent Eréndira, in which a young girl who dreams of freedom cannot escape the reach of her vicious and avaricious grandmother.

Customer Reviews (7)

Warming up for the 100 years...
This is a collection of 12 stories written by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His most famous works are One Hundred Years of Solitude (P.S.), The Autumn of the Patriarch (P.S.) and (Love in the Time of Cholera (Vintage International)). I've read them all, and like so many others, have been enthralled with his style and his sometimes whimsical insights into the human condition. This book is an odd assortment that the publisher yoked together. The last 11 short stories were written when Marquez was between 25 and 30, in the early `50's. One Hundred Years of Solitude (P.S.) was first published in the late `60's. Only the title story, the length of a novella, was written after his classic work, in the early `70's.

Concerning the 11 stories I call a "warm-up," well, they are just that. Certainly there is evidence of the themes and style that would be honed and polished into his major works. Overall though, they are rough, and two in particular, "Eyes of the Blue Dog" and "Night of the Curlews" should have been "left on the cutting room floor" as they say in the movies. Concerning these, and the others, there are times when the style he is famous for introducing, "magical realism," flips into outright hallucinations, worthy (or more appropriately, unworthy) of William Burroughs. Marquez's sardonic view of the "democratic process," revealed in the electioneering and philandering of Senator Onesimo Sanchez will resonate with many a modern American reader. Death is a theme that is laced through many of these stories, and in particular, dominates "The Third Resignation," which appears to draw inspiration from Kafka's The Metamorphosis.Also in several of his stories, particularly in "Dialogue with the Mirror," he plays with the theme of a person's doppelganger - that eerie "other" who may accompany us.In "Eva is Inside her Cat," as the title might suggest, the author plays with the themes of the surrealistic painters, with insects under the skin causing a woman's beauty, which proves to be an immense burden. The reincarnation of choice is being a cat, but the dying mouse in one's mouth seems to spoil that fantasy. "The Woman who Came at 6'o'clock" involves the classic theme which has also become a cliché, the bartender who falls in love with a woman working in the world's oldest profession.

The title novella is clearly the best, and involves a ruthless grandmother pimping her granddaughter to obtain reparations for the grandmother's house that was burned down due to the carelessness of the granddaughter. Lots of sexual titillation, the proverbial "knight in shining armor," a dash of religion, and a much more refined dose of "magical realism."

Overall though, this book is probably only for hard-core Marquez fans, who have already read his major works. I'll round up to 4-stars, certainly in honor of the 100 years.

Read this book for the first story...it's a gem
Innocent Erendira and Other Stories should have been entitled Innocent Erendira and Sketches.The only real story is the title piece, The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother.The other stories are mood pieces about death--interesting, but only in the way Rembrandt's doodles might be interesting.They are worth looking at, but don't really stand on their own.The title piece, however, is a gem, filled with true Garcian flare--the Caribbean circus, frantic desert chases, strange gringos, exploding pianos, treasure, obsession, repression, confession, and hilarious one-liners.When Garcia Marquez pulls the stops out, there is nobody like him.

a slow but promising beginning
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is certainly a great writer and his Nobel Prize is no fluke.However, this is a collection of his early stories with most dating back to the late 1940's and early 1950's.It is interesting to see the early focus on the out-of-body, after-life and other-worldly experiences that lead the author toward the eventual "magic realism".That doesn't mean that they're good stories to read.In fact, I found most stories (other than the title story) to be rather tedious reading even as short as most of them were."Innocent Erendira" is a good example of the author's polished style and stands as a contrast to the other works.Some sort of editing mishap has the book lead with "Innocent Erendira" rather than closing with it.Thus we see the best in the beginning and watch the rest go down hill rather than build up to the climax (as should have been done).I have often made it a point to read all of a favorite author's works and Garcia Marquez is certainly a favorite of mine.However, I have learned that even greatness has its' measure of mediocrity.This book is a reminder of that.

muy interesante
I read this book as well as watched the movie for my Spanish 495 class at school and thought that it was one of the more interesting of the books that we read, among el reino de este mundo, and pedro páramo. It had so much simbolism and meaning to it. I recommend it for fun, as well as for a course. It's fairly short, but with a lot of meaning behind it.

Colorful and easy to read.
Start off with "100 Years of Solitude", and then enjoy these short stories, they will take you back to a magical time that used to be. Marquez weaves his magic best in long, heady volumes, but these stories are not-to-be-missed for any fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. ... Read more

Product Description
In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (514)

Book club thumbs down
We have a book club of seven women, and we all did not enjoy this book.

