Product Description
In Barcelona, an aging Brazilian prostitute trains her dog to weep at the grave she has chosen for herself. In Vienna, a woman parlays her gift for seeing the future into a fortunetelling position with a wealthy family. In Geneva, an ambulance driver and his wife take in the lonely, apparently dying ex-President of a Caribbean country, only to discover that his political ambition is very much intact.

In these twelve masterly stories about the lives of Latin Americans in Europe, García Márquez conveys the peculiar amalgam of melancholy, tenacity, sorrow, and aspiration that is the émigré experience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

Pleasantly typical
What an ideal book for my Garcia Marquez collection. Some stories appear to have no point--but that's a North American viewpoint. South Americans: "It is what It Is."My favorite story about children turning on the lights in their apartment and being magically realistic is in this collection. Short story books serve two purposes for me: One, when I can't sleep and need a boost toward dreamland, and Two, the paperback is easy to cart around while I'm in waiting rooms for appointments. The book can also serve as a "test run" for a new reader who wants to sample his style, characters, sentences ending in ways you'd never expect but can appreciate, and plots (some, "sort of").

Late
This book was part of an order of three books. Two of them arrived really fast but the third one came up very late. Other than that, the book was in good condition (same as stated)

Dying means never being with friends anymore
This bundle of short stories contains some of the greatest highlights of G.G. Màrquez's prose, like `I Only Came to Use the Phone', `Miss Forbes's Summer of Happiness' or `The Trail of Your Blood in the Snow'.
It contains also another version of Y. Kawabata's `The House of the Sleeping Beauties' (`Sleeping Beauty and the Airplaine'), which continues to fascinate the author. He even wrote a short novel about this theme (`Memories of My Melancholic Whores').

There are also outspoken political stories, ingredients or comments in it: (South-America) `A continent conceived by the scum of the earth without a moment of love: the children of abductions, rape, violations, infamous dealings, deceptions, the union of enemies with enemies.' (`Bon Voyage, Mr. President') or, like the Spanish Franco scene in `Maria dos Prazeres.'
Of course, there are also the sex histrionics and the `miracles' (`The Saint').

These stories shine through their `surrealist shocks' (`The Ghosts in August'), the evocation of the unpredictability of human fate, the meditations on the fugacity of human life and the possibility of a sudden death, or the melancholic memories of crucial personal confrontations and happenings.

They constitute a perfect introduction to the author's major and larger novels, like `One Hundred Years of Solitude' or `Living to Tell the Tale'.
A must read for all lovers of world literature.

Awesome short stories!
As with all of the Marquez works, this grouping of short stories is like walking through the thoughts of a creative genius.

Literary Magic from a Literary Master

The author Gabriel Garcia Marquez is well known as a master of the novel, something which the current movie adaptation of his LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA confirms very well. The twelve stories that comprise his STRANGE PILGRIMS demonstrate he's also something of a magician when it comes to shorter fiction as well.

On one level, these are tales of fantastic adventures and encounters experienced by Latin Americans both in their native lands and as they make their way around the world. On a wholly different level, the stories address the more universal and sometimes disturbing question of individual human identity and destiny. On whatever level a reader engages them, they provide first-rate provocative entertainment as well as ample evidence of why Garcia Marquez won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981.

Marquez is celebrated worldwide for his skillful use of magical realism but in these stories moves beyond the formula to create some of the best work from one of the best writers in the business. Inhabiting these tales are saints, clairvoyants, ex-presidents, and specters. Rounding out this already compelling cast are mesmerizing portraits of such famous individuals as the poets Pablo Neruda and Aime' Cesaire. This book dazzles and satisfies in ways that few books can.

by Author-Poet Aberjhani
author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)
and founder of Creative Thinkers International

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Service Provided!!
This was a great, fast and simple transaction!! Very Impressed!! Thank you, will do business again!! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Fantastic piece of literature!
This book is excellent! What can be expected from a great author like GGM. Strongly Recommended!!

Excellently done.
The book itself includes the novel that carries the same name and several other short stories that are splendidly written. This is not another 'One hundred years of solitude' but it is just as entertaining to read and will present another dimension of his magical realism style, also a must-have, when wanting to explore the way Gabo has evolved throughout his lifetime as a writer. The text is rich, filled with many words that will certainly contribute to a wonderful reading experience.

