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En agosto nos vemos
The extraordinary rediscovered novel from the Nobel Prize–winning author of Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude Sitting alone beside the languorous blue waters of the lagoon, Ana Magdalena Bach contemplates the men at the hotel bar. She has been happily married for twenty-seven years and has no reason to escape the life she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels by ferry here to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover. Across sultry Caribbean evenings full of salsa and boleros, lotharios and conmen, Ana journeys further each year into the hinterland of her desire and the fear hidden in her heart. Constantly surprising, joyously sensual, Until August is a profound meditation on freedom, regret, self-transformation, and the mysteries of love—an unexpected gift from one of the greatest writers the world has ever known.
80 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 6, 2024
About the author
Gabriel García Márquez
845 books38.5k followersGabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. García Márquez, familiarly known as "Gabo" in his native country, was considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
He studied at the University of Bogotá and later worked as a reporter for the Colombian newspaper El Espectador and as a foreign correspondent in Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Caracas, and New York. He wrote many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories, but is best-known for his novels, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have achieved significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably for popularizing a literary style labeled as magical realism, which uses magical elements and events in order to explain real experiences. Some of his works are set in a fictional village called Macondo, and most of them express the theme of solitude.
Having previously written shorter fiction and screenplays, García Márquez sequestered himself away in his Mexico City home for an extended period of time to complete his novel Cien años de soledad, or One Hundred Years of Solitude, published in 1967. The author drew international acclaim for the work, which ultimately sold tens of millions of copies worldwide. García Márquez is credited with helping introduce an array of readers to magical realism, a genre that combines more conventional storytelling forms with vivid, layers of fantasy.
Another one of his novels, El amor en los tiempos del cólera (1985), or Love in the Time of Cholera, drew a large global audience as well. The work was partially based on his parents' courtship and was adapted into a 2007 film starring Javier Bardem. García Márquez wrote seven novels during his life, with additional titles that include El general en su laberinto (1989), or The General in His Labyrinth, and Del amor y otros demonios (1994), or Of Love and Other Demons.
(Arabic: جابرييل جارسيا ماركيز) (Hebrew: גבריאל גארסיה מרקס) (Ukrainian: Ґабріель Ґарсія Маркес) (Belarussian: Габрыель Гарсія Маркес) (Russian: Габриэль Гарсия Маркес)
He studied at the University of Bogotá and later worked as a reporter for the Colombian newspaper El Espectador and as a foreign correspondent in Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Caracas, and New York. He wrote many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories, but is best-known for his novels, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have achieved significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably for popularizing a literary style labeled as magical realism, which uses magical elements and events in order to explain real experiences. Some of his works are set in a fictional village called Macondo, and most of them express the theme of solitude.
Having previously written shorter fiction and screenplays, García Márquez sequestered himself away in his Mexico City home for an extended period of time to complete his novel Cien años de soledad, or One Hundred Years of Solitude, published in 1967. The author drew international acclaim for the work, which ultimately sold tens of millions of copies worldwide. García Márquez is credited with helping introduce an array of readers to magical realism, a genre that combines more conventional storytelling forms with vivid, layers of fantasy.
Another one of his novels, El amor en los tiempos del cólera (1985), or Love in the Time of Cholera, drew a large global audience as well. The work was partially based on his parents' courtship and was adapted into a 2007 film starring Javier Bardem. García Márquez wrote seven novels during his life, with additional titles that include El general en su laberinto (1989), or The General in His Labyrinth, and Del amor y otros demonios (1994), or Of Love and Other Demons.
(Arabic: جابرييل جارسيا ماركيز) (Hebrew: גבריאל גארסיה מרקס) (Ukrainian: Ґабріель Ґарсія Маркес) (Belarussian: Габрыель Гарсія Маркес) (Russian: Габриэль Гарсия Маркес)
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March 6, 2024
Un escritor a quien el alzhéimer comienza a devorarle escribe una última novela a trompicones. "Una carrera entre el perfeccionismo del artista y el desvanecimiento de sus facultades mentales".
En 2004, satisfecho con la quinta versión que, sin embargo, aún no cree definitiva, la aparta. Su memoria sigue emborronándose como una foto antigua, su memoria, su bien más preciado: "La memoria es a la vez mi materia prima y mi herramienta. Sin ella no hay nada".
Poco antes de morir en 2014, y en lo que cree un último arrebato de lucidez en la oscuridad que le cerca, Gabriel García Márquez declara: "Este libro no sirve, hay que destruirlo". Muchos escritores, el caso de Kafka es el más célebre, exigieron algo similar antes, y cuánto agradecemos los lectores a amigos y familiares que traicionaran sus últimas voluntades.
Pero, a fin de cuentas, era un hombre enfermo. Sus hijos Rodrigo y Gonzalo la guardaron en un cajón. Más de diez años. Pero volvían a leer cada tanto 'En agosto nos vemos', y allí brillaba todo el universo y la magia narrativa de su padre. ¿Y si? ¿Y sí el mal que le impidió cerrar por completo la novela, le llevó también a minusvalorar lo hermoso que era aquel libro pese a sus imperfecciones?
He leído con congoja e incredulidad 'En agosto nos vemos'. He saboreado el fraseo, los colores caribeños, he perseguido sin dejar de leer los amores maduros y el deseo inconcebible de derrapar de una vida marcada por muy feliz que se proyecte. Ana Magdalena Bach viaja cada agosto a una isla a dejar gladiolos en la tumba de su madre, fallecida a una edad no muy superior a la suya. Son viajes de apenas un par de jornadas. Son viajes, ay, en los que empiezan a ocurrir cosas.
'En agosto nos vemos' es un deleite dulce y hermoso al que un Gabo en plenitud de facultades seguramente habría dado una vuelta más. Pero es una vuelta que a mí no me falta.
En 2004, satisfecho con la quinta versión que, sin embargo, aún no cree definitiva, la aparta. Su memoria sigue emborronándose como una foto antigua, su memoria, su bien más preciado: "La memoria es a la vez mi materia prima y mi herramienta. Sin ella no hay nada".
Poco antes de morir en 2014, y en lo que cree un último arrebato de lucidez en la oscuridad que le cerca, Gabriel García Márquez declara: "Este libro no sirve, hay que destruirlo". Muchos escritores, el caso de Kafka es el más célebre, exigieron algo similar antes, y cuánto agradecemos los lectores a amigos y familiares que traicionaran sus últimas voluntades.
Pero, a fin de cuentas, era un hombre enfermo. Sus hijos Rodrigo y Gonzalo la guardaron en un cajón. Más de diez años. Pero volvían a leer cada tanto 'En agosto nos vemos', y allí brillaba todo el universo y la magia narrativa de su padre. ¿Y si? ¿Y sí el mal que le impidió cerrar por completo la novela, le llevó también a minusvalorar lo hermoso que era aquel libro pese a sus imperfecciones?
He leído con congoja e incredulidad 'En agosto nos vemos'. He saboreado el fraseo, los colores caribeños, he perseguido sin dejar de leer los amores maduros y el deseo inconcebible de derrapar de una vida marcada por muy feliz que se proyecte. Ana Magdalena Bach viaja cada agosto a una isla a dejar gladiolos en la tumba de su madre, fallecida a una edad no muy superior a la suya. Son viajes de apenas un par de jornadas. Son viajes, ay, en los que empiezan a ocurrir cosas.
'En agosto nos vemos' es un deleite dulce y hermoso al que un Gabo en plenitud de facultades seguramente habría dado una vuelta más. Pero es una vuelta que a mí no me falta.
April 18, 2024
Cling to this book for dear life
“I am the last novelist for a long time now.” – F Scott Fitzgerald
The beautiful art of writing is slowly being washed away by the turbulent rain of time.
Most days, I spend lost in the pages of The Great Gatsby, driven by a relentless passion to understand its lasting popularity, unlock its secrets and become the most dazzling author of the century, the ripple effects of my works echoing in the literary world for all time (hey, a girl can dream).
Now, spectacular work isn’t easy.
As Philip Pullman says, “Knowledge comes with a cost.” As part of my process, I write out the text. Yes, I am writing by hand the entire text of The Great Gatsby. In addition, I highlight metaphors, similes, references to light, alliterations, and dialogue. With a pen, I put a triangle over words relating to time and circle contractions (how Fitzgerald has such smooth prose). With a pencil, I count each word in the chapter. Taking Fitzgerald’s original manuscript and the galley proofs with Fitzgerald’s hand-written edits, I learn the evolution of the text, intimately knowing it as the front and back of my hand, able to recognize which passages Fitzgerald struggled with just by feel. Fitzgerald organically had a splendid vocabulary so I note any words that I would not ordinarily reach for in my everyday conversation. Last but not least, I listen to the work on audiobook and then read the book out loud, one chapter at a time. Fitzgerald carefully designed the tone and characters, intentionally and masterfully crafting how he wanted the reader to feel.
Fitzgerald thought about every single word on the page. Every. Single. Word.
And that art is dying.
Top-selling authors bang out books in a year—predictable plots, prose barely more than a free-flowing stream of consciousness, unconvincing, cliché characters. So long as the corporate coffers are filled, quality is for losers.
But this work, Until August—this is old-school quality.
Is it perfect? No.
Is it for everyone? No.
Unmistakably a talented writing authority, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s literary accomplishments are legendary. He authored One Hundred Years of Solitude (frequently nominated as the best book of all time and on the BBC’s 100 Top Books to Read) and Love in the Time of Cholera.
A couple of months ago, someone on Twitter asked Philip Pullman about how to define “literary merit” and he brilliantly responded, “You know it when you see it.”
Well, I see it. Until August has literary merit.
Originally, this book was planned to be 3-4 times longer; however, Gabriel Garcia Marquez died in 2014. He said that the book didn’t make sense and requested that it be destroyed. Until August is only 110 pages, and the pages are tiny! If you are only looking at page count, you will be disappointed. However, if you are seeking a world-renowned writing savant, an artist using the page as a canvas of words, an author who spent his life dedicated to quality with a stunning vocabulary, a strong grasp of the power of alliteration, and a phenomenal ability to craft a mystical tone, look no further.
Because this book was unfinished, it doesn’t have the usual ultimate polished sheen of a professional writer of this caliber. In Chapter 2, “the silence after the shout remained vitrified for several days in the air of the house.” Vitrified? I had to look that one up—convert (something) into glass or a glasslike substance, typically by exposure to heat. Also, Chapter 2: “[…] She felt as if she had a stigmata on her forehead.” “Stigmata” is not used correctly in this context. “Stigmata” is the marks associated with the crucifixion of Christ, usually on the hands, feet, heart, head (from the crown of thorns), and shoulders/back. Clearly, the character feels that she has a stigma marked upon her brow. Before I get my pitchfork, this might relate more to the translation than the author (Gabriel Garcia Maquez wrote the book in Spanish, and my version has been translated into English). Furthermore, this part did not make much sense to me (Chapter 2): “This inaugurated a long stage in which each act of love would be rewarded with a felicitous phrase, from obscene jokes to Seneca’s maxims.” My assumption is that this is in reference to the Stoic philosopher: Lucius Annaeus Seneca. What maxims would they be reciting in bed? “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity?” “All cruelty springs from weakness?” “Only time can heal what reason cannot?”
“She detested fashionable books and knew that time would never allow her to keep up to date.” In the previous sentence, she was reading novels such as The Old Man and the Sea, Lazarillo de Tormes, and The Stranger. I have actually read The Old Man and the Sea and The Stranger—these books are quite “fashionable.” Perhaps she hated contemporary books, and she would never get around to them given her time limitations.
In terms of the plot, the relationship with the deceased mother wasn’t explored in much depth, and there is a particular conversation with the husband that would have happened after the first “encounter.”
Nevertheless, this book haunts me.
The more I think of it, the more the subtle sophistication emerges from the shadows, particularly the beautiful, complex relationships, especially with regards to the daughter and the husband. The prose is nothing short of breath-taking—from the sumptuous, delicious vocabulary to the soul-quaking quotes to the expertly crafted tone—this work is worthy of being written out by hand. And---oh the ending. The ending is completely stunning, excellent and original, a master class at leaving the cliché behind.