Thank Goodness I'm Not the Only One
I found this book, like others to be unbelievably dull and unrealistic."Love" is not the word I'd use to describe any of the relationships created.I was more interested in reading about the cholera and the civil war.I couldn't understand many of the relationships and I found it horrific that rape could be glorified.

It saves me the time of reading One Hundred Years of Solitude.I have no interest.

Love in the Time of Cholera
There are three main characters and numerous sub characters.Two of the main characters are involved in a love affair for over a half century, but only one of them knows it and liveswith the pain of rejection until a time in their lives when they are both old and alone.The story is sad, funny and poignant, and was a delight to read.

A Meditation on Materialism and Love
This great, poetic love story explores the fatal impact of materialism on our vulnerable hearts.It is a lengthy, beautifully written book, presented in a wonderful translation that engulfs the reader in a lush jungle of words. This engrossing book with its well-structured plot is inhabited by fully formed, intriguing characters.

One of the most intriguing parts of the book is the title. Why love in the time of Cholera? What does cholera have to do with love, or with the plot of the book? It would be wrong to seek too dogmatic an answer to this question in an obviously poetic, and anti-dogmatic novel. Nevertheless, I believe this book is about materialism, about how our craving for money and position can become a cholera-like disease that destroys love.

The rest of this review contains passages that some readers might consider spoilers.

Very early in the book, we learn that the love between Florentino and Fermina does not flow smoothly because Fermina chooses wealth and security with Juvenal Urbino over the passion offered her by Florentino.In reaction to his loss, Florentino spends his life in pursuit of wealth and fleeting sexual encounters. None of this brings him happiness, and much of his life, both sexual and professional, ends up enmeshed in dubious moral quandaries, destruction and perversion.

I read the story as an indictment of materialism in all its forms. The land in which the book takes place is ultimately decimated by this materialism, the beautiful and romantic forests that provide the lush setting for this book are destroyed, and the characters who inhabit them are no less ravished by their slavish pursuit of wealth rather than true love. In the end, the landscape is in ruins, the characters husks of their former selves. Materialism and disease reign supreme, love is perverted and lost.

Any great novel, and Love in the Time of Cholera is a very great novel, cannot be easily reduced to simple themes and dogmatic statements. Thus what I have written here is an over simplification of a complex book that has many virtues. The book can serve, for instance, as a catalogue of the various types of love or as a meditation on the difference in temperament between logical, rule bound people and those who are governed by romance, by the heart. There are many other themes that run through the book. For me, however, the primary theme here is the destructive power of materialism, and how the twentieth century became a grave yard for love that was sacrificed to the false god Mammon.

Love in the Time of Cholera
This book quickly became one of my favorites. I have read and re-read it, loaned it andrecommended it to friends. It's depth and passion and beautiful phrases are almost like lyrics. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has a beautiful gift! And I beacame a devoted fan before I was done with the first chapter. ... Read more

Product Description
Translated by Randolph Hogan. In 1955, Garcia Marquez was working for El Espectador, a newspaper in Bogota, when in February of that year eight crew members of the Caldas, a Colombian destroyer, were washed overboard and disappeared. Ten days later one of them turned up, barely alive, on a deserted beach in northern Colombia. This book, which originally appeared as a series of newspaper articles, is Garcia Marquez's account of that sailor's ordeal.

"A luminous narrative that rivals the most remarkable stories of man's struggles against the sea."--Philadelphia Inquirer ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Shipwrecked Sailor - get the background
A quick read - This story is told in painstaking detail, and one has to admire the recall of the narrator as he recounts the circumstances of the shipwreck, the ensuing 10 days at sea and his ultimate rescue. I was able to feel the roller coaster of hope and despair experienced by narrator, the joys, surges of adrenaline, anger and frustration, determination and resignation.
This book had me on the edge of my seat, but mainly because of the preface by the author - The Story of the Story. The story certainly could have stood alone when first written in a series of newspaper articles, later in book form, because the story was still in the recent collective memory of Columbians. However, if I picked up a copy without the background provided by Garcia Marquez - as some of my book club friends did -I would have been lost and frustrated, left wanting more information. The Story of the Story preface gives a depth and completion to the story of the shipwrecked sailor, makes it all the more interesting. Make sure you buy a copy that includes the preface.

Master of Description
I read this book as a teenager and loved the fact that despite the fact that there is only one character, the story never becomes boring.
Garcia Marquez describes the situation so vividly you can feel that you are on that raft with the protagonist.
Definitely worth reading...

