Everyone has an anecdote about García Márquez
March 18, 2024 2:30 AM Subscribe
I decided, last year, to turn on my recorder again and ask about these past ten years since Gabo died. As I’ve continued to follow his story, Gabo, always a prankster, continues to surprise. from Ten Years without Gabriel García Márquez: An Oral History [The Paris Review; ungated]
I'll always remember Márquez for Memories of my Melancholy Whores. In it, a famous writer repeatedly hires an underage prostitute and is inspired by the fact that she has fallen asleep and ends up not having sex with her. This leads to him somehow writing better than he has in a while. Meanwhile he's been raping his housekeeper for years. I can't say I've approached any writing of his with pleasure since reading it. This was unfortunate for me as I still had to read more of his works for a class.
posted by ockmockbock at 9:58 AM on March 18 [1 favorite]
posted by ockmockbock at 9:58 AM on March 18 [1 favorite]
Is it accurate that Memories was written after he started descending into dementia? If so, I think it's one of the shitty effects of having relative power (or being a cash cow) in the publishing world that no editor would tell him to fuck off and keep that one in the drawer.
posted by latkes at 10:48 AM on March 18 [2 favorites]
posted by latkes at 10:48 AM on March 18 [2 favorites]
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posted by Omon Ra at 8:37 AM on March 18 [5 favorites]