Literary quality is a sunken ship. Until August is a lifeboat, battered and beaten and a little worse for the wear, the last of the old guard, one final, fleeting glimpse into the sparkling days of yesteryear.
How much I spent:
Hardcover Text - $22 from The Poisoned Pen Bookstore
Audiobook - Free through Libby
Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta
“I am the last novelist for a long time now.” – F Scott Fitzgerald
The beautiful art of writing is slowly being washed away by the turbulent rain of time.
Most days, I spend lost in the pages of The Great Gatsby, driven by a relentless passion to understand its lasting popularity, unlock its secrets and become the most dazzling author of the century, the ripple effects of my works echoing in the literary world for all time (hey, a girl can dream).
Now, spectacular work isn’t easy.
As Philip Pullman says, “Knowledge comes with a cost.” As part of my process, I write out the text. Yes, I am writing by hand the entire text of The Great Gatsby. In addition, I highlight metaphors, similes, references to light, alliterations, and dialogue. With a pen, I put a triangle over words relating to time and circle contractions (how Fitzgerald has such smooth prose). With a pencil, I count each word in the chapter. Taking Fitzgerald’s original manuscript and the galley proofs with Fitzgerald’s hand-written edits, I learn the evolution of the text, intimately knowing it as the front and back of my hand, able to recognize which passages Fitzgerald struggled with just by feel. Fitzgerald organically had a splendid vocabulary so I note any words that I would not ordinarily reach for in my everyday conversation. Last but not least, I listen to the work on audiobook and then read the book out loud, one chapter at a time. Fitzgerald carefully designed the tone and characters, intentionally and masterfully crafting how he wanted the reader to feel.
Fitzgerald thought about every single word on the page. Every. Single. Word.
And that art is dying.
Top-selling authors bang out books in a year—predictable plots, prose barely more than a free-flowing stream of consciousness, unconvincing, cliché characters. So long as the corporate coffers are filled, quality is for losers.
But this work, Until August—this is old-school quality.
Is it perfect? No.
Is it for everyone? No.
Unmistakably a talented writing authority, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s literary accomplishments are legendary. He authored One Hundred Years of Solitude (frequently nominated as the best book of all time and on the BBC’s 100 Top Books to Read) and Love in the Time of Cholera.
A couple of months ago, someone on Twitter asked Philip Pullman about how to define “literary merit” and he brilliantly responded, “You know it when you see it.”
Well, I see it. Until August has literary merit.
Originally, this book was planned to be 3-4 times longer; however, Gabriel Garcia Marquez died in 2014. He said that the book didn’t make sense and requested that it be destroyed. Until August is only 110 pages, and the pages are tiny! If you are only looking at page count, you will be disappointed. However, if you are seeking a world-renowned writing savant, an artist using the page as a canvas of words, an author who spent his life dedicated to quality with a stunning vocabulary, a strong grasp of the power of alliteration, and a phenomenal ability to craft a mystical tone, look no further.
Because this book was unfinished, it doesn’t have the usual ultimate polished sheen of a professional writer of this caliber. In Chapter 2, “the silence after the shout remained vitrified for several days in the air of the house.” Vitrified? I had to look that one up—convert (something) into glass or a glasslike substance, typically by exposure to heat. Also, Chapter 2: “[…] She felt as if she had a stigmata on her forehead.” “Stigmata” is not used correctly in this context. “Stigmata” is the marks associated with the crucifixion of Christ, usually on the hands, feet, heart, head (from the crown of thorns), and shoulders/back. Clearly, the character feels that she has a stigma marked upon her brow. Before I get my pitchfork, this might relate more to the translation than the author (Gabriel Garcia Maquez wrote the book in Spanish, and my version has been translated into English). Furthermore, this part did not make much sense to me (Chapter 2): “This inaugurated a long stage in which each act of love would be rewarded with a felicitous phrase, from obscene jokes to Seneca’s maxims.” My assumption is that this is in reference to the Stoic philosopher: Lucius Annaeus Seneca. What maxims would they be reciting in bed? “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity?” “All cruelty springs from weakness?” “Only time can heal what reason cannot?”
“She detested fashionable books and knew that time would never allow her to keep up to date.” In the previous sentence, she was reading novels such as The Old Man and the Sea, Lazarillo de Tormes, and The Stranger. I have actually read The Old Man and the Sea and The Stranger—these books are quite “fashionable.” Perhaps she hated contemporary books, and she would never get around to them given her time limitations.
In terms of the plot, the relationship with the deceased mother wasn’t explored in much depth, and there is a particular conversation with the husband that would have happened after the first “encounter.”
Nevertheless, this book haunts me.
The more I think of it, the more the subtle sophistication emerges from the shadows, particularly the beautiful, complex relationships, especially with regards to the daughter and the husband. The prose is nothing short of breath-taking—from the sumptuous, delicious vocabulary to the soul-quaking quotes to the expertly crafted tone—this work is worthy of being written out by hand. And---oh the ending. The ending is completely stunning, excellent and original, a master class at leaving the cliché behind.
Literary quality is a sunken ship. Until August is a lifeboat, battered and beaten and a little worse for the wear, the last of the old guard, one final, fleeting glimpse into the sparkling days of yesteryear.
How much I spent:
Hardcover Text - $22 from The Poisoned Pen Bookstore
Audiobook - Free through Libby
Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta
August 1, 2024
‘It was absurd to wait a whole year to put the rest of her life at the mercy of one night’s chance,’
Publishing is always a gamble, especially when the author isn’t around to have any say. You’ve likely heard the story of Max Brod betraying Franz Kafka’s wishes to have his works burned after his death, an act that has been forgiven by the literary world indebted to such works. But we also have Harper Lee’s manuscript published under dubious circumstances that was considered by many to mar the legacy of To Kill a Mockingbird. Two very different circumstances, sure, though both authors became the subject of public opinion over works they never intended to be widely read all the same. Which brings us to Until August, a book for which Gabriel García Marquez’s judgment over his manuscript was ‘This book doesn’t work. It must be destroyed.’
Originally intended as a larger novel, though set aside after five drafts so Marquez could work on Memories of My Melancholy Whores, Until Autumn is ‘not, of course, as polished as his greatest books,’ though it is “completed” in the sense that the novella reaches it’s conclusion. The first chapter had appeared, in translation by Edith Grossman, in an issue of the New Yorker in 1999 and was being read by Marquez at literary events before, frustrated with it, he found it better discarded. As his sons write in the introduction, Marquez worked on the novella in ‘a race between his artistic perfectionism and his vanishing mental faculties,’ but question if Marquez’s dementia was not hindering the writing but instead hindering his own assessment of it. ‘In an act of betrayal, we decided to put his readers’ pleasure ahead of all other considerations,’ they write, and so here we have Until Autumn, in translation by Anne McLean, released in hope that if readers ‘ are delighted, it’s possible Gabo might forgive us.’
Truthfully, it could have remained in the draft folder.
Ultimately, I'm glad I read this and feel it is valuable to have available, even if just for the academic value and insight into an icon of literature. It should be approached in good faith; if you are expecting a fully realized novella you aren't going to get that but it is still worthwhile as a draft for a much larger work that never was. This isn’t to say it is reputation damning or anything either, though one might question ulterior motives for publishing against his wishes similarly to the son’s selling Netflix the rights for One Hundred Years of Solitude despite Marquez’s wishes for it to never be adapted. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, I'll leave that to be decided by others who might find more value in having an opinion. For me however, at the end of the day, Until Autumn reads like a draft that never rises above mediocrity but still shows promise, telling the story of Ana Magdalena Bach and her pursuit for yearly infidelities as familiar places become pushed aside for a tourist economy. Every August 16th she travels to an unnamed island where her mother has been buried to leave behind flowers—gladioli to be precise though I did have a laugh about one of the men mistaking them for tulips and asking if they only came from Holland seeing as I live in Holland, Mi known for our annual Tulip Time festival and thereby enjoy having a disdain for tulips—and, after an initial sexual encounter with a stranger, becomes bent on repeating the act each year.
‘It would take several days before Ana Magdalena became aware that the changes were not to the world but to herself. She had always gone through life without looking at it, and only that year upon her return from the island did she begin to see it with chastened eyes.’
In the son’s assessment of Marquez, they write that love is ‘possibly the main subject of his entire oeuvre,’ though there is little love to be found in this brief novella. There are fingerprints of Marquez to be found in its better moments, and even a brief moment that pushes towards magical realism towards the end, though it feels a bit dated and dry. Still there is a lot going on thematically in the novella, though there are some aspects about a man writing about a woman having a mid-life crisis of sorts through the ‘delicious terror’ of a string of affairs and constant anxieties about her aging body (she ‘appraises’ her breasts in a way that reminds me why Haruki Murakami gets similar criticisms) that felt a bit eye-rolling. The spark for the story comes when, after her first encounter which had given her a sense of power and control, she finds the man has left a $20 bill in her book and this insult begins to consume her.
It shatters her perception of life and family. ‘Her marriage,’ Marquez writes, ‘sustained thus far by a conventional happiness that avoided disagreements in order not to stumble over them, the way people hide dirt under the rug,’ begins to show signs of stress as she becomes distant and distracted, increasingly so as she notices the growing ‘extent to which she was starting to feel like a stranger in her own family.’ There is a certain charm, however, to the musical grounding of this family, all musicians, though the litany of artists and novels she reads (Dracula, The Day of the Triffids, A Journal of the Plague Year and The Ministry of Fear, all more fantastical stories of people controlled by external threats) are doing a lot of heavy lifting for character development where Marquez would likely have polished and inserted more had he continued work.
While Ana Magdalena finds her yearnings for a yearly night of passion to be a search for a sense of empowerment, she sees it as debasing in others (likely as a reaction against herself), such as her disdain for her daughter’s sexual activity and desire to become a nun for the Catholic order, the Discalced Carmelites, which Ana Magdalena believes is just a cover to use nuns as sex workers. It’s a sort of sexual scolding that feels very dated, though perhaps this is also in line with the secondary theme of modernization occurring in the novella. Each year Ana Madgalena finds the island more and more overrun with tourists and increasingly modernized to fit a tourist economy. ‘More towering cliffs of glass go up every year while the village grew more and more impoverished,’ Marquez writes, criticizing the gentrification of island communities that push out the poor in order to accommodate wealthy foreigners. Ana Magdalena’s fears about her own aging are only amplified by her feelings of the world passing her by, with a few comical moments in a high-tech hotel of ‘repressive modernity that ended up in medieval moralism.’ But still this is why old men’s thoughts on women having affairs to feel better about aging should be left in the draft folder.
I have warm memories of Marquez. I think back fondly to the time I first read One Hundred Years of Solitude laid out in the spring grass alongside the river that cut through my university campus, only stopping when the light became to dim. This won't reinstill those feelings, but it was nice to be in his words again. Until August is not a bad novella but it also isn't much of a testament to the lasting power of Marquez’s works either. While it is interesting to see what he was working on I’m also not sure it needed to be published as a standalone hardcover. Perhaps a reprint of Marquez’s collected stories or novellas might have been a better place to include this posthumous publication to drum up interest instead of being received on its own, though completists and long-time fans of the author will certainly be pleased to receive this meager offering.
3/5
Marquez’s original manuscript complete with notes, as printed as the endpapers in this publication.’
Publishing is always a gamble, especially when the author isn’t around to have any say. You’ve likely heard the story of Max Brod betraying Franz Kafka’s wishes to have his works burned after his death, an act that has been forgiven by the literary world indebted to such works. But we also have Harper Lee’s manuscript published under dubious circumstances that was considered by many to mar the legacy of To Kill a Mockingbird. Two very different circumstances, sure, though both authors became the subject of public opinion over works they never intended to be widely read all the same. Which brings us to Until August, a book for which Gabriel García Marquez’s judgment over his manuscript was ‘This book doesn’t work. It must be destroyed.’