The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes real life stories. Marquez tells a true life story full of great detail. He tells evertything that happened to Luis while he was out at sea from trying to catch fish to being pecked at by seagulls. This story has great amounts of immense detail and imagery.

Intense story telling
The book is written in the first person voice: as a Columbian sailor named Luis Alejandro Velasco recounting his 10 days at sea fighting for survival. The narration was intense to the extent that it was difficult to put down the book once started. In this sense Garcia-Marquez' mastery of story telling was evident. However apart from the direct recounting of what had happened, I felt as if there weren't much that added to literary value. No shifting of vantage points, no particular insights into human nature, and of course in this case no intriguing conversations. In the forewords Garcia-Marquez mentions that the story was published in installments on El Espectador, a newspaper company Garcia-Marquez worked for. He also indicates that the book "seems worthy of publication, but I have never quite understood the usefulness of publishing it." This is a story best enjoyed if viewed as a journalistic piece.

The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor
The story of a shipwrecked sailor is an adventerous encounter by a man whose will to live and whose bravery help inspire all r eaders.
This book is difficult to put down because every paragraph is a new adventure.

... Read more

Product Description
In 1973, the film director Miguel Littín fled Chile after a U.S.-supported military coup toppled the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende. The new dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, instituted a reign of terror and turned Chile into a laboratory to test the poisonous prescriptions of the American economist Milton Friedman. In 1985, Littín returned to Chile disguised asa Uruguayan businessman. He was desperate to see the homeland he’d been exiled from for so many years; he also meant to pull off a very tricky stunt: with the help of three film crews from three different countries, each supposedly busy making a movie to promote tourism, he would secretly put together a film that would tell the truth about Pinochet’s benighted Chile—a film that would capture the world’s attention while landing the general and his secret police with a very visible black eye.

Afterwards, the great novelist Gabriel García Márquez sat down with Littín to hear the story of his escapade, with all its scary, comic, and not-a-little surreal ups and downs. Then, applying the same unequaled gifts that had already gained him a Nobel Prize, García Márquezwrote it down. Clandestine in Chile is a true-life adventure story and a classic of modern reportage. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Brave Men and Women

This is the story of how a truly underground film was made. Twelve years into the dictatorship ofAugusto Pinochet, Miguel Litten, whom the elected President, Salvador Allende, had appointed to head Chile Film, snuck back into the country to make a documentary. Litten would have been executed by Pinochet's army in 1973 but for a film buff soldier who allowed him to escape.

Had I not known the author, I'd never have guessed.Garcia Marquez, writing from his 18 hours of interviews with Litten, successfully uses the film director's voice and not his own.

The logistics of this operation were impressive. Litten's disguise, carefully constructed by make up artists and a team of psychology, speech and gesture trainers, even fooled his mother.Several crews of various nationalities were sent to different places of the country under the guise of filming promotional material (in all 4 seasons) for a new perfume. Elena, a long suffering confederate (she has to put up with Litten's intentional and unintentional security breaches), posed as a spouse and pulled permits and made interview appointments. Others prominent on the clandestine group included Frankie who served as an all purpose fixer and Ugo, a daring photographer. There are scenes, password codes and evacuation plans straight out of James Bond.

You get the sad feel of Chile as Pinochet's regime wore on. A 10 o'clock curfew has workers nervous. Formerly middle class professionals are now street vendors. Guards, both in the open and in the shadows are everywhere, even checking papers for entry into parks. Filming in the Modena Palace came to a halt as the Pinochet walked nearby.

Interestingly, Salador Allende was overthrown on September 11, 1973.

This is an excellent book on many levels. While I read the 1987 publication, I understand there is a new edition. I hope the film (which is never titled in this book) can be available too. I searched the internet for more on this film and its director, and very little is available. There is not even Wikipedia article in English or Spanish.

An Exciting, Tense And Haunting Work Of Journalism.
It is great to see back in print in the US Gabriel Garcia Marquez's epic "Clandestine In Chile." Marquez is known to most US readers for his legendary works of fiction such as "One Hundred Years Of Solitude" and "Love In The Time Of Cholera," but his works of journalism are equally powerful and unforgettable. While his classic work on the Colombian era of narco terror, "News Of A Kidnapping," has always been widely available, this book has been out of print in English for years and now readers can rediscover not only a great book, but a filmmaker's dangerous journey back to a country ruled by a fascist dictator.