The stories that come before the novel are important to read because some of their main characters appear in the novel itself and all of the stories if I am not mistaken, and I remember correctly, present a sterile landscape with the most basic elements: water, earth, wind, and the smell of putrid roses.

'La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y de su abuelita desalmada' represents the harsh reality Eréndira endures as a young girl and later as a teenager. Gabriel's humor and distinctive way of narration makes you want to finish it in one seating.If you like his writing style do not hesitate in buying it.It is definitely underrated in comparison to other works. Hope this helps!

Gabriel Garcia Marquez es maravilloso
Solo le doy cuatro estrellas porque en realidad el libro es una compilacion de cuentos cortos del autor.Pero sobresale la calidad de escritor de Gabo Marquez, como siempre, transporta al lector al lugar donde se desenvuelbe la historia.
Mi autor favorito.
... 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
The Real Academia Española celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Garcia Marquez s masterpiece in this beautiful commemorative edition. Prologues by Carlos Fuentes, Alvaro Mutis, Mario Vargas Llosa and other intellectuals.One Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race.-New York Times Book Review ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Cien anos de Soledad Edicion conmemorativa
Este Libro de Gabriel Garcia Marques Cien anos de soledad me encanto! Tenia que leerlo para una clase en la secundaria y me alegro de ello! Tanto es asi que termine comprandolo! La version que tengo es la version conmemorativa y viene con mucha informacion adicional acerca del autor y de la historia. Vino en perfecta condicion y el diseno es muy bonito! Cualquiera que desee comprarlo creame que no se arrepentira!

Excelent
I love to read. I bought this book because of the author, and that called my attention the title "Cien anos de Soledad", I wanted to know what this title means and how Gabriel Garcia Marquez could write without living that long, it was amazing the way he described all the situations that make me feel that I was part of the novel.I ussually read at night and while reading this book I just wanted to go to the end and read to 4 or 5 am. I will recommend this book very hardly

Nadie es extranjero en Macondo
Al terminar el libro solo queda darle gracias a Garcia Marquez por el universo marivilloso que a creado para la posteridad. Un libro de esos sorprendentes q vale la pena re-leer y q tiene la cualidad de sumergir al lector tan facilmente q es mejor leerlo despues de haber hecho las demas tareas del dia para no olvidar de hacerlas!
Es un regalo grandiosioso.

Cien Anos de Soledad
Excellent novel; good in English translation, better in this (Spanish) original. Special "Royal Institute of Spanish Literature" edition contains critical works on the novel. Good buy, good book, great story.

Outstanding
The time period from the e-mail notification (when they notify me the item was shipped to me) to when I actually got the item was kind of long, but besides that, very good service. ... 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

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Customer Reviews (39)

A great read if you stick with it
I have been a big fan of Mr. Marquez for many years now, and have read at least four of his other books.This one intrigued me when I read about it, since it is reputed to have been his first.

I found the first fifty or so pages difficult to get into because, typical of Marquez, he tends to write in run on sentences, no paragraphs, and differing persons.Stick with it, however, and the book will captivate you.For anyone familiar with one or more of the dictatorships typical of South America, either past or present, you will become enthralled with his eye for detail.A great read, and an object lesson for would be dictators.

The inclemency of death toward the majesty of power
G.G. Márquez's book is a written version of a polyptych by Hieronymus Bosch on the universal theme of `Evil' (on a moral, personal, political, social, economical or psychological level).
The main character in this book is a solitary despot.
His `regime of infamy' is an avalanche of killings, summary executions, massacres, suicides, cruelties, tortures, horror laboratories, expulsions, explosions, illnesses, plagues, obscenities, perversions, depravations, rapes, promiscuities, corruptions, hallucinations, evil omens, doubles, apparitions, filths, putrefactions, stenches, pestilential vapors, false messages, fictionalized photographs, physical deformities, alleged miracles, bird and child cries.
His most scorned enemies are men of letters, `worse than politicians, worse than priests.'

This forceful and relentless stream of (sur)real visions and violent images is a must read for all G.G. Márquez fans and for all lovers of world literature.

