Alvah's Books

About a month ago, I wrote a review of Gerald Martin’s fabulous biography on ‘Gabo’ otherwise known as Gabriel Garcia Marquez for The Feminist Review. It’s finally been posted, but for a sneak preview below are the first two paragraphs:

Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Life
By Gerald Martin
Alfred P. Knopf
672 pages
$37.50

In his exhaustively researched biography of Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Gerald Martin, who spent seventeen years examining every aspect of Marquez’s life and interviewing over 300 people, beautifully takes the reader through the life and times of one of Latin America’s most influential writers, a Nobel Prize winner, and one of the most popular novelist in the last fifty years.

Martin traces Márquez’s (or “Gabo” as he is affectionately referred to throughout the biography) early beginnings back to Aratacata’s early days and to the life of Colonel Nicholás R. Márquez Mejia, Gabo’s maternal grandfather, who played an influential and supportive role in the young boy’s life until he was swooped up by his nomadic parents at nine years old. It’s during that time, Martin writes, that the inspiration for One Hundred Years of Solitude was born and where Gabo learned of magic via his superstitious grandmother.

To read the rest of the review, please visit the Feminist Review’s blog.

Due to technical difficulties (a slow connection–I can actually watch my hair turn grey-and, to top it off, the monitor is flickering and has gone black on me in the middle of writing emails), I am posting Weekly Reads very, very late.

I’d also like to note that last week’s attempt to get anything read was a dismal failure. Since I changed servers, redesigned the site, and spent too much time learning WordPress, I didn’t get much reading done. 

However, this week without fail I need to read two books. The first one Gabriel Garcia Marquz: A Life by Gerald Martin is for the Feminist Review, which is due by next week; the second one, Private Midnight by Kris Saknussemm,  is for a blog tour. 

A review for In the Woods will be posted later this week, depending on my computer’s health.

I am failing dismally in my Weekly Reads assignments. I like the idea of reading at least three books, but in this household it’s simply not possible. However, I did complete two books so that’s good, right?

Books completed: 

• In the Woods, Tana French (review will be posted in the next few days)

• Peace First, Uri Savir (review will be posted on The Internet Review of Books)

This week’s reading includes one carry over and two new books:

• One Nation Under Dog: Adventures in the New World of Prozac-Popping Puppies, Dog-Park Politics, and Organic Pet Food, Michael Schaffer

• Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Life, Gerald Martin (review is for Feminist Review)

• Dirty Little Angels, Chris Tusa