RIP Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Thread starter rich p
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AndyRM
XOXO
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- North Shields
Game over for two of my literary heroes in the space of a week.
Sad times.
Sad times.
Spoked Wheels
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bournemouth
Sad news, we lost one of the great ones. RIP
Cyclist33
Guest
- Location
- Warrington
jeez, it's just a book... why idolize those who put letters onto paper?
- Location
- Glasgow
[QUOTE 3033511, member: 259"]I'm probably not alone in that I've never been able to finish that solitude book.[/QUOTE]
You're kidding! It's one of my favorite works of fiction
You're kidding! It's one of my favorite works of fiction
threebikesmcginty
Corn Fed Hick...
- Location
- ...on the slake
[QUOTE 3033511, member: 259"]I'm probably not alone in that I've never been able to finish that solitude book.[/QUOTE]
I haven't even started it.
I haven't even started it.
AndyRM
XOXO
- Location
- North Shields
Ultimately, you are right and perhaps describing Marquez (and Townsend) as heroes was an exaggeration.
However, there can be no doubting their significance and importance in the world of literature. I'm not normally one to feel anything when someone 'of note' dies, but I did pause and feel a moment of sadness when I learned of these deaths.
Weird really, because I'm normally a heartless bastard.
I'll go as far as to say that he was one of the best authors ever. He'll be talked about in future in the same breath as Mark Twain and Dickens, and he surpasses even them when it comes to opening lines for a book. How about this utter gem from 100 Years of Solitude:
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
My only gripe with his books was that so many of the characters had such similar names that I had to constantly refer to a list to see who was who. A minor inconvenience.
The man was an utter genius, and the world is a little duller today.
Mike
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
My only gripe with his books was that so many of the characters had such similar names that I had to constantly refer to a list to see who was who. A minor inconvenience.
The man was an utter genius, and the world is a little duller today.
Mike
Cyclist33
Guest
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- Warrington
That in itself makes his writing self evidently second tier at best. What goods a story if you need a crib sheet for the cast?
Try reading the Gulag Archipeligo without a crib sheet, or Anna Karenina, or even some Shakespeare. Hell, even Wilbur-bl**dy-Smith or Geoffrey Archer can have a confusing cast of dozens. Your point is facile.
Frankly, if you have no interest in reading, and no interest in Marquez, why are you bothering with this thread?
deptfordmarmoset
Full time tea drinker
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- Armonmy Way
I don't read Spanish so I read 100 years in translation and I think I missed something. It felt a little like a literary cul de sac to me.
Oof, that's a big claim. I like Twain and find Dickens dull, but not many people would put Twain in the first rank of the last 150 years, let alone 'ever'. Marquez is outstanding in a very specific genre but even in the 20th century there are a dozen or more writers at his level.
You may find that many Americans think rather more highly of Twain than we generally do, and would certainly put him in the "best ever" category. And yep, I stick by my big claim.........Marquez is amongst the best ever. Funnily enough, one of the guests on Newsnight last night said exactly the same thing.
I'm sure they do; and he is certainly one of their 'best ever'; even if not many people have read anything beyond Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
Good for you. That's the great thing about works of art, it's only your own opinion that actually matters.
