Gabriel García Márquez: The Early Years

Ilan Stavans

- 4.2 • 26 Ratings

- $11.99

- $11.99

This long-awaited biography provides a fascinating and comprehensive picture of García Márquez's life up to the publication of his classic 100 Years of Solitude. Based on nearly a decade of research, this biographical study sheds new light on the life and works of the Nobel Laureate, father of magical realism, and bestselling author in the history of the Spanish language. As García Márquez's impact endures on well into his ninth decade, Stavans's keen insights constitute the definitive re-appraisal of the literary giant's life and corpus. The later part of his life will be covered in a second book.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY NOV 9, 2009

Literary critic Ilan Stavans highlights Hispanic literature.Gabriel Garc a M rquez: The Early YearsIlan Stavans. Palgrave Macmillan, $25 (256p) In this erudite "biographical exploration" of Gabriel Garc a M rquez and his One Hundred Years of Solitude, Stavans follows Garc a M rquez from his Colombian childhood in Aracataca through his time as law student and journalist, up to his screenwriting days in Mexico City. Stavans outlines the cultural, historical, and geographical factors that influenced the development of Garc a M rquez's leftist politics and his view that " 'good novels must be a poetic transposition of reality.' " Stavans (Dictionary Days), Amherst College professor of Latin American and Latino culture, concludes that the Colombian author's "contribution lies in his capacity to... renovate the novel as a literary genre, infusing it with ingredients indigenous to the Americas." This survey of Garc a M rquez's literary heritage might prompt enthusiasts to further reading.

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