Soporific
The title of my review sufficiently sums up the novel but brevity does not constitute a review in the eyes of Amazon. As far as the novels of Marquez are concerned, I have heard it said (more than a few times) that there are three masterpieces: One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold - I ignored the warning and paid the price as I laboured through 'Autumn', fighting off sleep at every page.

The Terror of the Miracle
Unlike other writers who embed the Christian ideals and symbolism into their work to evoke mystery and majesty, Marquez uses a religious vernacular to cast the dictator into the same shadow of doubt into which he wants the reader to hold the god figure. Marquez' countless allusions to Christ and his Mother render the reader into a surrealistic land of never-ending make-believe deaths and resurrections.

The Autumn of the Patriarch rends the "terror of the miracle" (p. 237) in the form of the macabre mini-miracles of Marquez' magical realism: the general who sprouts fish scales, the general's weathered skin turning into infant skin, the cows who eat from paintings, leaving little doubt that these miracles dominate the novel. What is less evident is that Marquez' assertions after these or the more debased miracles occurring in the form of tyranny are a screed against the dictatorial nature of religion. The dictator is not the anti-Christ but rather the reverse embodiment of Jesus Christ. The General of the Universe becomes the King of the Universe and neither comes out well ahead of the game in the telling.

The accumulation of religious detail is sometimes so evident and overpowering that one wonders whether Marquez is merely ornamenting the Roman Catholic Latin American culture begun by Spanish clerics in the 1500s. However, religious imagery and incantation cannot convey a sense of religiosity within the dictatorship because they blaspheme rather than uphold a religious connotation of the novel. If the General "[remembers] suddenly that cow was written with a c" then Marquez also writes god with a lowercase `g.' (p237)

The General's meditations on the aloneness of power stand as counterpoint and counterpart of his partner in the game of all-powerfulness. The General does becomes Christ meandering in the desert of his solitude, wondering if his lofty perch is worth enduring.Like the General who is pained since birth with his malformed [...], Christ was born to and had no choice but to endure. For Marquez, the question is not one of endurance but rather a perdurance of "uncountable years." The General and Christ suffer the "fiction of commanding without power, of being exalted without glory and of being obeyed without authority." (p. 254) Marquez fuses the actions of the debased General by debasing the inauthenticity of Christ.

Marquez at his best - a masterpiece
Amazing.
I have no other words describing this book. The narrative style, for those complaining - is in my humble opinion Marquez BEST : spell binding magic realism.
The book details in long and convoluted sentences the minutiae of every day life of a maniac, a universal type of tyrant - which just happens to be caught in Marquez writer's cross hairs in South America. It may be one of the many South American dictators and it could easily be one of their European monster counterparts. Marquez is sometimes sublime, often bold and always funny in a strange way. Recommended ! ... 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
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
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
Vivir para contarla is the extraordinary story of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s early life. It is a recreation of his formative years, from his birth in Colombia in 1927, through his evocative childhood to the time he became a journalist. The Nobel laureate offers us the memory of his childhood and adolescence, the years that shaped his creative imagination, and, with time, would become the basis of the fiction that makes up much of twentieth-century literature in Spanish and indeed the world.

In these pages Garcia Marquez reveals the echoes of peoples and stories that we meet in One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, No One Writes to the Colonel, and Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Vivir para contarla is a guide to readers of his entire work, an indispensable companion to many unforgettable passages which, with the reading of this memoir acquire a new perspective.

The description from the book:

Vivir para contarla es, probablemente, el libro más esperado de la década, compendio y recreación de un tiempo crucial en la vida de Gabriel García Márquez. En este apasionante relato, el premio Nobel colombiano ofrece la memoria de sus años de infancia y juventud, aquellos en los que se fundaría el imaginario que, con el tiempo, daría lugar a algunos de los relatos y novelas fundamentales en la literatura en lengua española del siglo XX.

