Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Next up on the list is Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or Gabo as he is known to many. He is an excellent writer from Columbia who has real gift for writing novels, short stories and non-fiction. His works have been translated into many languages (I'm guessing) and he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
I've read only a few books that he has written and they all have been good.
Love in the Time of Cholera was the first book I picked up and somehow it ended up lost in the trunk of my car. I never read it and there it sat until I think it got wet or was damaged by the heat of the trunk. When I finally found it again, the pages were yellowed and the book had lost its form. But I read it anyway and I am glad that I did because it turned me on to a great author. The book is set in Columbia in a time when cholera was the number one health threat. It is a tale of unrequited love, and a hopeless romantic who stays in love with the same girl for many years even though she marries another. At times the book was difficult to read. The time line jumped around so much, flashing forward then back, and sometimes it was hard to keep up, but the payout was tremendous. The final scenes gave me chills. It is a book that will stay with me for a lifetime.
Another book (a novella really), Chronicle of a Death Foretold, follows a journalist around as he tries to find the real story behind the murder of a young man, also in Columbia I believe. Each person the journalist interviews fills him in with the different events that unfolded that day. Everybody knew that the young man was going to be murdered before it happened yet each had some reason why they couldn't warn him. The story is told with vivid imagery especially during the climax, and oddly enough, the climax is surprising even though we knew all along that it would happen.
The only non-fiction book that I have read by Marquez is News of a Kidnapping, which is the true life tale about the kidnapping of several prominent figures in Columbia by a drug cartel. By far this was the least favorite book of the three that I have read, but that is not saying too much. The story is full of detail and is well researched.
Marquez also has written a lot of short fiction. The one story that I have read, probably a precursor to having read Love in the Time of Cholera, is A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings. The story shows "magic realism", a genre that is present in many Marquez books. The story revolves around the discovery of a fallen angel who is very weak. The angel had come to take the life of a very young boy, but when the parents find him they keep him in a chicken coop and eventually charge money for people to see him. The family makes good money, then the angel loses favor to another sideshow across town. Eventually the angel regains his strength and flies away. The story is very much like a fairy tale and shows how well Marquez uses imagery and symbolism.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. His works are rich with metaphor and use vivid imagery. In all of the books I have read, the climax is quite worth the investment. I have enjoyed each one.