"Clandestine In Chile" follows filmmaker Miguel Littin as he enters the Chile of Augusto Pinchet in disguise, determined to make a documentary capturing life under the fascist regime's iron fist. As Littin recounts his journey he also remembers his time as a film director during the hopeful years of Salvador Allende, the world's first elected Marxist president, and how on September 11, 1973, his world and that of all Chile was shattered by a violent military coup backed by the United States. The book mixes anger with elegance as Littin remembers the past and discovers the present Chile, revisiting familiar spots, seeing familiar faces, all different, all changed by history. With beautiful prose Marquez describes the vast landscapes of Chile, its islands, the epic grandeur of the sea and the Andes. We also get insights into Chilean culture and the various, diverse sectors of society. We meet the upper classes in their fashionable clothing and also the poor, the coal miners who secretly remain loyal to the memory of Allende.

There are light-hearted moments when Littin discovers how modern trends in all aspects, even sexual, are embraced by Chile's young. And while there are moments of comedy, the book also manages to capture the eerie, creepy atmosphere of a pacified country where a dictatorship rules and yet everything seems insanely calm due to the treats and luxuries of free market reforms which create great inequality in the country, but provide enough goodies for much of the population to ignore political reality. This is relevant when we live yet again in an era where the illusion of bountiful economics is once again being shaken.

"Clandestine In Chile" is the best kind of journalism. Like the works of Robert Fisk or Kapuscinski, it brings history to life by capturing the human drama of real events. Marquez is not just documenting Littin's experiences, he is telling a thrilling, haunting story that provides a bigger punch than his novels because this actually happened. We learn about Chile's history as we follow Littin trying to get his shots, trying to avoid informants or the police, even coming close to seeing Pinochet himself face to face while filming in the presidential palace. The book is also a great mix of politics and film, cinema is discussed just as much as politics and with much gusto.

This new edition's only weakness is the preface by Francisco Goldman. Goldman seems driven by a need to water down the book's politics and idealism with post-modern analysis and arguments that can be a real downer for anyone who hasn't read the book before. He seems to want to strip down the book's relevance by using very weak points such as the fact that a democratic movement moved Pinochet out of power a few years after the book was published (although he forgets to mention that Pinochet was made a senator for life and remained head of the armed forces, something Chile is now trying to deal with by arresting former members of the regime), he sheds tears over Marquez being a supporter of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution even after fellow authors such as Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes converted to neoliberalism. Basically, Goldman tries to make the book seem irrelevant or aged with the same old complaints about how intellectuals of Marquez's generation supported revolutionary causes which yielded some disappointments. But Goldman forgets to mention how relevant a book like this always is because there are always people having to deal with exile and tyranny, just look at Honduras where a US-backed coup overthrew an elected government in 2009. And many of the social debates which took place under Allende can be seen today in Venezuela or Bolivia. Goldman's preface is a disappointing, almost pointless exercise in trying to convince you that while this is a good book, the ideas in it are outdated. But history is never outdated, nor human experience.

"Clandestine In Chile" is brilliant journalism and biography, travelogue and political protest. It is a taste of Garcia Marquez many Americans are unfamiliar with, and not only will they discover Marquez the nonfiction storyteller here, they might also learn a thing or two about the world just across the border and down at the tip of the continent.

... Read more

Product Description

One of the most influential literary works of our time, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a dazzling and original achievement by the masterful Gabriel García Márquez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Customer Reviews (18)

Keep trying to read this if at first you put it down
My first couple of tries at reading this book didn't go very far. I never made it beyond the first chapter. Then on a visit to Colombia I was determined to read this book. I kept at it. Before long I was totally absorbed into the story, which is truly fascinating and amazing. Now I don't know why I could not get into it on my earlier attempts. I'm so glad that I persisted. So, the book that I originally couldn't get into, finally became one of my favorite novels.

Dizzyingly fantastic journey
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" is not for everyone.It is one of the most fantastical books ever written.In style it is somewhere between "Still Life with Woodpecker", "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test", and "The Satanic Verses", but perhaps with even weirder events occurring.It is a book you will want to take your time with, re-reading a lot as you go so that you soak up the style; and going back to previous passages to review how the characters are changing as time passes.

Marquez is Marvelous
One Hundred Years of Solitude is marvelous--extraordinary in its emotional depth. Marquez's breadth of understanding of human situations and human motivations is seldom seen in books. Some people can't see the difference in quality between a Rembrandt and a Coca Cola sign. Looking at some Amazon readers' negative comments suggests the same lack of appreciation. Marquez is right up there with the best.