Originally intended as a larger novel, though set aside after five drafts so Marquez could work on Memories of My Melancholy Whores, Until Autumn is ‘not, of course, as polished as his greatest books,’ though it is “completed” in the sense that the novella reaches it’s conclusion. The first chapter had appeared, in translation by Edith Grossman, in an issue of the New Yorker in 1999 and was being read by Marquez at literary events before, frustrated with it, he found it better discarded. As his sons write in the introduction, Marquez worked on the novella in ‘a race between his artistic perfectionism and his vanishing mental faculties,’ but question if Marquez’s dementia was not hindering the writing but instead hindering his own assessment of it. ‘In an act of betrayal, we decided to put his readers’ pleasure ahead of all other considerations,’ they write, and so here we have Until Autumn, in translation by Anne McLean, released in hope that if readers ‘ are delighted, it’s possible Gabo might forgive us.’
Truthfully, it could have remained in the draft folder.
Ultimately, I'm glad I read this and feel it is valuable to have available, even if just for the academic value and insight into an icon of literature. It should be approached in good faith; if you are expecting a fully realized novella you aren't going to get that but it is still worthwhile as a draft for a much larger work that never was. This isn’t to say it is reputation damning or anything either, though one might question ulterior motives for publishing against his wishes similarly to the son’s selling Netflix the rights for One Hundred Years of Solitude despite Marquez’s wishes for it to never be adapted. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, I'll leave that to be decided by others who might find more value in having an opinion. For me however, at the end of the day, Until Autumn reads like a draft that never rises above mediocrity but still shows promise, telling the story of Ana Magdalena Bach and her pursuit for yearly infidelities as familiar places become pushed aside for a tourist economy. Every August 16th she travels to an unnamed island where her mother has been buried to leave behind flowers—gladioli to be precise though I did have a laugh about one of the men mistaking them for tulips and asking if they only came from Holland seeing as I live in Holland, Mi known for our annual Tulip Time festival and thereby enjoy having a disdain for tulips—and, after an initial sexual encounter with a stranger, becomes bent on repeating the act each year.
‘It would take several days before Ana Magdalena became aware that the changes were not to the world but to herself. She had always gone through life without looking at it, and only that year upon her return from the island did she begin to see it with chastened eyes.’
In the son’s assessment of Marquez, they write that love is ‘possibly the main subject of his entire oeuvre,’ though there is little love to be found in this brief novella. There are fingerprints of Marquez to be found in its better moments, and even a brief moment that pushes towards magical realism towards the end, though it feels a bit dated and dry. Still there is a lot going on thematically in the novella, though there are some aspects about a man writing about a woman having a mid-life crisis of sorts through the ‘delicious terror’ of a string of affairs and constant anxieties about her aging body (she ‘appraises’ her breasts in a way that reminds me why Haruki Murakami gets similar criticisms) that felt a bit eye-rolling. The spark for the story comes when, after her first encounter which had given her a sense of power and control, she finds the man has left a $20 bill in her book and this insult begins to consume her.
‘She did not know why she’d changed, but it had something to do with the twenty-dollar bill she carried around at page 116 of her book. She had suffered unbearable humiliation, without a moment’s serenity. She had wept with rage from the frustration of not knowing the identity of the man she would have to kill for debasing the memory of a happy adventure.’
It shatters her perception of life and family. ‘Her marriage,’ Marquez writes, ‘sustained thus far by a conventional happiness that avoided disagreements in order not to stumble over them, the way people hide dirt under the rug,’ begins to show signs of stress as she becomes distant and distracted, increasingly so as she notices the growing ‘extent to which she was starting to feel like a stranger in her own family.’ There is a certain charm, however, to the musical grounding of this family, all musicians, though the litany of artists and novels she reads (Dracula, The Day of the Triffids, A Journal of the Plague Year and The Ministry of Fear, all more fantastical stories of people controlled by external threats) are doing a lot of heavy lifting for character development where Marquez would likely have polished and inserted more had he continued work.
While Ana Magdalena finds her yearnings for a yearly night of passion to be a search for a sense of empowerment, she sees it as debasing in others (likely as a reaction against herself), such as her disdain for her daughter’s sexual activity and desire to become a nun for the Catholic order, the Discalced Carmelites, which Ana Magdalena believes is just a cover to use nuns as sex workers. It’s a sort of sexual scolding that feels very dated, though perhaps this is also in line with the secondary theme of modernization occurring in the novella. Each year Ana Madgalena finds the island more and more overrun with tourists and increasingly modernized to fit a tourist economy. ‘More towering cliffs of glass go up every year while the village grew more and more impoverished,’ Marquez writes, criticizing the gentrification of island communities that push out the poor in order to accommodate wealthy foreigners. Ana Magdalena’s fears about her own aging are only amplified by her feelings of the world passing her by, with a few comical moments in a high-tech hotel of ‘repressive modernity that ended up in medieval moralism.’ But still this is why old men’s thoughts on women having affairs to feel better about aging should be left in the draft folder.
I have warm memories of Marquez. I think back fondly to the time I first read One Hundred Years of Solitude laid out in the spring grass alongside the river that cut through my university campus, only stopping when the light became to dim. This won't reinstill those feelings, but it was nice to be in his words again. Until August is not a bad novella but it also isn't much of a testament to the lasting power of Marquez’s works either. While it is interesting to see what he was working on I’m also not sure it needed to be published as a standalone hardcover. Perhaps a reprint of Marquez’s collected stories or novellas might have been a better place to include this posthumous publication to drum up interest instead of being received on its own, though completists and long-time fans of the author will certainly be pleased to receive this meager offering.
3/5
Marquez’s original manuscript complete with notes, as printed as the endpapers in this publication.’
March 21, 2024
Los hijos de Gabo debieron haberle hecho caso a su papá y no publicar este libro.
No es una mala historia, solo que está incompleta.
Hay muchas escenas y capítulos que me hacen comprender la perspectiva del autor ante la publicación de estas páginas. Hasta él mismo sabía que le hacían falta algo...
Pronto haré una reseña en mi canal. Tengo mucho que decir.
Calificación: 2.5/5
No es una mala historia, solo que está incompleta.
Hay muchas escenas y capítulos que me hacen comprender la perspectiva del autor ante la publicación de estas páginas. Hasta él mismo sabía que le hacían falta algo...
Pronto haré una reseña en mi canal. Tengo mucho que decir.
Calificación: 2.5/5
March 28, 2024
¿Vale la pena? Solo si tienen una hora y media libre y no tienen nada mejor que leer. Todo se queda a medias, desarrollo de personajes e historia. No entiendo el afán de publicar un libro solo por el prestigio del autor.
March 31, 2024
3.5⭐ (rounded up because I liked the ending)
Until August by Gabriel García Márquez (translated by Anne McLean) revolves around forty-six-year-old Ana Magdalena Bach and her annual visits (on the 16th of August) to the island where her mother is buried. Ana’s itinerary includes a visit to the cemetery where she places a bouquet of her mother’s favorite flowers and indulges in a one-night stand with a different man every year before she returns to her family – her musician husband of over two decades and her two adult children. One of her trysts ends in a humiliating gesture and she carries both the emotional and physical reminder of the same through the years. Every visit to the island and her experiences with the men she meets inspires her to reflect on her actions, her marriage and her family. In sparse prose we are given insight into her hopes and motivations, her internal conflict and much more in a journey of self- explorations with a thought-provoking ending.
A departure (in terms of theme and approach) from the nature of Gabriel García Márquez’s more famous works, this is not the author at his best but for those of us who have enjoyed the author’s work in the past, it won’t be difficult to appreciate the segments that shine with author’s brilliant writing. But sadly, that is all we can expect from this short novella. I have no doubt had this manuscript been developed into a full-length novel with well-fleshed-out characters, and their motivations and relationships explored deeper; this would have been a worthy addition to the author’s oeuvre.
Please read the Preface to the novel where the author’s sons discuss their decision to publish this novella posthumously despite his wishes to discard the draft manuscript. A segment of this novella (translated by Edith Grossman) was previously published (1999) in the form of a short story.
I appreciate the publisher including printed pages from the author’s unfinished manuscript in the end pages of the hardcover edition. This in itself makes this a copy I will cherish as a part of my personal collection just like my treasured hardback edition of Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky that includes similar material between its covers.
- Do I regret reading this book? No
- Do I think this unfinished manuscript should have been published as a novella? Probably not.
- Am I happy that I could read part of what could have been another masterpiece written by one of
my favorite authors? Absolutely
Many thanks to Knopf for the gifted copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Note: The short story Meeting in August (translated by Edith Grossman) was published in the December 6, 1990 issue of The New Yorker Magazine and is available in the Archives section. I don't think this can be accessed without a subscription, but I am sharing the link here
Connect with me! ✏ Instagram ✏ My Blog ✏ The StoryGraph
Until August by Gabriel García Márquez (translated by Anne McLean) revolves around forty-six-year-old Ana Magdalena Bach and her annual visits (on the 16th of August) to the island where her mother is buried. Ana’s itinerary includes a visit to the cemetery where she places a bouquet of her mother’s favorite flowers and indulges in a one-night stand with a different man every year before she returns to her family – her musician husband of over two decades and her two adult children. One of her trysts ends in a humiliating gesture and she carries both the emotional and physical reminder of the same through the years. Every visit to the island and her experiences with the men she meets inspires her to reflect on her actions, her marriage and her family. In sparse prose we are given insight into her hopes and motivations, her internal conflict and much more in a journey of self- explorations with a thought-provoking ending.
A departure (in terms of theme and approach) from the nature of Gabriel García Márquez’s more famous works, this is not the author at his best but for those of us who have enjoyed the author’s work in the past, it won’t be difficult to appreciate the segments that shine with author’s brilliant writing. But sadly, that is all we can expect from this short novella. I have no doubt had this manuscript been developed into a full-length novel with well-fleshed-out characters, and their motivations and relationships explored deeper; this would have been a worthy addition to the author’s oeuvre.
Please read the Preface to the novel where the author’s sons discuss their decision to publish this novella posthumously despite his wishes to discard the draft manuscript. A segment of this novella (translated by Edith Grossman) was previously published (1999) in the form of a short story.
I appreciate the publisher including printed pages from the author’s unfinished manuscript in the end pages of the hardcover edition. This in itself makes this a copy I will cherish as a part of my personal collection just like my treasured hardback edition of Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky that includes similar material between its covers.
- Do I regret reading this book? No
- Do I think this unfinished manuscript should have been published as a novella? Probably not.
- Am I happy that I could read part of what could have been another masterpiece written by one of
my favorite authors? Absolutely
Many thanks to Knopf for the gifted copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Note: The short story Meeting in August (translated by Edith Grossman) was published in the December 6, 1990 issue of The New Yorker Magazine and is available in the Archives section. I don't think this can be accessed without a subscription, but I am sharing the link here
Connect with me! ✏ Instagram ✏ My Blog ✏ The StoryGraph
April 3, 2024
3.7
Si quieres quedar cautivado leyendo una gran novela de Gabriel García Márquez, no leas su nuevo libro póstumo: “En agosto nos vemos”, porque esta pequeña historia no estaba destinada a ser una obra excelsa de la literatura, y Gabo lo sabía, pero sus hijos no (o más bien decidieron ignorarlo).
Esta es una historia que el Nobel de literatura descartó en sus últimos años porque no terminó siendo lo que él tenía planeado. Pero años después sus hijos dieron con el manuscrito y pensaron que no estaba tan mal, así que contactaron con un editor de Random House para que editara este libro con algunos cambios que Gabo tenía anotados, además de otros que el editor consideró necesarios para que la historia tuviera coherencia y continuidad. Y es que uno de los problemas de salud que padeció Gabo en sus últimos días fue su deterioro mental, y de alguna forma esta obra muestra ese esfuerzo del escritor de seguir en el oficio que tanto amaba. Por eso yo diría que esta es una novela más apta para personas que ya hayan leído a Gabo y quieran descubrir esta otra parte de él en una historia sencilla, que transmite una sensación de nostalgia y de lo que pudo ser, pero no fue, pues está inacabada y se siente así; es más bien un relato para pasar un buen momento y para pensar en el concepto de la libertad y en las personas que podríamos ser si dejamos a un lado los prejuicios y los compromisos que nos reclaman. Me gustó que García Márquez haya elegido a una mujer como protagonista, pues eso da al libro una posibilidad más interesante de explorar los temas de identidad y liberación que aborda aquí.
