Friday, April 18, 2014

RIP Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-2014) wrote many books, but for me he will always be the author of only one: One Hundred Years of Solitude. It begins:
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Col. Aureliano BuendĂ­a was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. At that time Macondo was a village of 20 adobe houses built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs. The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point.
For me, nothing else he ever did comes close. But for me, only a dozen other books by anyone come close, and to have written one such masterpiece is more than enough for one life.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hearing those opening lines again in my head for the first time in 25 years filled me with an urgent need to re-read this amazing book. Having finished the first chapter, I have the uncanny feeling of walking back through a part of my own life.