Rich, Tiring, Worth It--Lyrical Beauty and Character
One of the most famous first lines of all time starts the book, "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." More profound, epistemologically, two sentences later, "The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point." Legendary for its magical realism, it surprised me sometimes, for its ability to combine wrenching emotions, intellectual cleverness and plays on language, as with, "Although they seemed to ignore what both of them knew and what each one knew that the other knew, from that night on they were yoked together in an inviolable complicity" (p. 146) Trouble was, this was all during the first eight months of caring for our baby Catherine. As the book put it, "they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over he acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings" (p. 230).
Although the last 30 pages were some of the best I can remember. More self-reflexive references: "It had never occured to him until then to think that literature was the best plaything that had ever been invetned to make fun of people" (p. 394). And finally, close to the end, melancholy and eternity, "It was the last that remained of a past whose annihilation had not taken place because it was still in a process of annihilation, consuming itself from within, ending at every moment but never ending its ending" (p. 409). I at once loved parts of this book, hated its dragging on when I needed shorter stimulation, and am grateful for having had those beautiful moments it captured so lyrically. I'd grade it an A-.

One Hundred Years of Solitude
I was very disappointed in the quality of this book.It was completely written on all over...virtually unreadable. Also, it took one month to arrive.I'm waiting to see how this book seller is with exchanges.I am not satisfied with the state of the book they sent me. ... Read more

Product Description
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

Gabriel García Márquez’s most political novel is the tragic story of General Simón Bolívar, the man who tried to unite a continent.

Bolívar, known in six Latin American countries as the Liberator, is one of the most revered heroes of the western hemisphere; in García Márquez’s brilliant reimagining he is magnificently flawed as well. The novel follows Bolívar as he takes his final journey in 1830 down the Magdalena River toward the sea, revisiting the scenes of his former glory and lamenting his lost dream of an alliance of American nations. Forced from power, dogged by assassins, and prematurely aged and wasted by a fatal illness, the General is still a remarkably vital and mercurial man. He seems to remain alive by the sheer force of will that led him to so many victories in the battlefields and love affairs of his past. As he wanders in the labyrinth of his failing powers–and still-powerful memories–he defies his impending death until the last.

The General in His Labyrinth is an unforgettable portrait of a visionary from one of the greatest writers of our time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (30)

TIRED
This book, reviewing the last days of a great man, is very sad and drawn out.It has the nightmarish, dreamy, other worldly qualities found in the author's writing but the book dragged.Events were slow in unwinding with no climax.Maybe that is the way life ends for a man who has lost greatness and succombs to illness.

Great (but necessarily depressing) literature!
I first read this book back in 1992, when I was attending a school populated largely with mid-level military officers from the US and Latin America.I thought it would an appropriate and entertaining way to learn more about General Simón Bolívar, one of Latin America's most famous heroes.Before starting the book, I did not know whether this would be another challenging voyage of discovery--trying to unravel Gabriel García Márquez' oft used (and often difficult to penetrate) literary style of magical realism.Although he spent two years researching the last seven years of Bolívar's life to provide the historical background, the novel includes both fact and fiction; and it's not always possible or perhaps even necessary to tell the difference.

Born from a desire to complete a work started by a writer friend, and continued largely for his love of the Magdalena River, Garcia Marquez' the General and his Labyrinth ended up being a surprising and difficult read for me.

It was surprising because I was unfamiliar with this final phase of the Bolívar's life.Like most Americans, I was only vaguely aware of his role in various SA countries' struggles for independence from Spain.Set in 1830--the year of his death--the novel covers the last months of the general's attempt to flee his country for eventual exile in Europe.It was shocking to learn the extent to which this man's life had deteriorated from the time he was lauded as one of the world's great military heroes.In this final phase of his life, Bolivar is no longer a near-universal idol of the masses; but rather a tragic and broken-down man on the run, under threat of oblivion, sickness, insanity, betrayal, or assassination.

The book was difficult for two reasons.First, because the novel deals with South American historical personalities, events and battles with which I was vaguely, if at all, familiar.At the outset, I found myself wanting to stop to do further research on many of the referenced historical details.Although the Alfred A Knopf version of the book includes a helpful chronology for this purpose, I quickly tired of flipping back and forth to and from that helpful outline of the historical highpoints of the general's life.Eventually, I stopped trying.Frankly, I would imagine that even a fairly well-educated Colombian would have trouble keeping up with all the details García Márquez bandies about.

"The General in His Labyrinth" is also difficult because it is so relentlessly depressing.One is constantly reminded of what once was and how far things had deteriorated for the general.Perhaps this is the labyrinth that García Márquez uses in the title and which SB is trying to escape.Bolívar fails in the end, and instead of finding a pathway from his beloved Gran Colombia to exile in Europe; he finds only the end all human beings find in our own labyrinth: death.