Si quieres quedar cautivado leyendo una gran novela de Gabriel García Márquez, no leas su nuevo libro póstumo: “En agosto nos vemos”, porque esta pequeña historia no estaba destinada a ser una obra excelsa de la literatura, y Gabo lo sabía, pero sus hijos no (o más bien decidieron ignorarlo).
Esta es una historia que el Nobel de literatura descartó en sus últimos años porque no terminó siendo lo que él tenía planeado. Pero años después sus hijos dieron con el manuscrito y pensaron que no estaba tan mal, así que contactaron con un editor de Random House para que editara este libro con algunos cambios que Gabo tenía anotados, además de otros que el editor consideró necesarios para que la historia tuviera coherencia y continuidad. Y es que uno de los problemas de salud que padeció Gabo en sus últimos días fue su deterioro mental, y de alguna forma esta obra muestra ese esfuerzo del escritor de seguir en el oficio que tanto amaba. Por eso yo diría que esta es una novela más apta para personas que ya hayan leído a Gabo y quieran descubrir esta otra parte de él en una historia sencilla, que transmite una sensación de nostalgia y de lo que pudo ser, pero no fue, pues está inacabada y se siente así; es más bien un relato para pasar un buen momento y para pensar en el concepto de la libertad y en las personas que podríamos ser si dejamos a un lado los prejuicios y los compromisos que nos reclaman. Me gustó que García Márquez haya elegido a una mujer como protagonista, pues eso da al libro una posibilidad más interesante de explorar los temas de identidad y liberación que aborda aquí.
March 14, 2024
“She had repeated this trip every August 16 at the same time, with the same taxi and the same florist, under the fiery sun of that destitute cemetery, to place a bouquet of fresh gladioli on her mother’s grave.”
Is this a lost masterpiece? No. Is it a travesty that should never have seen the light of day? Also no.
Releasing a posthumous work by a beloved author is always going to be a fraught exercise, even more so when the author in question is widely considered one of the 20th century’s best. Pre-publication hype is countervailed with confected outrage about ‘betraying’ the author’s wishes.
Gabriel García Márquez did not think Until August ready to be published, but it is by no means ‘rough’ or incomplete. Per the explanatory notes, this was the fifth draft. It may not have been perfectly polished to the author’s highest standard, and there is a suggestion that it was intended as a part of a larger whole — a cycle of novellas — yet it works just fine as a standalone story and is not some kind of inferior work.
That said, if you have not read García Márquez before, don’t start here. Until August is not characteristic of his famous style, containing no magical realism (although you could argue the book’s ending contains just the slightest hint) or baroque prose flourishes. The style is spare and pared back, the story simple and repetitive in the manner of a piece of music. The overall effect is of old-fashioned charm and elegance mingled with tawdriness, like evening wear scented with sweat and booze. It is a very short work (despite claims of ‘novel’ on the cover), barely cracking 100 pages, and that is with large type and wide margins.
I can remember reading One Hundred Years of Solitude and a switch flipping in my brain: books can be this? It felt like graduating to an entirely different level of reading experience. Until August is not likely to have that effect on anyone (what an incredibly high bar!) It feels like what it is: a minor work of a master… and strangely what it is not: an obscure 20th century classic. 3.5 stars.
Is this a lost masterpiece? No. Is it a travesty that should never have seen the light of day? Also no.
Releasing a posthumous work by a beloved author is always going to be a fraught exercise, even more so when the author in question is widely considered one of the 20th century’s best. Pre-publication hype is countervailed with confected outrage about ‘betraying’ the author’s wishes.
Gabriel García Márquez did not think Until August ready to be published, but it is by no means ‘rough’ or incomplete. Per the explanatory notes, this was the fifth draft. It may not have been perfectly polished to the author’s highest standard, and there is a suggestion that it was intended as a part of a larger whole — a cycle of novellas — yet it works just fine as a standalone story and is not some kind of inferior work.
That said, if you have not read García Márquez before, don’t start here. Until August is not characteristic of his famous style, containing no magical realism (although you could argue the book’s ending contains just the slightest hint) or baroque prose flourishes. The style is spare and pared back, the story simple and repetitive in the manner of a piece of music. The overall effect is of old-fashioned charm and elegance mingled with tawdriness, like evening wear scented with sweat and booze. It is a very short work (despite claims of ‘novel’ on the cover), barely cracking 100 pages, and that is with large type and wide margins.
I can remember reading One Hundred Years of Solitude and a switch flipping in my brain: books can be this? It felt like graduating to an entirely different level of reading experience. Until August is not likely to have that effect on anyone (what an incredibly high bar!) It feels like what it is: a minor work of a master… and strangely what it is not: an obscure 20th century classic. 3.5 stars.
April 27, 2024
“This book doesn’t work. It must be destroyed.” This is what the Nobel Prize winner said about this book, his last attempt to write in the face of his diminishing mental capacity.
On 16th of August of every year she travels to the island her mother is buried in to place a bouquet of fresh gladioli on her grave.
Her name is Ana Magdalena Bach. She has two grown children and loves her husband with a passion, yet each year on that particular night on the island she has a one night stand with a complete stranger.
To be honest, I didn’t understand the main point of the book. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought it was written by an enthusiastic twenty something amateur writer. At its best it was a mediocre writing and at its worst, well, it was a mediocre writing by one of the best authors in the world.
The book doesn’t deserve to be destroyed, but rather ought not to have been published maybe?
On 16th of August of every year she travels to the island her mother is buried in to place a bouquet of fresh gladioli on her grave.
Her name is Ana Magdalena Bach. She has two grown children and loves her husband with a passion, yet each year on that particular night on the island she has a one night stand with a complete stranger.
To be honest, I didn’t understand the main point of the book. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought it was written by an enthusiastic twenty something amateur writer. At its best it was a mediocre writing and at its worst, well, it was a mediocre writing by one of the best authors in the world.
The book doesn’t deserve to be destroyed, but rather ought not to have been published maybe?
June 12, 2024
The idea for this unfinished novella is great, but it's apparent why Nobel laureate García Márquez didn't want it to be published, and his sons should have respected his decision: Not only does it show that the dementia-stricken author was unable to polish up the manuscript as he envisioned, many scenes suffer from clichéd imagery and are way too conventional (in the sense of: bland) for the master of magical realism.
"Until August" tells the story of a married woman who, every August, visits the grave of her mother on a Caribbean island and indulges in a different affair. The text shows how Gabo intended this to be about the parallels between mother and daughter, about the role of women, about love, sex and marriage, and it could have made a great story if life would have been fair and let the great man work out his narrative tricks. But, alas, as it is, the book we got has Haruki Murakami-levels of cringe-worthy sex scenes (sorry, Haruki, I love you, but...meeehh) that involve the flowery language ascribed to women and found in paperback romance. Gabo's effort is, unfortunately, not exactly the Garth Greenwell-school of no-holds-barred sex poetics. And then there is everything that naturally comes with a manuscript: The plot holes, the shaky pacing, the illogical character development...
I wish there was a finished version, as this could have become amazing.
"Until August" tells the story of a married woman who, every August, visits the grave of her mother on a Caribbean island and indulges in a different affair. The text shows how Gabo intended this to be about the parallels between mother and daughter, about the role of women, about love, sex and marriage, and it could have made a great story if life would have been fair and let the great man work out his narrative tricks. But, alas, as it is, the book we got has Haruki Murakami-levels of cringe-worthy sex scenes (sorry, Haruki, I love you, but...meeehh) that involve the flowery language ascribed to women and found in paperback romance. Gabo's effort is, unfortunately, not exactly the Garth Greenwell-school of no-holds-barred sex poetics. And then there is everything that naturally comes with a manuscript: The plot holes, the shaky pacing, the illogical character development...
I wish there was a finished version, as this could have become amazing.
August 21, 2024
He leído muchos comentarios sobre "En agosto nos vemos" bastante negativos y desafortunados, comparándolo con "Cien años de soledad" y demás obras, y esto no puede ser.
Yo los invitaría a leerlo con otra perspectiva, con otros ojos, y con todo el respeto que el autor merece por el estado en el que él se encontraba mientras se debatía si se publicaba o no, sus razones tenía.
En esta reseña me enfocaré 100% en la obra literaria, dejando a lado la controversia alrededor de su publicación.
En este libro Gabo toma a una mujer como el centro de toda la historia, Ana Magdalena Bach, una mujer de 46 años, que lleva casada casi 30, y que todos los 16 de agosto va a una isla a visitar la tumba de su madre, le lleva flores y le platica cómo va.
Ana Magdalena ha sido buena esposa, buena madre, pero justo en estas visitas a la isla se da cuenta que no está satisfecha con su vida ni con su matrimonio y decide explorar su libertad y sexualidad teniendo aventuras con desconocidos cada año, de forma que regresa a su casa renovada y esperando el siguiente año.
Este libro consta de 5 capítulos, a diferencia del resto de la obra de Gabo, se sitúa en la época contemporánea (2000's), y muchas situaciones modernas se ven reflejadas en sus páginas.
Lo que celebro, es que este libro es una explosión de cultura, es un homenaje a artistas, compositores, libros y escritores que fueron importantes para el escritor, y también refleja de forma muy evidente su etapa en México al mencionar particularidades de nuestro país.
Vemos el estilo de Gabo presente en todo el libro, el olfato, la música, el humor, la ironía, y sobre todo, el amor como eje rector de este libro. Detecté solo un par de elementos de realismo mágico pero sí los hay. Caso contrario con el uso de diálogos que en esta ocasión es bastante y que no es nada común en el resto de sus libros.
Me gustó el libro, lógicamente no tiene comparación con sus obras más importantes, pero fue una gran experiencia leer algo nuevo del autor, volver a conectar con él.
Evidentemente tiene oportunidades, partes inconclusas, reiteración de puntos, pero que jamás juzgaría como malos, sino todo lo contrario e invito a los lectores y bookstagrammers a hacer lo mismo, más allá si les gustó o no, es totalmente injusto incluso evaluarlo, repito, por el contexto de su creación y publicación.
Esta obra demuestra el esfuerzo de Gabo en etapas complicadas, su amor, compromiso con en la literatura y nosotros.
Con todo respeto solo diré GRACIAS GABO por este último regalo que nos dejaste.
Yo los invitaría a leerlo con otra perspectiva, con otros ojos, y con todo el respeto que el autor merece por el estado en el que él se encontraba mientras se debatía si se publicaba o no, sus razones tenía.
En esta reseña me enfocaré 100% en la obra literaria, dejando a lado la controversia alrededor de su publicación.
En este libro Gabo toma a una mujer como el centro de toda la historia, Ana Magdalena Bach, una mujer de 46 años, que lleva casada casi 30, y que todos los 16 de agosto va a una isla a visitar la tumba de su madre, le lleva flores y le platica cómo va.
Ana Magdalena ha sido buena esposa, buena madre, pero justo en estas visitas a la isla se da cuenta que no está satisfecha con su vida ni con su matrimonio y decide explorar su libertad y sexualidad teniendo aventuras con desconocidos cada año, de forma que regresa a su casa renovada y esperando el siguiente año.
Este libro consta de 5 capítulos, a diferencia del resto de la obra de Gabo, se sitúa en la época contemporánea (2000's), y muchas situaciones modernas se ven reflejadas en sus páginas.
Lo que celebro, es que este libro es una explosión de cultura, es un homenaje a artistas, compositores, libros y escritores que fueron importantes para el escritor, y también refleja de forma muy evidente su etapa en México al mencionar particularidades de nuestro país.
Vemos el estilo de Gabo presente en todo el libro, el olfato, la música, el humor, la ironía, y sobre todo, el amor como eje rector de este libro. Detecté solo un par de elementos de realismo mágico pero sí los hay. Caso contrario con el uso de diálogos que en esta ocasión es bastante y que no es nada común en el resto de sus libros.
Me gustó el libro, lógicamente no tiene comparación con sus obras más importantes, pero fue una gran experiencia leer algo nuevo del autor, volver a conectar con él.
Evidentemente tiene oportunidades, partes inconclusas, reiteración de puntos, pero que jamás juzgaría como malos, sino todo lo contrario e invito a los lectores y bookstagrammers a hacer lo mismo, más allá si les gustó o no, es totalmente injusto incluso evaluarlo, repito, por el contexto de su creación y publicación.
