Vivir Para Contarla / To Live to Tell It (Spanish)

Rating:
Summary: Garcia Marquez, his first 30 years, in his own words
Review: I have been a fan of Garcia Marquez and his stories since 1980, after I read "Cien Anos de Soledad".
All of his previous books and short stories have been mostly a sample of great stories from a wonderful story teller; in contrast, the flavor this book gives you is one where you feel as if he were telling you, face to face, his early years, from BEFORE he was born to when he was about 30 years old. This volume is the first in a trilogy that will make up his memoirs.
This book will give you a great insight on his background, his family, how he came to invent all the fantastic stories and characters that make up his books.
He began his literary life as a cartoonist and a poet; later, in his late teens he began writing short stories, commentaries and some editorials (mostly anonymously) for different newspapers in Colombia. He sees this period of his life as the one where he came to hone his skills, which eventually -in 1982-brought him the Nobel prize of literature.

This book is not just a narrative of his life; he also gives the reader many insights on the way he approaches a story, the mechanics of it, and what he expects to see in his finished piece.
If you are a fan of Gabo (his nickname)or you are merely a lover of great literature -I see Hemingway as a comparison-, you will love this book and will look forward to Gabo's second volume, sometime in the next two years.

P.S. I read this book three times and each time I noticed different things that I had missed the first time I read it.

Rating:
Summary: Garcia Marquez, his first 30 years, in his own words
Review: I have been a fan of Garcia Marquez and his stories since 1980, after I read "Cien Anos de Soledad".
All of his previous books and short stories have been mostly a sample of great stories from a wonderful story teller; in contrast, the flavor this book gives you is one where you feel as if he were telling you, face to face, his early years, from BEFORE he was born to when he was about 30 years old. This volume is the first in a trilogy that will make up his memoirs.
This book will give you a great insight on his background, his family, how he came to invent all the fantastic stories and characters that make up his books.
He began his literary life as a cartoonist and a poet; later, in his late teens he began writing short stories, commentaries and some editorials (mostly anonymously) for different newspapers in Colombia. He sees this period of his life as the one where he came to hone his skills, which eventually -in 1982-brought him the Nobel prize of literature.

This book is not just a narrative of his life; he also gives the reader many insights on the way he approaches a story, the mechanics of it, and what he expects to see in his finished piece.
If you are a fan of Gabo (his nickname)or you are merely a lover of great literature -I see Hemingway as a comparison-, you will love this book and will look forward to Gabo's second volume, sometime in the next two years.

P.S. I read this book three times and each time I noticed different things that I had missed the first time I read it.

Rating:
Summary: A book to devour
Review: In order to enjoy this book, you must be a Garcia Marquez fan or at least have read a few of his other books before. If you pick this book up and are exposed to GGM for the first time though this, his memoirs, you will be bored to death, let alone clueless about what he is writing about.

For us GGM addicts, this book is another stroke of GGM's genius. You'll learn about the though process of the genius who practically invented magic realism.

Rating:
Summary: A book to devour
Review: In order to enjoy this book, you must be a Garcia Marquez fan or at least have read a few of his other books before. If you pick this book up and are exposed to GGM for the first time though this, his memoirs, you will be bored to death, let alone clueless about what he is writing about.

For us GGM addicts, this book is another stroke of GGM's genius. You'll learn about the though process of the genius who practically invented magic realism.

Rating:
Summary: García Márquez reveals his secrets
Review: This is an extremely fun book to read. No big dramas, not complicated plots, just Gabriel García Márquez life history. But you're going to find yourself reading it in the most unexpected places, 'cause you won't be able to stop or let it go! It is writen in his classic style, jumping from the past to the further past to the recent past in a single page. But what is really fascinating of this book is that almost every single character of his past novels appears here, but in flesh & blood. You will find out why "Love In The Time Of Cholera" was written for (and who's story it is), what the name "Macondo" stands for, and why "Nigromanta" was such a fascinating and important character on "One Hundred Years of Solitude".
If you are craving for the new Nobel Prize winning novel, maybe you're looking at the wrong place, but if you like García Márquez "lighter" books and enjoy a very well written book, and a writer that has the ability to convert a simple disfunctional ordinary family history into one of the best books ever, then you will certainly enjoy "To Live To Count It".

Rating:
Summary: García Márquez reveals his secrets
Review: This is an extremely fun book to read. No big dramas, not complicated plots, just Gabriel García Márquez life history. But you're going to find yourself reading it in the most unexpected places, 'cause you won't be able to stop or let it go! It is writen in his classic style, jumping from the past to the further past to the recent past in a single page. But what is really fascinating of this book is that almost every single character of his past novels appears here, but in flesh & blood. You will find out why "Love In The Time Of Cholera" was written for (and who's story it is), what the name "Macondo" stands for, and why "Nigromanta" was such a fascinating and important character on "One Hundred Years of Solitude".
If you are craving for the new Nobel Prize winning novel, maybe you're looking at the wrong place, but if you like García Márquez "lighter" books and enjoy a very well written book, and a writer that has the ability to convert a simple disfunctional ordinary family history into one of the best books ever, then you will certainly enjoy "To Live To Count It".