Few books have moved me the way gabriel garcia marquez’s books do. To be sure, his books are not easy to read. They are full of magical realism and if you’re not into that or haven’t read it before, you’re in for a treat. Magical realism is difficult to grasp at first. But then, so was fantasy and sci fi the first time I tried it!
I dug out this old copy of one hundred years of solitude this weekend after I heard of Gabo’s passing. To be sure, magical realism is smart writing. Not the kind of smart writing that makes you feel stupid for not understanding right away, but rather the kind of smart writing that evokes feelings: laughter, revulsion, confusion, and any other feeling that makes you think. Here’s an example:
“I’ve come to sleep with you,” he said.
His clothes were smeared with mud and vomit. Pilar Ternera, who lived alone at that time with her two younger children, did not ask him any questions. She took him to the bed…With a calm skill, without the slightest misstep, he left his accumulated grief behind and found Remedios changed into a swamp without horizons, smelling of a raw animal and recently ironed clothes. When he came to the surface he was weeping.
Isn’t that amazing? I’m not going to ruin the text by putting my own immature spin on it. I just love it. It’s not too often a writer of this caliber writes within my own lifetime.
His titles belong on required reading lists at high schools and colleges! READ. ALL. GARBRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ!!!
the end.