Esta obra demuestra el esfuerzo de Gabo en etapas complicadas, su amor, compromiso con en la literatura y nosotros.
Con todo respeto solo diré GRACIAS GABO por este último regalo que nos dejaste.
March 18, 2024
A short unpublished (and maybe unfinished) novella by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 'Until August' remains more of a curiosity for his fans. It is forgettable, but this story about a married woman who has yearly one-night stands with different men probably features the most modern woman created by the author.
September 16, 2024
2024/42
Review in English below
En agosto nos vemos es de esos libros que cumplen con las características de quedarse en tres estrellas, y que a pesar de ser una lectura que se disfruta por momentos, no logra ser una obra que sobresalga por ningún lado. De hecho, mientras lo leía me daba la sensación de que le faltaba algo, como si estuviera incompleto a pesar de que, de alguna manera, la historia tiene un final aceptable, aunque abrupto por donde quiera que se le mire.
Estuve muy escéptico a leer este libro, pero me animó el hecho de que el audiolibro no toma más de dos horas y fue perfecto para una mañana lavando la ropa de una semana y media, especialmente cuando, aprovechando el intenso calor y sol de la temporada —muy inusual la intensidad para estas fechas, además de insoportable—, queda perfecto el tender la ropa afuera, esperar quizá solo treinta o cuarenta minutos a que se seque por completo, y antes de que quede tostada como una hoja seca que está a punto de hacerse añicos, bajarla y doblarla. Estaba justo colgando la última prenda en el clóset cuando el audiolibro terminó y no pude evitar pensar que, o se había ido el internet y se había parado de repente, o que estaba incompleto. Seguía pensándolo, hasta que leyendo algún par de reseñas por aquí me percaté de que no era el único con tal impresión.
En agosto nos vemos es una lectura ágil, sencilla, nada pretenciosa y no busca ser una obra maestra. Está muy lejos de ser una novela de la talla de Cien años de soledad, y ni siquiera se observa la esencia de García Márquez en la historia. Es recomendable solo si tienes una hora y media libre, si no tienes algún otro libro que leer al momento —estoy casi seguro de que sí lo tienes—, o, como yo, que puedas ocuparte de algo más mientras escuchas el audiolibro, para posteriormente seguir con tu siguiente lectura.
----
Until August is one kind of book that meets the requirements of being rated three stars, and that despite being a read that is enjoyable at times, fails to be a piece of literature that stands out in any way. In fact, while I was reading it I felt that something was missing, as if it were incomplete even though, in some way, the story has an acceptable ending, albeit abrupt from every angle.
I was very skeptical about reading this novel. Still, I was encouraged by the fact that the audiobook takes no more than two hours to listen to and was perfect for a morning doing the weekly laundry, especially when, taking advantage of the intense heat and sun of the season—very unusual for these days, if you ask me, as well as unbearable—it is perfect to hang the clothes outside, wait perhaps only thirty or forty minutes for them to dry completely, and before they are toasted like a dry leaf that is about to shatter, take them down and fold them. I was just hanging up the last item of clothing in the closet when the audiobook ended and I couldn't help but think that either the internet had gone down and the audiobook suddenly stopped, or it was incomplete. I kept thinking that until I read a couple of reviews here on the app and realized I wasn't the only one with that impression.
Until August is a quick, simple, unpretentious read that doesn't aim to be a masterpiece. It's far from having the complexity of One Hundred Years of Solitude, and you don't even see the essence of García Márquez anywhere in the story. It's recommended only if you have an hour and a half to spare if you don't have any other books to read at the moment—I'm almost sure you do—or, like me, if you can keep yourself busy with something else while listening to the audiobook so that you can pick up your next reading right away.
My rating on a scale of 1 to 5:
Quality of writing [3/5]
Pace [4/5]
Plot development [3/5]
Characters [3/5]
Enjoyability [3/5]
Insightfulness [3/5]
Easy of reading [4/5]
Photos/Illustrations [N/A]
Total [23/7] = 3.28
Review in English below
En agosto nos vemos es de esos libros que cumplen con las características de quedarse en tres estrellas, y que a pesar de ser una lectura que se disfruta por momentos, no logra ser una obra que sobresalga por ningún lado. De hecho, mientras lo leía me daba la sensación de que le faltaba algo, como si estuviera incompleto a pesar de que, de alguna manera, la historia tiene un final aceptable, aunque abrupto por donde quiera que se le mire.
Estuve muy escéptico a leer este libro, pero me animó el hecho de que el audiolibro no toma más de dos horas y fue perfecto para una mañana lavando la ropa de una semana y media, especialmente cuando, aprovechando el intenso calor y sol de la temporada —muy inusual la intensidad para estas fechas, además de insoportable—, queda perfecto el tender la ropa afuera, esperar quizá solo treinta o cuarenta minutos a que se seque por completo, y antes de que quede tostada como una hoja seca que está a punto de hacerse añicos, bajarla y doblarla. Estaba justo colgando la última prenda en el clóset cuando el audiolibro terminó y no pude evitar pensar que, o se había ido el internet y se había parado de repente, o que estaba incompleto. Seguía pensándolo, hasta que leyendo algún par de reseñas por aquí me percaté de que no era el único con tal impresión.
En agosto nos vemos es una lectura ágil, sencilla, nada pretenciosa y no busca ser una obra maestra. Está muy lejos de ser una novela de la talla de Cien años de soledad, y ni siquiera se observa la esencia de García Márquez en la historia. Es recomendable solo si tienes una hora y media libre, si no tienes algún otro libro que leer al momento —estoy casi seguro de que sí lo tienes—, o, como yo, que puedas ocuparte de algo más mientras escuchas el audiolibro, para posteriormente seguir con tu siguiente lectura.
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Until August is one kind of book that meets the requirements of being rated three stars, and that despite being a read that is enjoyable at times, fails to be a piece of literature that stands out in any way. In fact, while I was reading it I felt that something was missing, as if it were incomplete even though, in some way, the story has an acceptable ending, albeit abrupt from every angle.
I was very skeptical about reading this novel. Still, I was encouraged by the fact that the audiobook takes no more than two hours to listen to and was perfect for a morning doing the weekly laundry, especially when, taking advantage of the intense heat and sun of the season—very unusual for these days, if you ask me, as well as unbearable—it is perfect to hang the clothes outside, wait perhaps only thirty or forty minutes for them to dry completely, and before they are toasted like a dry leaf that is about to shatter, take them down and fold them. I was just hanging up the last item of clothing in the closet when the audiobook ended and I couldn't help but think that either the internet had gone down and the audiobook suddenly stopped, or it was incomplete. I kept thinking that until I read a couple of reviews here on the app and realized I wasn't the only one with that impression.
Until August is a quick, simple, unpretentious read that doesn't aim to be a masterpiece. It's far from having the complexity of One Hundred Years of Solitude, and you don't even see the essence of García Márquez anywhere in the story. It's recommended only if you have an hour and a half to spare if you don't have any other books to read at the moment—I'm almost sure you do—or, like me, if you can keep yourself busy with something else while listening to the audiobook so that you can pick up your next reading right away.
My rating on a scale of 1 to 5:
Quality of writing [3/5]
Pace [4/5]
Plot development [3/5]
Characters [3/5]
Enjoyability [3/5]
Insightfulness [3/5]
Easy of reading [4/5]
Photos/Illustrations [N/A]
Total [23/7] = 3.28
March 7, 2024
Rodrigo, Gonzalo, não se preocupem: acho que o Gabo vos perdoa. 🫶
É um privilégio podermos ler, dez anos após a sua morte, uma história inédita de um dos maiores escritores que o mundo nos deu — o meu preferido, deixem-me já dizer. Por saber que ele não trabalhou esta história como queria (a versão publicada é a 5.ª e o Gabo certamente iria querer trabalhar mais a história se a saúde o tivesse permitido), peguei no livro com a emoção de quem tem um livro realmente novo do seu autor preferido, mas sem saber ao certo o que me esperava. Podia ter sido o pior livro de sempre que eu ficaria agradecida por o termos podido ler.
Acabo o livro agradecida por o termos podido ler, sim, mas também agradecida por terem decidido publicá-lo. É uma história curta, com uma personagem que me lembrou a Eliete e com um daqueles finais à García Márquez, que mais ninguém consegue fazer tão bem quanto ele. É um livro diferente, que se lê num sopro e que só pode deixar-nos maravilhados por percebermos que, já com a doença a fazer das suas, Gabo continuava a ter uma visão tão própria e tão bela do mundo — até do mundo desta mulher.
Talvez para alguns fique a questão sobre o que teria sido esta história se tivesse sido devidamente trabalhada, sem as repetições e deslizes, mas para mim fica uma certeza: só se pode tratar de genialidade — o que mais explica esta história ter sido criada como foi?
É um privilégio podermos ler, dez anos após a sua morte, uma história inédita de um dos maiores escritores que o mundo nos deu — o meu preferido, deixem-me já dizer. Por saber que ele não trabalhou esta história como queria (a versão publicada é a 5.ª e o Gabo certamente iria querer trabalhar mais a história se a saúde o tivesse permitido), peguei no livro com a emoção de quem tem um livro realmente novo do seu autor preferido, mas sem saber ao certo o que me esperava. Podia ter sido o pior livro de sempre que eu ficaria agradecida por o termos podido ler.
Acabo o livro agradecida por o termos podido ler, sim, mas também agradecida por terem decidido publicá-lo. É uma história curta, com uma personagem que me lembrou a Eliete e com um daqueles finais à García Márquez, que mais ninguém consegue fazer tão bem quanto ele. É um livro diferente, que se lê num sopro e que só pode deixar-nos maravilhados por percebermos que, já com a doença a fazer das suas, Gabo continuava a ter uma visão tão própria e tão bela do mundo — até do mundo desta mulher.
Talvez para alguns fique a questão sobre o que teria sido esta história se tivesse sido devidamente trabalhada, sem as repetições e deslizes, mas para mim fica uma certeza: só se pode tratar de genialidade — o que mais explica esta história ter sido criada como foi?
Read
July 16, 2024“Estão aqui presentes, então, temas como o luto e a emancipação feminina e sexual; ou, pelo menos, inícios de temas. Isto porque, sendo um manuscrito inacabado e com o qual García Márquez não estava assim tão satisfeito, nota-se que não há o devido desenvolvimento destas ideias e até da protagonista. Claro que existe a qualidade que costumamos associar ao escritor, simplesmente não está maturada da mesma forma que nos seus restantes livros e contos.”
Review completa em: https://ritadanova.blogs.sapo.pt/vemo....
Review completa em: https://ritadanova.blogs.sapo.pt/vemo....
March 9, 2024
Libro muy corto que mantiene la esencia caribeña de las novelas del autor y que deja sabor a poco. Me ha parecido que había cierta volatilidad en el texto, que no se profundiza o termina de pulir la historia ni los personajes. Pero es una novela con los destellos literarios, poéticos, propios de García Màrquez y con una historia curiosa: una mujer que cada agosto viaja por una noche a la isla donde está enterrada su madre para ponerle gladiolos y busca un amante cada vez.
Ligera y entretenida. Sin màs.
Ligera y entretenida. Sin màs.
March 26, 2024
Die Reichen und Schönen unter sich. Eine Telenovela in Kurzform.
Inhalt: 1/5 Sterne (allegorische Telenovela)
Form: 4/5 Sterne (atmosphärische Beschreibungen)
Komposition: 2/5 Sterne (nur ein Erzählrumpf)
Leseerlebnis: 2/5 Sterne (zu kurz, um zu wirken)
Gabriel García Márquez skizziert in dem wenig umfänglichen Roman „Wir sehen uns im August“ die Suche Ana Magdalena Bachs nach Romantik, Intensität und Sinnlichkeitserfüllung. Die Protagonistin fährt einmal pro Jahr auf eine Insel in die Karibik, wo ihre Mutter begraben liegt. Dorthin bringt sie ein Strauß Gladiolen, gedenkt ihrer Mutter, verbringt eine Nacht in einem Hotel und fährt zurück in ihr vermeintlich glückliches Leben mit Ehemann, Tochter und Sohn. Doch dann geschieht etwas Unvorhergesehenes:
Es hatte zwei Uhr geschlagen, als ein Donner das Haus bis ins Fundament erschütterte und der Wind den Riegel des Fensters aufdrückte. Schnell schloss sie es wieder, und im plötzlichen Mittagslicht eines weiteren Blitzes sah sie die aufgewühlte Lagune und, durch den Regen hindurch, den riesigen Mond am Horizont und die blauen Reiher atemlos im Sturm flattern. Er schlief.