I would recommend this book only for die-hard García Márquez fans or for readers well-versed in this period of Latin American history.

John Cathcart
Author, Delta 7

A Masterful Labyrinth
My theory is that Marquez literally attempted to make this book like a labyrinth to the reader.Chronologically the book goes all over the place, it does not follow a straight line, but rather it zig zags all over the place.As previous reviewers have mentioned, at times you feel like you've read what you've already read before.This is just like a labyrinth, you are there trying to find your way out, you run into a wall, you have to back out and retrace your steps, then proceed to figure out how to get out.

So Marquez possibly tried to create a new style with this work, the labyrinth novel.True literature written by a genius.Notice how he doesn't even number his chapters.After awhile of reading, you can't just pick up and say, "I'm in chapter five".You don't know what chapter you are in, they aren't numbered.In the novel you have no idea which way Marquez is going to turn.Forward, back, straight, sideways.No wonder so many people have had difficulty with this book, and some have not even finished.Marquez's labyrinth of a novel defeated them.I personally enjoy this novel, because it so different from his other works, and it's fascinating to read about Simon Bolivar and how he died such a lonely death after freeing South America of Spain's centuries' old grip.What a tragedy.Bolivar dies at the end, there is no way out of the labyrinth.

If you approach the novel with this perspective, it might make for a more enjoyable read.I give it 5 stars because Marquez is a master, there are abundant life lessons in this book (you just have to keep an eye out for them), it makes you think and wonder about life and the human condition and just how ungrateful some people can be to true heroes.

Death as an unavoidable human hazard
G.G. Márquez wrote a forceful, naturalistic evocation of the last years of South-America's most ambitious and most important statesman, Simón Bolivár. It is a real `horror story'.
Simón Bolivár's aim was to create a United States of South-America. He chased his outside enemy, Spain, from the continent, but could not defeat his inside enemy, the oligarchies, who `had declared war to death against the idea of integrity because it was unfavorable to the local privileges of the great families.'
As Simón Bolivár has said himself: `Everything I've done has been for the sole purpose of making this continent into a single, independent country. All the rest is bullsh.t.'
Simón Bolivár fought for an idea, not for personal gain or for special interests. Even on his deathbed he planned to fight for his goal against the oligarchies.
He was the great `Liberator', but he ended as `I'm old, sick, tired, disillusioned, harassed, slandered, and unappreciated.'

G.G. Márquez brushes a powerful, brutal picture of the political defeat and the corporal decline of a great man.
It is a bitter, pessimistic and realistic book.
Not to be missed.

Slow but rewarding read
Márquez moves slowly through the final chapter in the saga of a great man and historical figure. Sometimes frustratingly so. But I think this may be intentional on the author's part. After all, Bolívar is renowned throughout Latin America for his tireless efforts to free the wayward continent and, when he had accomplished that, to prevent it from falling to shambles. The slow pace of the book reveals Bolívar as the tired soul he had become after so much fighting, so much toil that suddenly seemed to count for nothing. It is not a book about battles for independence or monetary gain; instead it focuses on the constant battle against death and despair.
Most enjoyable of all in the book are the small gems of prescience on the part of Bolívar--whether taken directly from historical documents or imparted on the general by Márquez--in which the old soldier predicts the pitfalls and chaos that will consume his land in the next 150 years. Though it's painful to read the cynical declarations of a man who has dedicated his life to a goal he now realizes is hopeless, these very pronunciations are what sets Márquez's General apart as a realistic and tragic character.
Though I found some parts difficult to trudge through, the book succeeds as a historical narrative, in that it provides insight into an entire continent's evolution through the eyes of one man.
... Read more

Product Description
An exposé of the controversial friendship between Nobel-prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Fidel Castro.Few contemporary writers are more revered by Americans than Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel prize-winning author of Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude. And few political leaders are more reviled than Fidel Castro. Yet these two seemingly disparate men are close friends. What could possibly unite these two men in friendship?

In Fidel and Gabo, Márquez scholars Ángel Esteban and Stéphanie Panichelli examine this strange, intimate, and incredibly controversial friendship between the beloved author and Cuban dictator, exposing facets of their personalities never before revealed to the greater public. For years, Márquez, long fascinated with power, solicited and flattered Castro in hopes of a personal audience, for he viewed Castro’s Cuba as the model on which Latin American would one day build its own brand of socialism. Upon their first meeting, Castro quickly came to regard Márquez as a genius and still calls him his closest friend and confidant. To this day, Márquez still gives Castro “first look” at all his manuscripts and craves his approval.

