Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
Description
The biography of the 1982 Nobel Laureate in Literature tells the story of Márquez, a young man who rose from obscure provincial journalist to progenitor of a new literature.
User reviews
LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
Surprisingly, this is one of my favorite biographies read so far. It has to be the subject matter. Like other biographies that spend an inordinate amount of time setting the stage (political and socially) or produce pages and pages of mini biographies of the subject's great-great-great grandparents
Probably my favorite aspect of the biography is the parallels Martin makes between Marquez's life and his art. Martin doesn't miss an opportunity to make note of people in Marquez's life who eventually became characters in his books later. I have a deeper understanding of where the soul of One Hundred Years of Solitude came from.
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Martin does bog down with those details in the beginning. His focus is not primarily on Gabriel Garcia Marquez but rather the myriad of family members from both his mother's and father's sides of the family. I got lost trying to keep the just cousins straight. Forget about all the drama that went with them! But, aside from that reading about Marquez's life was fascinating. Martin took 17 years to research his subject and it shows. Probably my favorite aspect of the biography is the parallels Martin makes between Marquez's life and his art. Martin doesn't miss an opportunity to make note of people in Marquez's life who eventually became characters in his books later. I have a deeper understanding of where the soul of One Hundred Years of Solitude came from.
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Awards
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Shortlist — Biography — 2008)
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Nonfiction — 2009)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Biography — 2009)
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Nonfiction — 2009)
Language
Original publication date
2009
Physical description
841 p.; 25 inches
ISBN
0307271773 / 9780307271778
Other editions
Gabriel García Márquez a life by Gerald Martin (Ebook)
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