Und der, der dort schläft, ist ein Unbekannter. Fast aus dem Unbewussten heraus begeht sie einen Seitensprung. Sie erlebte eine erfüllte Liebesnacht. Der Unbekannte verschwindet. Sie träumt weiter, hin und her gerissen, und ein Jahr später fährt sie wieder auf die Insel, setzt ihr Ritual fort und vermag nicht anders, als dem Wunsch nach Wiederholung des Abenteuers nachzugeben, und wieder geschieht etwas Überraschendes:
»Sie kleiden das Kleid.« Der Satz beeindruckte sie. Unbewusst fuhr sie sich mit den Handflächen über den Körper, den makellosen Ausschnitt, die lebendigen Brüste, die nackten Arme, um sich zu vergewissern, dass ihr Körper wirklich da war, wo sie ihn spürte. Dann schaute sie erneut über die Schulter, nun nicht mehr, um den Besitzer der Stimme kennenzulernen, sondern um ihn mit den schönsten Augen, die er je sehen sollte, in Besitz zu nehmen.
Die Diktion von Gabriel García Márquez lässt überraschende Vokabeln zu, erzeugt eine atmosphärische Stimmung von Wiedersehen und Abschied und lässt vor dem inneren Auge den Nimbus eines Geheimnis um die Insel, die Veränderungen, um das Leben in maritalen Architekturen, die zu Entfremdungen führen, entstehen.
Auffällig, und etwas störend, durchziehen den Text viele Zitate, die nur in einem gewollt-allegorischen Zusammenhang mit der Erzählung in Verbindung gebracht werden können. Da wären bspw. die Bücher, die die Protagonistin liest: Bram Stokers „Dracula“, Daniel Defoes „Die Pest zu London“, Graham Greenes „Das Ministerium der Angst“, „Die Mars-Chroniken“ von Ray Bradbury, nur um nur einige zu nennen. Desweiteren werden viele Musikstücke des typischen Klassik-Kanons genannt, vom plakativen Namen der Protagonistin einmal ganz abgesehen, um eine heile Welt der Oberfläche zu illustrieren, die untergründig durch sinnliche Lust untergraben wird.
Sie staunte über die Könnerschaft eines Salonmagiers, mit der er sie Stück für Stück entblößte, als häute er eine Zwiebel, während seine Fingerspitzen sie kaum berührten. Bei dem ersten Stoß glaubte sie vor Schmerz zu vergehen und erfuhr die schreckliche Erschütterung einer Färse, die zerlegt wird.
Der Roman verdichtet das schlechte Gewissen eine Spur zu stark. Die Szenen erscheinen fragmentarisch, die Situationen nur angedeutet, die Figuren verlieren, bis auf Ana Magdalena Bach selbst jede Kontur. Insbesondere das Ende fällt abrupt in den Leseprozess und markiert also, was Gabriel García Márquez dem Vorwort zu entnehmen, selbst empfand, „Wir sehen uns im August“ ist ein Fragment. Wer die Thematik aus einem ähnlichen Horizont bearbeitet lesen möchte, erhält mit Fernando Namoras „Os Clandestinos“ ("Im Verborgenen") nachhaltigere Kost.
„Wir sehen uns im August“ bleibt eine Skizze eines Romans, der, vielleicht leider, nie das Licht der Welt erblicken durfte.
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Update: Ich ändere nach Diskussion und eingehendere Analyse meine Bewertung der
Komposition: auf 4/5 Sterne (Crescendo einer Aufgabe). García Márquez hat textgestalterisch eindeutig einen Plan der Fortschrittskritik angelegt, der mir erst im Nachhinein klar geworden ist. Daher nun: 3 Sterne. Größte Schwäche bleiben für mich die unverknüpften Allegorien und Anspielungen, die ornamentaler Zierat sind und dem Text selbst nichts als losen Verbundschmuch hinzufügen, bspw. der Bezug auf klassische Musik und Literatur.
Inhalt: 1/5 Sterne (allegorische Telenovela)
Form: 4/5 Sterne (atmosphärische Beschreibungen)
Komposition: 2/5 Sterne (nur ein Erzählrumpf)
Leseerlebnis: 2/5 Sterne (zu kurz, um zu wirken)
Gabriel García Márquez skizziert in dem wenig umfänglichen Roman „Wir sehen uns im August“ die Suche Ana Magdalena Bachs nach Romantik, Intensität und Sinnlichkeitserfüllung. Die Protagonistin fährt einmal pro Jahr auf eine Insel in die Karibik, wo ihre Mutter begraben liegt. Dorthin bringt sie ein Strauß Gladiolen, gedenkt ihrer Mutter, verbringt eine Nacht in einem Hotel und fährt zurück in ihr vermeintlich glückliches Leben mit Ehemann, Tochter und Sohn. Doch dann geschieht etwas Unvorhergesehenes:
Es hatte zwei Uhr geschlagen, als ein Donner das Haus bis ins Fundament erschütterte und der Wind den Riegel des Fensters aufdrückte. Schnell schloss sie es wieder, und im plötzlichen Mittagslicht eines weiteren Blitzes sah sie die aufgewühlte Lagune und, durch den Regen hindurch, den riesigen Mond am Horizont und die blauen Reiher atemlos im Sturm flattern. Er schlief.
Und der, der dort schläft, ist ein Unbekannter. Fast aus dem Unbewussten heraus begeht sie einen Seitensprung. Sie erlebte eine erfüllte Liebesnacht. Der Unbekannte verschwindet. Sie träumt weiter, hin und her gerissen, und ein Jahr später fährt sie wieder auf die Insel, setzt ihr Ritual fort und vermag nicht anders, als dem Wunsch nach Wiederholung des Abenteuers nachzugeben, und wieder geschieht etwas Überraschendes:
»Sie kleiden das Kleid.« Der Satz beeindruckte sie. Unbewusst fuhr sie sich mit den Handflächen über den Körper, den makellosen Ausschnitt, die lebendigen Brüste, die nackten Arme, um sich zu vergewissern, dass ihr Körper wirklich da war, wo sie ihn spürte. Dann schaute sie erneut über die Schulter, nun nicht mehr, um den Besitzer der Stimme kennenzulernen, sondern um ihn mit den schönsten Augen, die er je sehen sollte, in Besitz zu nehmen.
Die Diktion von Gabriel García Márquez lässt überraschende Vokabeln zu, erzeugt eine atmosphärische Stimmung von Wiedersehen und Abschied und lässt vor dem inneren Auge den Nimbus eines Geheimnis um die Insel, die Veränderungen, um das Leben in maritalen Architekturen, die zu Entfremdungen führen, entstehen.
Auffällig, und etwas störend, durchziehen den Text viele Zitate, die nur in einem gewollt-allegorischen Zusammenhang mit der Erzählung in Verbindung gebracht werden können. Da wären bspw. die Bücher, die die Protagonistin liest: Bram Stokers „Dracula“, Daniel Defoes „Die Pest zu London“, Graham Greenes „Das Ministerium der Angst“, „Die Mars-Chroniken“ von Ray Bradbury, nur um nur einige zu nennen. Desweiteren werden viele Musikstücke des typischen Klassik-Kanons genannt, vom plakativen Namen der Protagonistin einmal ganz abgesehen, um eine heile Welt der Oberfläche zu illustrieren, die untergründig durch sinnliche Lust untergraben wird.
Sie staunte über die Könnerschaft eines Salonmagiers, mit der er sie Stück für Stück entblößte, als häute er eine Zwiebel, während seine Fingerspitzen sie kaum berührten. Bei dem ersten Stoß glaubte sie vor Schmerz zu vergehen und erfuhr die schreckliche Erschütterung einer Färse, die zerlegt wird.
Der Roman verdichtet das schlechte Gewissen eine Spur zu stark. Die Szenen erscheinen fragmentarisch, die Situationen nur angedeutet, die Figuren verlieren, bis auf Ana Magdalena Bach selbst jede Kontur. Insbesondere das Ende fällt abrupt in den Leseprozess und markiert also, was Gabriel García Márquez dem Vorwort zu entnehmen, selbst empfand, „Wir sehen uns im August“ ist ein Fragment. Wer die Thematik aus einem ähnlichen Horizont bearbeitet lesen möchte, erhält mit Fernando Namoras „Os Clandestinos“ ("Im Verborgenen") nachhaltigere Kost.
„Wir sehen uns im August“ bleibt eine Skizze eines Romans, der, vielleicht leider, nie das Licht der Welt erblicken durfte.
---------------------
Update: Ich ändere nach Diskussion und eingehendere Analyse meine Bewertung der
Komposition: auf 4/5 Sterne (Crescendo einer Aufgabe). García Márquez hat textgestalterisch eindeutig einen Plan der Fortschrittskritik angelegt, der mir erst im Nachhinein klar geworden ist. Daher nun: 3 Sterne. Größte Schwäche bleiben für mich die unverknüpften Allegorien und Anspielungen, die ornamentaler Zierat sind und dem Text selbst nichts als losen Verbundschmuch hinzufügen, bspw. der Bezug auf klassische Musik und Literatur.
March 8, 2024
Foi bom reencontrar Gabriel García Márquez em 2024. Do autor, li Memória das Minhas Putas Tristes, O Amor nos Tempos de Cólera, Crónica de uma Morte Anunciada e Cem Anos de Solidão, e guardo-os com carinho na memória. De modo que, ao ver a belíssima capa que a Dom Quixote atribuiu a esta romance póstumo, fiz questão de o adquirir ainda em pré-venda.
Não tenho lido em papel, apenas no kobo, mas quis este objeto de arte na minha casa e, ainda antes de ponderar adquiri-lo também no kobo para poder lê-lo com maior conforto, dei por mim recostada nas almofadas e a folheá-lo. Menos de duas horas depois, estava lido.
Nesta última viagem pela mente e a pena de Gabo - segundo os filhos, já debilitado -, o autor coloca Ana Magdalena Bach no centro da ação. É incrível a sensibilidade com que este Nobel colombiano veste a pele de uma mulher e a torna tão real, tão humana, tão palpável. A somar à personagem principal cativante - nos seus desejos, inquietações e defeitos -, temos o retrato de uma família com tudo para ser feliz, mas acima de tudo de uma ilha que se transforma anualmente no refúgio de uma mulher prestes a entrar na menopausa.
A ilha das Caraíbas que o autor nunca nomeia serve também de marcador de tempo, desde os veículos que dela partem e nela aportam, até aos hotéis e respetivas comodidades. Observamos o modo como as coisas evoluem e, ao mesmo tempo, se vão tornando menos cativantes para a nossa Ana Magdalena. Em todos os refúgios anuais de Ana Magdalena há música, noites tropicais, álcool, calor e um homem diferente. O livro é alinhavado com um final imprevisível, mas em linha com os sentimentos e a impulsividade da personagem principal.
É uma obra muito simples mas, apesar disso, está muito bem escrita e cria um ambiente tão nítido que sinto que estive nas Caraíbas ontem à noite, com um saco de ráfia ao ombro e o bafo peganhento do verão tropical na nuca. Dancei ritmos latinos e dormi com um homem que cheirava a lavanda. É Gabriel García Márquez, por isso não tinha outra opção se não adorar.
Não tenho lido em papel, apenas no kobo, mas quis este objeto de arte na minha casa e, ainda antes de ponderar adquiri-lo também no kobo para poder lê-lo com maior conforto, dei por mim recostada nas almofadas e a folheá-lo. Menos de duas horas depois, estava lido.
