Great Marquez - The Master of Magical Realism
Who is Marquez?
Gabriel García Márquez is a great Columbian novelist who was awarded Nobel Prize in literature in 1982. He was born on 6th of March, 1927 in Aracataca, Magdalena, Columbia. He was the writer of the great novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude".
The work of Gabriel García Márquez is undoubtedly one of the best works of fiction in the last century. In his autobiography ‘Living to Tell the Tale' published a few years back, Marquez has touched upon his struggles he had to endure in creating this work.
Why Gabriel García Márquez was titled "The Master of Magical Realism"?
His autobiography was to be published in 3 volumes but he could complete only the first volume as he has been afflicted with cancer and quite aptly he has given the above title. Fortunately, it is under control and let us hope that he will ‘live for many more years to tell his tale'.
In January of 1965, Marquez Gabriel García and his family were driving away to Acapulco for a family vacation and it was the time when inspiration struck him and he found his way and tone.
For the 1st time in around twenty years, a stroke of lightning revealed voice of Macondo, an imaginary place where the novel took place, which is in fact Aracataca, Columbia, the place where Marquez lived.
Some great books written by Marquez the Master of Magical Realism are:
1. No One Writes to the Colonel.
2. Leaf Storm.
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude.
4. In Evil Hour.
5. Innocent Eréndira.
6. The Autumn of the Patriarch.
7. Love in the Time of Cholera.
8. Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
9. Strange Pilgrims.
10. Love and Other Demons.
11. Memories of My Melancholy Whores.
12. The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor.
13. The General in his Labyrinth.
14. Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littín.
15. For the Sake of a Country within Reach of the Children
16. Living to Tell the Tale.
17. News of a Kidnapping.
I am eagerly looking forward to read his authorized biography GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ - A LIFE by Gerald Martin published by Bloomsbury, London and I am hoping to receive a copy of it in some time. It took almost 17 years for Gerald Martin to finish this work, as initially Marquez was circumspect about it but later on approved it wholeheartedly and must have read and re-read them several times. A few months back Madhu Nair had written his account of visiting the birthplace of Marquez in Bhashaposhini.
