One of the most popular features in the Library of Congress Pavilion at the Library’s National Book Festival is a whiteboard on which you can write the name of a book. Some years we ask for your favorite book. Some years we ask what book shaped the world. People stand a few feet back, ponder, look at what others write, and then step forward and put up their title.
Every year, for me, it’s the same: “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez, a native of Colombia and master of modern letters who died on Thursday in Mexico City at age 87.
In my lifetime of reading – a lifetime made wonderful by reading – it is, quite simply, my favorite book.
I was assigned to read this towering novel by Prof. David Cusack at the University of Colorado back in the 1970s. He was teaching a course in Latin American political science. It was odd to be assigned a novel as required reading for a PolySci course, but Prof. Cusack—who had spent a lot of time in Latin America—explained that it would help us understand a different worldview from our own, a different lens for looking at reality. It would help us understand how things were different there.
And so, I tackled this assigned book – and was swept along as if I had fallen into the Amazon in flood. I ripped through that book as if my own future were written in it. Many books take us to “other worlds” but this one – this one was literally otherworldly (Márquez’s style is often referred to as “magical realism”). I absolutely loved it – I read it again, immediately, bought extra copies and began giving them to other people I cared about, including my father, a newspaper columnist.
He liked it so well that in his annual column thanking various people, he thanked me for pointing him to it, and in doing so tipped about 250,000 Denver Post readers off to this astounding modern classic.
You may also enjoy many of this Nobel-winning writer’s other books as well – I enjoyed “Love in the Time of Cholera” and the novella “No One Writes to the Colonel.” Márquez, known as “Gabo” to his friends, wrote many novels and stories, and we have a recording of him reading from his own work in the Library’s Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape, in the Hispanic Division.
Do I remember anything else about that political science course? No. But I maintain a fond memory of Prof. Cusack, who was also involved in early efforts to introduce the United States to the grain known as quinoa. On a trip to Bolivia to work with quinoa farmers, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was fatally shot.
So, adiós, Master Márquez, and rest in peace, Prof. Cusack. Together, you gave us a great gift.
Comments (9)
One Hundred Years of Solitude is a book magic
Thank Gabo, for Macondo
Miguel de Cervantes & Don Quijote in the 1600’s and forever; Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the 1900’s and forever. “En un lugar de la Mancha” y en el pueblo de Macondo surgieron los personajes que definieron la historia y la mitología hispanoamericanas. Espero que aprendamos sus lecciones. Gonzalo Palacios Galindo.
Soy colombiano y me enorgullece tener a Gabo como compatriota; gracias por todas esas letras que uniste para la humanidad y las convertiste en grandes significados para cada uno de los colombianos y de todas las personas del mundo. Adiós Gabo que Dios te guie por el camino del cielo.
Como latinoamericana siento esta pérdida como algo personal y doloroso. “Gabo” es y será un símbolo, un referente y un orgullo para la lengua española. Un triste adiós y un !hasta siempre! maestro!!!!!
Soy mexicana, y realmente siempre recordare a este gran autor como el que me abrió las puertas al maravilloso mundo de la lectura. Cien años de soledad es definitivamente una obra que te marca, un mundo al que entras y no puedes salir igual.
Gabo´s novels are the most important contribution from Colombia to the world. He continues living in your books, forever…
Gracias por su obra y por su ejemplo. ¡Hasta siempre, García Márquez!.
When Pablo Neruda died (September 23, 1973), Gabriel García Márquez was interviewed and his comments were published in the Colombian journal Cromos ( Oct., 1, 1973, pp. 16-17). It was on p. 16, that the quote so common in obituaries of García Márquez was explained by García Márquez himself: Gabriel García Márquez said: “He was truly a generous man. He had no time to read 100 years of Solitude, but his wife, Matilde, read it in Montevideo and insisted at every moment: ‘You’ve got to read it, Pablo, it’s a great novel. You’ve got to read it.’ When Neruda arrived at Manizales for the Theater Festival and reporters asked him about my book. Unperturbed he replied: “It’s the best novel that has been written in Spanish since the Quixote.” (This phrase has since run wild). Returning to his hotel, Pablo said to Matilde, ‘You’ve got to get me a copy of that book. I’ve really put my foot into it now’.
I have been exploring for a little for any high quality articles or blog posts on this sort of house . Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled upon this website. Reading this info So i’m happy to convey that I have a very good uncanny feeling I came upon just what I needed. I such a lot unquestionably will make sure to do not put out of your mind this website and provides it a look regularly.