Nesta última viagem pela mente e a pena de Gabo - segundo os filhos, já debilitado -, o autor coloca Ana Magdalena Bach no centro da ação. É incrível a sensibilidade com que este Nobel colombiano veste a pele de uma mulher e a torna tão real, tão humana, tão palpável. A somar à personagem principal cativante - nos seus desejos, inquietações e defeitos -, temos o retrato de uma família com tudo para ser feliz, mas acima de tudo de uma ilha que se transforma anualmente no refúgio de uma mulher prestes a entrar na menopausa.
A ilha das Caraíbas que o autor nunca nomeia serve também de marcador de tempo, desde os veículos que dela partem e nela aportam, até aos hotéis e respetivas comodidades. Observamos o modo como as coisas evoluem e, ao mesmo tempo, se vão tornando menos cativantes para a nossa Ana Magdalena. Em todos os refúgios anuais de Ana Magdalena há música, noites tropicais, álcool, calor e um homem diferente. O livro é alinhavado com um final imprevisível, mas em linha com os sentimentos e a impulsividade da personagem principal.
É uma obra muito simples mas, apesar disso, está muito bem escrita e cria um ambiente tão nítido que sinto que estive nas Caraíbas ontem à noite, com um saco de ráfia ao ombro e o bafo peganhento do verão tropical na nuca. Dancei ritmos latinos e dormi com um homem que cheirava a lavanda. É Gabriel García Márquez, por isso não tinha outra opção se não adorar.
April 7, 2024
Bu meseleyi ne yapsam ne etsem derken kendimi Ağustos'ta Görüşürüz'ü okurken buldum. Gabriel Garcia Marquez'in ölmeden önce üzerinde çalışıp beşinci taslağa kadar getirdiği ancak Alzheimer ile mücadele ettiği son yıllarında yarım bıraktığı ve "asla yayınlanmasın" dediği o kitap kendisi... Oğulları yayımlamaya karar verdiler. Mevzubahis oğullar, Marquez ekranda görmeyi asla istemediğini bin kere beyan etmesine rağmen Yüzyıllık Yalnızlık'ın haklarını da ölümünden sonra Netflix'e sattıkları için zaten sabıkalılar, o nedenle kafam çok karışıktı bu kitapla ilgili. Hem merak ediyordum, hem Gabo'nun kemiklerini sızlatacak bir şey yapmak istemiyordum.
Neyse, sonuçta @canyayinlari kitabı göndermiş bana, ben de okudum. Bu kitap ne kayıp bir başyapıt olacak kadar iyi, ne de sonsuza dek gizli kalması gerekecek kadar kötü. Ham olduğu söylenemez, sonundaki yayıncı notunda da okuyoruz zaten, Marquez üzerinde epeyce çalışmış ama yazarın diğer eserlerine göre zayıf olduğu şüphesiz. Zaten aynı karakter (Anna Magdalena Bach) üzerine olacak birkaç novellanın biriymiş kendisi, Marquez'in aklındaki hepsini beraber yayımlamakmış, öyle olsa muhtemelen çok daha başka bir lezzeti olurdu.
Bu haliyle de yayımlanabilir düzeyde, ama Marquez kendi eserleriyle çıtayı arşa çıkardığı için, bir Marquez eseri klasmanında değil elbette. Her sene annesinin ölüm yıl dönümünde annesinin mezarını ziyaret etmek üzere bir adaya giden ve adada geçirdiği o tek gecede kocasını başka biriyle aldatan Anna Magdalena'nın hikayesini okuyoruz. Metin yarıda kesiliyor, devam etse bu kadına, annesine ve aslında iyi anlaştığı kocasına dair metin derinleşecek gibi gözüküyor ama işte elimizdeki bu kadar. Mesela karakterine niye Johann Sebastian Bach'ın eşinin adını vermiş Marquez, bunu anlayamıyoruz elimizdeki kitaptan.
Neyse, sonuçta tatlı bir minik öykü bu ama yayımlanmasa da olurmuş bence. Marquez'in kaleminden çıkmış yeni kelimeler okumak heyecan verici olsa da, dediğim gibi Marquez külliyatının genel çizgisinin epey altında. Umarım yazarla bu kitapla tanışan genç okurların sayısı çok fazla olmaz.
Rodrigo ve Gonzalo, size de ne diyeyim... Şart mıydı yani? Lüzumsuz lüzumsuz hareketler. Neyse ya.
Neyse, sonuçta @canyayinlari kitabı göndermiş bana, ben de okudum. Bu kitap ne kayıp bir başyapıt olacak kadar iyi, ne de sonsuza dek gizli kalması gerekecek kadar kötü. Ham olduğu söylenemez, sonundaki yayıncı notunda da okuyoruz zaten, Marquez üzerinde epeyce çalışmış ama yazarın diğer eserlerine göre zayıf olduğu şüphesiz. Zaten aynı karakter (Anna Magdalena Bach) üzerine olacak birkaç novellanın biriymiş kendisi, Marquez'in aklındaki hepsini beraber yayımlamakmış, öyle olsa muhtemelen çok daha başka bir lezzeti olurdu.
Bu haliyle de yayımlanabilir düzeyde, ama Marquez kendi eserleriyle çıtayı arşa çıkardığı için, bir Marquez eseri klasmanında değil elbette. Her sene annesinin ölüm yıl dönümünde annesinin mezarını ziyaret etmek üzere bir adaya giden ve adada geçirdiği o tek gecede kocasını başka biriyle aldatan Anna Magdalena'nın hikayesini okuyoruz. Metin yarıda kesiliyor, devam etse bu kadına, annesine ve aslında iyi anlaştığı kocasına dair metin derinleşecek gibi gözüküyor ama işte elimizdeki bu kadar. Mesela karakterine niye Johann Sebastian Bach'ın eşinin adını vermiş Marquez, bunu anlayamıyoruz elimizdeki kitaptan.
Neyse, sonuçta tatlı bir minik öykü bu ama yayımlanmasa da olurmuş bence. Marquez'in kaleminden çıkmış yeni kelimeler okumak heyecan verici olsa da, dediğim gibi Marquez külliyatının genel çizgisinin epey altında. Umarım yazarla bu kitapla tanışan genç okurların sayısı çok fazla olmaz.
Rodrigo ve Gonzalo, size de ne diyeyim... Şart mıydı yani? Lüzumsuz lüzumsuz hareketler. Neyse ya.
June 7, 2024
60th book of 2024.
I went in with low expectations, because these 'lost' novels and posthumous books, you know what you're getting. It's something unfinished or rejected; you do not find Márquez's new book has been published and believe it'll usurp One Hundred Years of Solitude (because few books do, even outside of Márquez novels). But, all things considered, I enjoyed this novella. I read it in one sitting on my morning commute to work and though I haven't necessarily thought about it since, I did get absorbed in my reading of it. It could have been much worse. Though, that said, I'm glad I didn't buy it and just borrowed it from the library.
I went in with low expectations, because these 'lost' novels and posthumous books, you know what you're getting. It's something unfinished or rejected; you do not find Márquez's new book has been published and believe it'll usurp One Hundred Years of Solitude (because few books do, even outside of Márquez novels). But, all things considered, I enjoyed this novella. I read it in one sitting on my morning commute to work and though I haven't necessarily thought about it since, I did get absorbed in my reading of it. It could have been much worse. Though, that said, I'm glad I didn't buy it and just borrowed it from the library.
March 7, 2024
Absolutamente impresentable que los herederos de uno de los mejores escritores de la Literatura Universal permitan que se publique por el solo afán de lucrarse con las cenizas de García Márquez esta pseudonovela que el propio escritor pidió que no fuera publicada.
No leáis este fraude. Por favor. Si amáis como yo Cien años de soledad, El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Crónica de una muerte anunciada, El coronel no tiene quien le escriba...No lo leáis, por favor. Mejor releed El otoño del patriarca.
No leáis este fraude. Por favor. Si amáis como yo Cien años de soledad, El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Crónica de una muerte anunciada, El coronel no tiene quien le escriba...No lo leáis, por favor. Mejor releed El otoño del patriarca.
April 27, 2024
4,5*
Adorei regressar ao universo de Gabo. Ainda bem que os seus filhos decidiram publicar este pequeno livro. O privilégio é todo nosso.
Adorei regressar ao universo de Gabo. Ainda bem que os seus filhos decidiram publicar este pequeno livro. O privilégio é todo nosso.
March 24, 2024
Este libro, sin duda, es difícil de reseñar para mí. Hay muchos elementos que se entrelazan y lo hacen rico y complejo a la vez. Antes de iniciar quiero hablar de mi opinión respecto a la publicación de esta novela cuando, según se dice, el mismo autor se oponía a ello.
La evolución estilística de un autor es algo muy importante pues influye directamente en lo que nosotros sus lectores leemos y lo que ellos crean. Es como un ser vivo que está en constante cambio. Por ello yo creo que la publicación de “En agosto nos vemos” fue un acierto pues nos muestra el final de la última etapa de esta evolución de Gabriel García Márquez. Sin ésta no podríamos ver un panorama más amplio.
En cuestión de la historia me parece entretenido pues yo disfruto la prosa de Gabo. Nos quiere hablar sobre la vida, la muerte y además la existencia de los límites en una creación social como lo es el matrimonio. ¿Somos monógamos por naturaleza? En caso que sea negativo ¿Qué impacto tiene en la identidad de una persona regirse por dichas reglas? Todo esto explora el autor en 110 páginas.
Sin embargo si debo mencionar que, a mi opinión, no es el mejor cierre posible para la obra de este gran autor. Los personajes son planos y lineales. Falta desarrollo a las consecuencias de las acciones del personaje principal y el impacto de ello en la historia general.
Conclusión: lo disfruté, me gustó pero no diría que es una novela que me marcó de ninguna forma. Me dio a reflexionar, lo cual es muy positivo en una novela, y aún sigo anonadado con el simbolismo del final de la tumba de la madre. No diré más.
March 18, 2024
"Ne vedem în august " este/a fost, probabil, unul dintre cele mai așteptate titluri ale anului.
Asemeni zecilor de mii de fani de pe mapamond al lui Garcia Marquez și eu m-am grăbit să cumpăr volumul. Ce este? Editorii spun că este un microroman, dar, fără să greșim, putem spune că este o nuvela.
Nu trebuie să ne apropiem de această carte având așteptări că de la "Un veac de sigurătate" sau "Toamna patriarhului". Că structură și poveste este apropiat de ultimul roman/nuvelă antum/ă a scriitorului columbian "Povestea târfelor mele triste". O lucrare a senectuții, din care lipsesc construcțiile luxuriante ale romanelelor care l-au consacrat pe Garcia Marquez, o poveste în care, totuși, se recunoaște stilul autorului și se poate vedea grija sa pentru limbă și detalii.
Nuvela/microromanul va rămâne o curiozitate, fiind ultima scriere a " în-nobelizatului" care a creat cea cea mai cunoscută localitate imaginară a lumii, Macondo.
În ceea ce privește disputa etică legată de publicarea cărții cu siguranță ajută la vânzarea ei.
Asemeni zecilor de mii de fani de pe mapamond al lui Garcia Marquez și eu m-am grăbit să cumpăr volumul. Ce este? Editorii spun că este un microroman, dar, fără să greșim, putem spune că este o nuvela.
Nu trebuie să ne apropiem de această carte având așteptări că de la "Un veac de sigurătate" sau "Toamna patriarhului". Că structură și poveste este apropiat de ultimul roman/nuvelă antum/ă a scriitorului columbian "Povestea târfelor mele triste". O lucrare a senectuții, din care lipsesc construcțiile luxuriante ale romanelelor care l-au consacrat pe Garcia Marquez, o poveste în care, totuși, se recunoaște stilul autorului și se poate vedea grija sa pentru limbă și detalii.
Nuvela/microromanul va rămâne o curiozitate, fiind ultima scriere a " în-nobelizatului" care a creat cea cea mai cunoscută localitate imaginară a lumii, Macondo.
În ceea ce privește disputa etică legată de publicarea cărții cu siguranță ajută la vânzarea ei.