Fidel and Gabo is a vivid and in-depth look at two of the most influential men of the modern era, their worlds, and the effect this friendship has had on their life and works. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

sloppy and biased
I just finished reading Esteban and Panichelli's FIDEL & GABO. If you believe that Cuba is an imprisoned and unhappy island, that Castro is diabolically and cynically Machiavellian, and that Garcia Marquez is Fidel's courtesan, than this book is for you.It is a sustained polemic against both Castro and revolutionary Cuba and against Garcia Marquez' public persona.

The book is sloppily compiled, chooses sources that already agree with its premises, ignores others that reveal other points of view, and reveals little understanding -either concretely or contextually- of Cuban history, and in particular Cuba's relationship with Africa.Esteban and Panichelli's characterization of Debray, Che Guevara and Jonas Savimbi, among other assertions, are factually just wrong.They'd have saved themselves a lot of embarrassment if they chose to read some of the historical literature [eg, Jorge Castaneda on Cuba in the 70s and 80s, Jon Lee Anderson on Che,and Piero Gleijeses on Cuba's African policies].Both writers have a background in Latin American literature but they select examples almost exclusively that agree with their theses and ignore other aspects that complicate their polemic [Augusto Roa Bastos, for example, on dictators].This book would not have passed muster for an academic press as it is consistently, save for one chapter on the Fountdation of New Latin American Cinema, tendentious and unbalanced..

Finally, in stylistic terms the authors swing from the anecdotal to the hypothetical to the saccharine in a way that will dissatisfy all serious readers who don't already agree with their worldview.

So, again, if you hate Fidel Castro and think that Garcia Marquez is his bitch, this book is for you.

A real disappointment.

Well worth the read for those trying to better understand Gabriel as well as Castro
One is a legendary writer, the other is a despised dictator, yet they are best of friends. "Fidel & Gabo: A Portrait of the Legendary Friendship Between Fidel Castro and Gabriel Garcia Marquez" investigates the relationship between the Nobel Prize winning author and the Communist dictator of Cuba. Seemingly an odd couple, their bond seems to find strength in their similar political views, but there is more to it than that. Endlessly intriguing, "Fidel & Gabo" is well worth the read for those trying to better understand Gabriel as well as Castro. ... Read more

Product Description
This one of the most important novels written by this authorwhich everyone must read. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Mother Of Stream of Consciousness Latin American Novels
Garcia-Marquez dictator combines within himself, the best and the worst,of the human being when invested with absolute power: from charity tocorruption, benevolence to rape, fear of God to extreme cruelty. The(sparse) punctuation follows an almost strict fitting of the Poissonstatistical distribution, page by page, and then amongst chapters,constituting this into both a textbook in literature and statistics.Tosome of us the most masterful novel of the Master Novelist of MeridianAmerica.

The Mother Of The Stream of Consciousness Latin American Nov
Garcia-Marquez' dictator combines within himself, the best and the worst,of the human being when invested with absolute power: from charity tocorruption, benevolence to rape, fear of God to extreme cruelty. The(sparse) punctuation follows an almost strict fitting of the Poissonstatistical distribution, page by page, and then amongst chapters,constituting this into both a textbook in literature and statistics.Tosome of us the most masterful novel of the Master Novelist of MeridianAmerica.

El realismo fantastico de Hispanoamerica
El otono del patriarca es una novela clave en dos aspectos: representa un desafio intelectual por su osada sintaxis y atrevida estructura gramatical, en el que el pasado y el presente se mezclan continuamente conforme avanza el relato, apenas separado por comas y ocasionales puntos seguidos. El segundo aspecto es la extraordinaria descripción que el autor realiza de los acontecimientos de la vida de una patria sin nombre gobernada desde los tiempos inmemoriales del vomito negro por un dictador anonimo, encarnacion de todos los generales mesianicos que ha padecido Latinoamerica, victima del culto a la personalidad.

El relato nos transporta en forma exquisita desde los albores de este imperio personal hasta la decadencia, en un ir y venir temporal, salpicado de relatos mitológicos, como el de Manuela Sanchez, una enigmatica belleza que surgio en el barrio de las peleas de perros, y quizas el unico ser de este mundo que burlo el poder omnipotente de este legendario gener! al. Una ultima sugerencia: lealo con un diccionario a mano. ... Read more

Product Description
Un hombre regresa al pueblo donde ocurrió un asesinato desconcertante 27 años atrás, con la determinación de descubrir la verdad. Todos parecen estar de acuerdo en que Bayardo San Román, sólo unas horas después de su matrimonio con la bella Angela Vicario, la devuelve por deshonrada a la casa paterna. La atribulada familia fuerza a la novia a revelar el nombre de su primer amante; y los hermanos gemelos de ella anuncian su intención de matar a Santiago Nasar por haber deshonrado a su hermana.