Estamos ante la novela de una vida a través de cuyas páginas García Márquez va descubriendo ecos de personajes e historias que han poblado obras como Cien años de soledad, El amor en los tiempos del cólera, El coronel no tiene quien le escriba o Crónica de una muerte anunciada y convierten Vivir para contarla en una guía de lectura para toda su obra, en acompañante imprescindible para iluminar pasajes inolvidables que, tras la lectura de estas memorias, adquieren una nueva perspectiva. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (33)

It Stands Unique by Itself!!!
Although I can consider myself a GGM fiction fan, I encountered "Vivir Para Contarla" utterly more attention-grabbing than any of his other works.Perhaps It was just the fact that he related his real life, from the time before his birth until he was something like twenty eight years old, in such a magical way that I could just not put the book down for more than a few moments. I could come across in this volume with so much of the background that made the genius in Gabo, that I could not accept it as factual. Actually I was so beguiled by the story, by the idiosyncrasy of his large and astonishing family, by the actual brilliance and intelligence of the child, the adolescent and the young man in Gabo, that I unreservedly supposed I was immersed in one more of this author's accomplishments. He relates his non precedent childhood and early adolescent years as a conspicuous reader and writer of poems and stories- which he memorized and recited by hearth-, as a distinguished picture drawer, as a notable singer, as an extremely timid person, in sum: as another character out of its novellas and short stories.He, at the same time, enriches our reading with his detailed and exhaustive career as an anonymous young journalist in Colombia, who spends an awesome amount of his free time discussing literature with his fellow workers and friends, at a time period when literature was the coolest matter to be involved in.However, the social and political backgrounds of his whereabouts are so precise and stuck to Colombian and the World's historic and social events, that henceforth what he conveys us in this first volume of his autobiography must have a great deal of reality in it.
In spite of the fact that a myriad of the characters, locations and events that we find as basis for his novellas and short stories come out of his real life, I do not believe it imperative to be acquainted to any of his other masterpieces in order to devour and absolutely enjoy this volume. It stands unique by itself!
I am anxiously waiting for the subsequent volumes of this trilogy, however due to the actual author's sickness; I don't believe we will be receiving the complete trilogy at all.

Muy mala encuadernación por Knopf
El libro es buenísimo, particularmente el estilo de Gabo es genial y lo que lo hace aun mas meritorio es que se trata de un relato autobiográfico. Lamentablemente tengo que advertirles de un error de encuadernación en la edición de pasta dura (hardcover) las hojas vienen mal cortadas, he ya ordenado dos libros y los dos vienen con el mismo defecto. La editorial KNOPF ha hecho un muy mal trabajo. Mi recomendación... busquen otras editoriales.

Vivir para Contarla
El autor es un relator latinoamericano costumbrista. El realismo magico es lo comun y corriente en esos pagos. De ilusion tambien se vive. Quiza algun dia se inspire en escribir una novela sobre el realismo magico de la tragedia cubana, dada su intima afinidad con el Doctor Fidel Castro Ruz.

Una magnífica crónica de los años que modelaron la imaginación de Garcia Marquez
"Living to Tell the Tale," ("Vivir Para Contarla"), is the first book in a planned trilogy that will make up the memoirs of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the renown Colombian writer who initially won public acclaim in the mid-1960s for his novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude." At that time, Garcia Marquez, a journalist and writer, had never sold more than 700 copies of a book. While driving his family through Mexico, he had a veritable brainstorm. He remembered his grandmother's storytelling technique - to recall fantastic, improbable events as if they had actually happened - literally. That was the key to recounting the life of the imaginary village of Macondo and her inhabitants. He turned the car around and drove back home to begin "One Hundred Years of Solitude" anew. To my mind it is one of the 20th century's best works of fiction, and was highlighted in the citation awarding Garcia Marquez the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature.

"Living to Tell The Tale" relates the early years of the author's life, although some of the book's most important incidents predate Garcia Marquez's birth. The impact of these experiences, the people and their stories, were to have a powerful effect on him, as a man and as a writer. This is the tale of his parents' courtship, marriage and the birth of their children, Garcia Marquez, (Gabito), the oldest, and his ten siblings. It tells of his early years which were spent in Aracataca, in the home of his maternal grandparents. His grandfather, Colonel Nicolás Ricardo Márquez Mejía, was a Liberal veteran of the War of a Thousand Days. He was supposedly a storyteller of great repute. The Colonel told his young grandson that there was no greater burden than to have killed a man. Later García Márquez would put these words into the mouths of his characters. His grandmother, Tranquilina Iguarán Cotes, had a major influence on Gabriel's life also. Another great source of stories, her mind was filled with superstitions and folklore, and she gossiped away with her numerous sisters within hearing range of young "Gabito." No matter how fantastic her statements, she always delivered them as if they were the absolute, verifiable truth. This was the style which was to effect Garcia Marquez's fiction, sometimes called "magical realism." These women filled the house with stories of ghosts, premonitions and omens - all of which were studiously ignored by her husband. He had little interest in "women's beliefs."