March 6, 2024
Un libro disfrutable que se lee de una sola sentada. Dista de ser lo mejor del autor y hay pequeños fragmentos en los que podemos identificar que en efecto Gabo no la terminó de pulir quizá a causa del olvido que comenzaba a nublarle la mente (Sin lugar a dudas esto hace más especial el regalo que nos brinda la publicación de esta obra). La novela se siente tan contemporánea que podría darnos un vistazo de su escritura si aún estuviera con vida y la cereza sobre el pastel (al menos a mi criterio) es que es una novela sumamente musical, mi recomendación es que conforme se vayan presentando los títulos musicales en la obra, detengamos la lectura y reproduzcamos la pieza. Algo tedioso para el lector ocasional pero un deleite para el lector voraz.
April 7, 2024
Until August was a book that has just been published by the two sons of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his literary executors in spite of Gabo’s repeated requests that the book not be published. Gabriel Garcia Marquez suffered from dementia during the last years of his life and despite repeated attempts to work on this book, Gabo strongly felt that the writing was flawed and should not be published. In the Preface to my edition, his sons talked about how his diminished cognitive ability diminished his capacity to write with the rigor he once did. They speak of how their father told them once with the clarity and the eloquence of the great writer he was: ”Memory is at once my source material and my tool. Without it, there’s nothing.”
While knowing that their father’s wishes were that the book be destroyed because it didn’t work, his sons didn’t destroy it but put it aside hoping that time would make the decision as to what to do with it. Ten years after Marquez’s death, his sons judged the book to be better than they remembered. Rodrigo and Gonzalo Garcia Barcha decided to put the readers’ pleasure ahead of all other considerations. They are hoping that if they are delighted, it’s possible that Gabo may forgive them.
This is the story of Ana Magdalena Bach, a woman happily married for twenty-seven years with no reason to want to escape from her husband and two children. However, since the death of her mother, Ana Magdalena Bach has made her way to a distant part of the Caribbean every August, she takes a ferry to the beautiful blue waters of the lagoon to make her way to the cemetery to lay a wreath of gladioli on her mother’s grave. But with the sultry and sensuous Caribbean evenings full of salsa and boleros, Ana journeys each year to this remote spot in the Caribbean and thus, to her deepest desires and hidden fears. When I first started reading this book, I was delighted to be once again immersed in the beautiful poetic and magical prose of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but soon I became aware of Gabo’s fears and concerns and why he didn’t want the book published. There is no mistake that this book has all of the hallmarks of being written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In fact, my edition has a note too from the Spanish editor with copies of the manuscript with Gabo’s edits and corrections.
And dear Gabo, I am afraid that I agree with your wishes.
And I am sorry that his sons took a chance on publication. And I am conflicted about whether I should have read it, knowing full well that I would never be able to resist it, knowing that it was out there. But I have his large and memorable body of work to read again and again. In fact, there are still two books that are remaining for me to read. There is a reason why Gabriel Garcia Marquez is considered one of the most important writers of the twentieth century, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1982.
While knowing that their father’s wishes were that the book be destroyed because it didn’t work, his sons didn’t destroy it but put it aside hoping that time would make the decision as to what to do with it. Ten years after Marquez’s death, his sons judged the book to be better than they remembered. Rodrigo and Gonzalo Garcia Barcha decided to put the readers’ pleasure ahead of all other considerations. They are hoping that if they are delighted, it’s possible that Gabo may forgive them.
“It is not, of course, as polished as his greatest books. It has a few rough patches and contradictions, but nothing impedes the enjoyment of the most outstanding aspects of Gabo’s work: his capacity for invention, his poetic use of language, his captivating storytelling, his understanding of humankind, and his affection for our experiences and misadventures, especially when it comes to love. Love, possibly the main subject of entire oeuvre.”
This is the story of Ana Magdalena Bach, a woman happily married for twenty-seven years with no reason to want to escape from her husband and two children. However, since the death of her mother, Ana Magdalena Bach has made her way to a distant part of the Caribbean every August, she takes a ferry to the beautiful blue waters of the lagoon to make her way to the cemetery to lay a wreath of gladioli on her mother’s grave. But with the sultry and sensuous Caribbean evenings full of salsa and boleros, Ana journeys each year to this remote spot in the Caribbean and thus, to her deepest desires and hidden fears. When I first started reading this book, I was delighted to be once again immersed in the beautiful poetic and magical prose of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but soon I became aware of Gabo’s fears and concerns and why he didn’t want the book published. There is no mistake that this book has all of the hallmarks of being written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In fact, my edition has a note too from the Spanish editor with copies of the manuscript with Gabo’s edits and corrections.
And dear Gabo, I am afraid that I agree with your wishes.
And I am sorry that his sons took a chance on publication. And I am conflicted about whether I should have read it, knowing full well that I would never be able to resist it, knowing that it was out there. But I have his large and memorable body of work to read again and again. In fact, there are still two books that are remaining for me to read. There is a reason why Gabriel Garcia Marquez is considered one of the most important writers of the twentieth century, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1982.
May 23, 2024
Comprei este livro num impulso, não tendo sequer lido a sinopse na altura.
Ontem, resolvi escolher, de forma aleatória, um livro para ler e este "Vemo-nos em Agosto" de Gabriel García Márquez foi o contemplado.
Eu não me arrependo da compra ou da seleção de ontem, tendo, aliás, gostado e apreciado a leitura desta obra. Foi um ótimo motivo para refletir sobre a vida e as suas encruzilhadas.
Ontem, resolvi escolher, de forma aleatória, um livro para ler e este "Vemo-nos em Agosto" de Gabriel García Márquez foi o contemplado.
Eu não me arrependo da compra ou da seleção de ontem, tendo, aliás, gostado e apreciado a leitura desta obra. Foi um ótimo motivo para refletir sobre a vida e as suas encruzilhadas.
March 21, 2024
El Gabo fue el autor que me hizo lectora con Cien años de soledad y llevaba ya varios años sin leerlo, a pesar de que me faltan varias de sus novelas. Se me hizo muy emotivo volver a su pluma, claro que no tiene ni de cerca la calidad de sus trabajos previos, pero entiendo el contexto y todo el esfuerzo que fue necesario para sacarlo adelante.
Ana Magdalena Bach viaja todos los meses de agosto a la isla para dejarle flores a la tumba de su madre. Es un viaje que hace sola y ya va por su octavo año, sin embargo, ese año ocurre algo distinto, tiene una aventura de una noche, desde ese momento nada será como antes.
En el material adicional se explica que más que un libro es un cuento, uno que se tenía planeado que estuviera dentro de una antología con otros cuatro. Se notó que no era un libro como tal, sino que un relato más largo, dividido en pequeños capítulos. Incluso uno de estos capítulos fue publicado por separado. Era el tipo de historia que si bien importaba por su final, tenía algo muy interesante en ser contado como mini relatos, como las aventuras año a año de Ana Magdalena en la isla. Incluso capítulos de estas podían entenderse sin todo lo demás.
La historia se centró en el amor, en la necesidad del amor en nuestras vidas y el descubrimiento de la sexualidad femenina. Al inicio Ana Magdalena nos dijo que su vida era perfecta, que amaba profundamente a su esposo y que su vida era un cuento de hadas, sin embargo, buscaba con anhelo esos agostos de infidelidad y a medida que estos siguieron comenzó a cuestionarse su vida y sus relaciones.
No es una obra maestra y creo que mucho se sostuvo por la nostalgia de los que nos enamoramos de las palabras del Gabo. De hecho, faltó profundidad en el personaje de Ana Magdalena y el final no terminó de hacer sentido o de ser significativo como, supongo, esperaba que fuera. Me gustó la conexión de Ana Magdalena con su madre, pero no sentí que fuera un desenlace que se construyera del todo bien. Sin embargo, como dije, lo lindo aquí fue leer al Gabo, leer sus descripciones, su forma de narrar y de hilar historias, aunque se viera afectado por su estado.
En agosto nos vemos fue un relato corto en el que trabajó el Gabo en sus últimos años, un intento de novela, que luego se transformó en un relato. Jamás va a llegar a sus mejores obras, porque lo escribió un Gabo en sus últimos años luchando contra la pérdida de su memoria y bajo sus palabras "La memoria es a la vez mi materia prima y mi herramienta. Sin ella no hay nada". Aun así, es un placer volver a leerlo, me dio una nostalgia tremenda.
Ana Magdalena Bach viaja todos los meses de agosto a la isla para dejarle flores a la tumba de su madre. Es un viaje que hace sola y ya va por su octavo año, sin embargo, ese año ocurre algo distinto, tiene una aventura de una noche, desde ese momento nada será como antes.
"Ana Magdalena se había adaptado a él, se hizo como él, y se conocieron tanto a fondo que terminaron por parecer uno solo".
En el material adicional se explica que más que un libro es un cuento, uno que se tenía planeado que estuviera dentro de una antología con otros cuatro. Se notó que no era un libro como tal, sino que un relato más largo, dividido en pequeños capítulos. Incluso uno de estos capítulos fue publicado por separado. Era el tipo de historia que si bien importaba por su final, tenía algo muy interesante en ser contado como mini relatos, como las aventuras año a año de Ana Magdalena en la isla. Incluso capítulos de estas podían entenderse sin todo lo demás.
La historia se centró en el amor, en la necesidad del amor en nuestras vidas y el descubrimiento de la sexualidad femenina. Al inicio Ana Magdalena nos dijo que su vida era perfecta, que amaba profundamente a su esposo y que su vida era un cuento de hadas, sin embargo, buscaba con anhelo esos agostos de infidelidad y a medida que estos siguieron comenzó a cuestionarse su vida y sus relaciones.
"Ana Magdalena le dio una última mirada de compasión a su propio pasado y un adiós para siempre a sus desconocidos de una noche y a las tantas y tantas horas de incertidumbres que quedaban de ella misma dispersas en la isla. El mar era un remanso de oro bajo el sol de la tarde".
No es una obra maestra y creo que mucho se sostuvo por la nostalgia de los que nos enamoramos de las palabras del Gabo. De hecho, faltó profundidad en el personaje de Ana Magdalena y el final no terminó de hacer sentido o de ser significativo como, supongo, esperaba que fuera. Me gustó la conexión de Ana Magdalena con su madre, pero no sentí que fuera un desenlace que se construyera del todo bien. Sin embargo, como dije, lo lindo aquí fue leer al Gabo, leer sus descripciones, su forma de narrar y de hilar historias, aunque se viera afectado por su estado.
En agosto nos vemos fue un relato corto en el que trabajó el Gabo en sus últimos años, un intento de novela, que luego se transformó en un relato. Jamás va a llegar a sus mejores obras, porque lo escribió un Gabo en sus últimos años luchando contra la pérdida de su memoria y bajo sus palabras "La memoria es a la vez mi materia prima y mi herramienta. Sin ella no hay nada". Aun así, es un placer volver a leerlo, me dio una nostalgia tremenda.
"Mi agradecimiento más profundo a Gabo, por su humanidad, su sencillez y el afecto que siempre repartió ante cualquiera que se acercara a él pensando que era un dios para demostrar con su sonrisa que era un hombre" Cristóbal Pera
April 6, 2024
No soy particularmente fan de las obras póstumas, siento que estoy leyendo algo íntimo, sagrado, que no debería, y el disclaimer de los hijos del autor en el prólogo diciendo “él no quería que se publique pero confiamos en que va a perdonarnos” no me encantó, pero compré el libro por impulso -aunque no estaba en mis planes- y fue lindo volver a leer al autor. No es 100% él, no es 100% bueno, pero tiene elementos que lo hacen un libro memorable y ese don para crear personajes y atmósferas está ahí, lo que me llega y conmueve un montón. Es un lindo libro. Pero admito que me siento mal de haberlo leído sabiendo que esa no era la voluntad de Gabo.
March 10, 2024
Deja mucho que desear. En mi opinión, es una obra breve e insulsa, carente de giros argumentales, motivación y fuerza. No transmite la esencia de una verdadera novela romántica, erótica o de empoderamiento femenino llegando a ser un intento fallido de combinar estos elementos, sin lograr que ninguno de ellos tenga éxito. Es un libro decepcionante que parece venderse únicamente por el peso del autor.
Se dice que García Márquez no quería que esta novela viera la luz, y ahora entiendo perfectamente por qué.
Se dice que García Márquez no quería que esta novela viera la luz, y ahora entiendo perfectamente por qué.
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