Sin embargo, si todos sabían que se iba a cometer un asesinato, ¿por qué nadie trató de impedirlo? Cuanto más se sabe de este asunto, menos se comprende, y cuando la historia al fin se precipita a su inesperada conclusión, una sociedad entera —no sólo un par de asesinos— está siendo enjuiciada. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Bueno
Excellente libro, como todos los libros del Gabo. 100% recomendado para aquellos que les gusta la intriga. Aqui la historia no termina hasta cuando el lector llega hasta la ultima pagina.

UNA NOVELA PERFECTA
A esta novela no le falta ni le sobra una pagina. La extension es perfecta. La trama es muy interesante pero los lectores en lengua castellana se daran cuenta de que al autor no le importa la historia sino como contarla. Por eso desde el principio Garcia Marquez le dice al lector como la historia acaba. La magia de esta obra no esta en el complot sino en la narracion, lo cual hace que este libro sea pura literatura. Para empezar a leer a Garcia Marquez yo siempre aconsejo esta novela, o tambien, Relato de un Naufrago. Dejen Cien Anos de Soledad para mas adelante.

It won awards for a reason.
I've had the pleasure of reading this book twice throughout school. I love this book. Garcia Marquez is a master of magical realism and this book's detail of the culture of Latin America is insightful. In this English version, you have to reread sentences because they're awkwardly worded, but that's only because it was translated from Spanish. Read this book!

Me encanto!
este libro es perfecto para esta temporada de verano, para estar relajado y sumamente entretenido. me gusto mucho los personajes, ya que son verdaderos personajes de un pueblo chico

bueno
no es un libro magifico ni malo.Yo prefiero Cien Anos de Soledad (tambien de Garcia Marquez).Pero, yo recomendo este libro.

It's not a great book, but not bad either.I prefered 100 Years of Solitude (also by Garia Marquez).But, I recommend this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Este libro excepcional reúne la novela corta que le otorga su título y otros seis relatos más, de los que todos menos uno pertenecen a la etapa de plena madurez del escritor. Fueron los años en los que Macondo le abrió las puertas del realismo mágico, donde la realidad se expresa mediante fórmulas mágicas y legendarias y los milagros se insertan en la vida cotidiana. La cándida Eréndira y su abuela desalmada personifican la inocencia y la maldad, el amor y su perversión, y el relato recuerda al mismo tiempo las gestas medievales y los cantos provenzales o trovadorescos, aunque, como siempre, inmersos en ese mundo denso y frutal del Caribe americano. Estas siete narraciones no son ejercicios para conservar un estilo, ni muchísimo menos, sino siete exploraciones en el mundo definitivo que el escritor había conquistado de una vez por todas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Great for a rainy day!
This novel is very deppressing.But, it is a great read.You really get attached to Erendira and feel for her through what her grandmother does to her.I recommend it to anyone. It makes you feel thankful for the life you have.

Una maravillosa y surreal historia de fe y amor
Este es uno de los mejores libros q he leido.Felicitaciones Gabo! En este libro se cuenta la historia de la Candida Erendira- una muchacha muy bella a la q se la ha jugado el destino al ser la unica compañia de suabuela.Al cabo de el tiempo, la abuela empieza a usar a la muchacha paraobtener cosas para su beneficio.Pobre Erendira....como terminara estecuento? Como puede ella vivir esa vida? La respuesta esta en el espiritu dela muchacha, en las enormes ganas de vivir y la fe en un mejor futuro qnadie, ni su abuela podran arrancarle de su corazon.

Este libro fuehecho en pelicula hace ya unos años pero yo les recomiendo el libro. Leyendo el libro, pude ser parte del cuento cuando yo quisieray habiaveces en q no.Mucho de los detalles del libro son perdido en la pelicula.

muy buena.
dixon loves empathyk

muy buena.
dixon loves empathyk

An intriguing story full of symbolism and creativity.
Continuing with similar threads from his other works, Nobel Prize winning Garcia Marquez presents the story of a young girl obligated to prostitution by her heartless grandmother.Interprations could be taken down a numberof roads.A bit depressing at times, but grabs the senses.Keeps interestup.I enjoyed it. ... Read more