Just found out that he passed away. He was one of the greatest living writers. I'm sure a lot of you have heard of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, both of which are excellent novels. This is a huge loss for literature and book lovers. RIP.
Sad to hear, a very famous writer. Third what are her books like, as in, are there any authors or books that you could compare her writing style to?
She is a he. One Hundred Years of Solitude is a literary classic. I don't think there is anything like it, perhaps because of the political and cultural commentary within the story. From Sparknotes:
He writes a lot of magical realism, which was probably the most popular genre to write in back in the '60s and '70s in South America. One Hundred Years is basically a novel about a family over the course of a hundred years. I'm trying to think of a writer who writes like Marquez, but I'm honestly drawing a blank. But I will say this: if you like Borges, Allende, or Carlos Fuentes, you should give him a try. I also know that a lot of people who like Nabokov also like Marquez. That should tell you something.
I'm still reading "One Hundred Years..." Sad to hear he passed away. To me, the first sentence of "One Hundred Years..." is still one of the most extraordinary startups I've ever read.
I'm actually reading Cien Años de Soledad right now. To be fair though, with the amount of obscure vocabulary I'm having to look up, his death had quite a long period of time to aim for, so it's not as much of a coincidence as it sounds. Great writer. Until Cien Años I'd aways preferred his short stories, but this is wonderful. Another author with a similar style is Louis de Bernières, of Captain Corelli fame (never seen the film but the book is great). Only now am I beginning to realise how much de Bernières ripped Marquez off with his Latin American trilogy!
What what I had heard, he was a heavy smoker and was in cancer treatment some time back. So, it's really more sad than surprising.
You know what's interesting? Marquez himself said that Rabassa's English translation of this novel is actually better than the original. If you ever get the chance, you should read the translation and compare the two.
That's a pity. I've only read One Hundred Years of Solitude and fairly recently. I've always intended to read more.
Democracy Now spent the hour this morning on Marquez. They have several videos of him speaking and they interviewed Isabel Allende, another excellent Latin author. It's free online to watch, always commercial free. Or you can read the transcripts that will be up later: Marquez In His Own Words He Gave Us Back Our History - Allende Inspiring!
I was reading BBC's article about him, and that's when I found out he was friends with Bill Clinton and Fidel Castro. I also know that a lot of other politicians admired him as well.
