Gabriel Garcia Marquez

[User]

 

[rich p]

I loved 100 Years of Solitude but that was a good few years ago and I wouldn't necessarily class it as a light holiday read.

 

[marinyork]

I read Love in the Time of Cholera. I certainly wouldn't say it was 'easy' reading but I would regard it as a 'good' book. It did somewhat put me off 100 years of solitude.

 

[rich p]

I didn't finish Love in the Time of Cholera so maybe you did it the wrong way round Marin!

 

[ColinJ]

That's just reminded me - I have a copy of 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold' under my bed! Must read that some time when I've caught up on the book backlog (sorry Mark!  ).

 

[marinyork]

I didn't finish Love in the Time of Cholera so maybe you did it the wrong way round Marin!

I don't tend to like books that are about multiple generations. Don't know why, even struggled with some for some of my favourite authors. GMM always got quite mixed reviews in book groups/forums where people who were used to reading the same sort of things would try one of those two because it was popular in libraries for a while due to BBC thing a few years ago and then complain about it being 'boring' or 'not getting' magic realism.

 

[just jim]

When I was a student I used to pretend to read them in order to impress girls. How's that for magical realism!

 

[Monsieur Remings]

Have only read No One Writes To the Colonel but despite being short, it isn't a very jolly tale.

 

[Ian H]

Don't listen to me because I'm a Marquez enthusiast. I find him compelling. Perhaps start with the short stories.

 

[theclaud]

[QUOTE 1154752"]
Any good?

Trying to sort out some books to read on my hols.

GGM any good? I don't mean "good" as in "should read, worthy but inpenetrable" like Rushdie, who I can't stand.

I mean, worthy, deep but "easy" to read. Like, erm, Peter Ackroyd or Alasdair Gray.
[/quote]

Alasdair Gray is my favourite contemporary author by a mile. Just finished Old Men in Love.

100 Years is the only GGM I've read - a few years ago, but probably not as many years ago as Rich . I echo his thoughts on it - I remember it as a few-pages-at-a-time novel.

 

[User169]

The problem I remember is that members of different generations had the same name. Handily, there was a family tree included at the beginning, so I took to striking out those that had been killed off as I went along.

"News of a Kidnapping" is good if you have an interest in Colombia's conflict, although it's written very much from an aristocratic point of view (he doesn't seem to care very much about kidnap victims who are poor).

 

[rich p]

Yes, it was difficult. In "Galapagos", Kurt Vonnegut helpfully put an asterisk in front of the names of people who were about to die.

Ah, now there's a writer to take on holiday! Well, his books at least...


...or so it goes!

 

[battered]

I like GGM, it's maybe a bit tougher than Ackroyd but not as impenetrable a Rushdie.

 

[dellzeqq]

you have to sort of give in to it, and have lots of time. But, if you're looking for a way to spend a quiet week (I read 100 years... by the side of a lake in Guatemala) then it's pretty darn good.

 

[rich p]

you have to sort of give in to it, and have lots of time. But, if you're looking for a way to spend a quiet week (I read 100 years... by the side of a lake in Guatemala) then it's pretty darn good.

It should have been in Baranchilo for real one-upmanship, Dell!