Aracataca was a small village, a banana town on the Caribbean coast, where poverty was the norm and violence was an everyday occurrence. On December 6, 1928, in the Cienaga train station, near Aracataca, 3,000 striking banana workers were shot and killed by troops from Antioquia. Although still a baby, this event, recounted to him, was to have a profound effect on the author. The incident was officially forgotten and omitted from Colombian history textbooks.

In 1940, when he was twelve, Gabo was awarded a scholarship to a secondary school for gifted students, run by Jesuits. The school, the Liceo Nacional, was in Zipaquirá, a city 30 miles to the north of Bogotá. It was during his school years, 1940s and 50s, that he was first drawn to poetry - a national obsession in Colombia. Verse was revered as an art form, and also as an effective means of social and political commentary. He and his friends, fellow students, would read aloud and discuss poetry late into the night. The youths admired a group of poets called the piedra y cielo ("stone and sky") and they were strongly influenced by Juan Ramon Jimenez and Pablo Neruda. Too poor to buy his own books, Gabo would devour novels borrowed from friends.

While still a boy, he decided he wanted to be a writer. The people who surrounded him in his childhood later became instrumental when developing the characters and the storylines for his novels. "Love In The Time of Cholera" was inspired by the romance between his mother and father. And his grandfather, who had twelve children, (some say 16), by two different women, became Colonel Aureliano Buendia in "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

One of the most powerful episodes of the book tells of the period called "La Violencia." In 1948 the Liberal presidential candidate, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, was assassinated. The murder led to rioting, and left approximately 2500 dead on the streets of Bogota, during "el Bogotázo." Political violence and repression followed. One of the buildings that burned was the pension where Garcia Marquez lived, and his manuscripts were destroyed along with his living quarters. The National University was closed and he was forced to go to the university in Cartagena. Garcia Marquez began his career as a journalist, writing stories and commentary for a Liberal newspaper in Cartegana. Later he moved to the coastal city of Barranquilla where he began to associate with a group of young writers who admired modernists like Joyce, Woolf and Hemingway, and introduced Marquez to Faulkner. In 1954 he returned to Bogota, as a reporter for El Espectador.

Garcia Marquez begins his book, however, not with his real birth in 1928, but with his "birth as a writer," at age 22. He and his mother took a trip from Baranquilla, where he was working as a reporter, to his childhood home in Aracataca, now virtually a ghost town. They were going to sell the ancestral house. Vivid memories were stirred up here, memories which electrified his imagination. This trip was to change the course of his writing life. "With the first step I took onto the burning sands of the town, Aracataca instantly became Macondo, an earthly paradise of desolation and nostalgia." His one great subject became his family, "which was never the protagonist of anything, but only a witness to and victim of everything." His is not a chronological autobiography. Garcia Marquez cuts back and forth through time to show how memory colors experience. As he says in the book's epigraph, "Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it."

Humor, dry wit, a sense of the absurd, is a trademark throughout the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and this autobiography is full of his deadpan humor. His anecdotes of his many mistresses and cafe society are wonderful. "Living To Tell The Tale" is not a conventional literary memoir. It is a magical combination of memoir and national history written in the author's remarkable voice. It is his personal mythology, from the repertoire which birthed Macondo. The narrative is intimate and sincere, filled with bewitching details and descriptions. In spite of poverty, and the political turmoil so prevalent in Colombia during his lifetime, Gabo acknowledges his early years were filled with joy, a sense of well-being and encouragement from many people. Garcia Marquez leaves us, at the end of this volume, with a glimpse of his future love, his wife, ""wearing a green dress with golden lace in that year's style, her hair cut like swallows' wings, and with the intense stillness of someone waiting for a person who will not arrive."

Bravo Gabriel Garcia Marquez!!
JANA

I prefer his fiction
This book is the first in a series.Frankly, I hope that in his next memoir there iwll be more about his literary writing b/c this doesn't cover his marvelous literary career at all.

The first sections of the book which deal with his childhood and schooling are comic and moving, with great turns of phrase and details about his grandfather and large family.What I found less interesting were the accounts of his journalism career.Apart from a very compelling section about a political asassination and its aftermath, I was a little bored. Even worse, I did not feel that some of his bohemian friends were distinguished from each other.

I am going to go back and reread The General in His Labyrinth and the novels that I so adore.I just prefer them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Marquez only does Superb!

A set of short semi linked stories set in and around the wonderful Latin American Kingdom Maquez created in '100 Years of Solitude' including the novella of the Colonel, who fought in the revolution and has been betrayed;relying on a Cock to win him some money to keep starvation at bay.
This is a superb collection, each tale in some way telling of the futile revolutions that never end up benefiting the people; the stiffling bureaucracy, the corruption, nepotism and autocracy of Latin American politics and life in a small town.
Stand out stories ; 'There are no Thieves in this Town' where a pointless theft of the billiard balls from the pool hall affects the whole life of the town and reaps an innocent victim;the lyrical fable 'One Day After Saturday' and 'Montiels Widow'; a Town changes when the local tyrant dies...
But the whole book is superb. Garcia Marquez just doesn't do 'average' and reading him is a pleasure.

highly recommend
The part that made me the most happy was how "One-Hundred years of Solitude" got referenced.This is a collection of short stories that is an easy read.The writing style is such that you can "see" what the author is saying.This may also be one of the most strange banterings between man and wife I have seen.

No one writes to the colonel
It seemed to take a while to ship, but not excessively so.Also, a few of the pages were bent - not sure if this was pre-existing or if it happened during shipping.Otherwise, minimal marks and a good value for the price.

Sad and Depressing but such a well written story
Every time when I'm feeling lonely, I always say "No one writes to the Colonel". That's the feeling that you take away from this book, I def would not recommend this book if your standing on the edge of the rooftop cause you probably will jump (then again i don't recommend reading on edges of rooftops either). The book tells a story of a aging, dying, old man, who fought alongside General Buendia in his heyday, who is waiting for pension from the war day after day. He lost his son, his wife is dying everyday from asthma, he sold all his belongings to pay for food including his son prize fighting cock, all he have left is the hope that one day all his troubles will end when finally receive his pension.

One of the central theme in this book is "money isn't everything unless you don't have any".

Colonel
An excellent translation of Garcia Marques's short stories.
The work is exact word by word. Wish they publish the original in Spanish as well. As a student of Spanish literary, this work is a great help. ... 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
En una bella edicion y dentro de su coleccion Centzontle, el FCE recupera los discursos de Gabriel Garcia Marquez y Carlos Fuentes pronunciados en torno a una conmemoracion unica: los 80 anos del Premio Nobel colombiano y los 40 anos de la novela Cien anos de soledad. Una celebracion de la cual el lector puede ser testigo privilegiado a traves de este libro. Garcia Marquez recuerda en estas paginas que ni en el mas delirante de sus suenos imagino que su novela llegaria a ser leida por casi 50 millones de lectores, un numero tal de personas que si vivieran en un solo pedazo de tierra seria uno de los 20 paises mas poblados del mundo. ... 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

Customer Reviews (3)

If you liked Macondo in 100 years of solitude you will love this collection
In Funerales de la Mama Grande, a series of seemingly independent short stories tell us about a town, which reflects the same aura and magic realism that we see in "100 Years of Solitude".Despite the separate stories, the lives of all their characters are interconnected under the same burning sun and unbearable heat of this small foresaken town.Mama Grande is the character that will ultimately represent the whole andbring this insignificant town to the heart of the country and of the world. A must for all lovers of Garcia Marquez's work.

A classic of Latin American literature
If you like Gabriel Garcia Marquez... you will love this collection of stories. They are a must read for lovers of magical realism. These stories are the type you can smell and taste. This is the original stuff beforeeveryone started doing it (Isabel Allende for example) and nobody has doneit better or will do it better. Nobel Price winner GGM is the mostimportant writer alive and arguably the most important writer of the 20thcentury...

Gabo is amazing!
Que la mama grande sea la dueña de los colores de la bandera habla de la elocuencia de Garcia Marquez. No se pierdan esta genial historia. ... 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