Solitude & Company: The Life of Gabriel García Márquez Told with Help from His Friends, Family, Fans, Arguers, Fellow Pranksters, Drunks, and a Few Respectable Souls

Description

Irreverent and hopeful, Solitude & Company recounts the life of a boy from the provinces who decided to become a writer. Journalist Silvana Paternostro brings together the story of how little Gabito became Gabriel García Márquez, and of how Gabriel García Márquez survived his own self-creation. The book is divided into two parts. In the first, BC, before Cien años de soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude), his siblings speak and those who were friends before García Márquez became the universally loved Latin American icon. Those who knew him when he still didn't have a proper English tailor nor an English biographer, and didn't accompany presidents. It gathers together the voices around the boy from the provinces, the sisters and brothers, the childhood friends, the drinking buddies and penniless fellow students. The second part, AC, describes the man behind the legend that García Márquez became. From Aracataca, to Baranquila, to Bogota, to Paris, to Mexico City, the solitude that García Márquez needed to produce his masterpiece turns out to have been something of a raucous party whenever he wasn't actually writing. Here are the writers Tomás Eloy Martínez, Edmundo Paz Soldán and William and Rose Styron; legendary Spanish agent Carmen Balcells; the translator of A Hundred Years of Solitude Gregory Rabassa; Gabo's brothers Luis Enrique, Jaime, Eligio and Gustavo, and his sisters Aida and Margot; María Luisa Elío, to whom A Hundred Years of Solitude is dedicated; and so much more: a great deal of music, especially the vallenato; the hilarious scenes of several hundred Colombians, García Márquez's chosen delegation, flying to Stockholm for the Nobel Prize celebrations; the time Mario Vargas Llosa punched Gabriel García Márquez in the face; and much, much more. In Living to Tell the Tale, the first volume of García Márquez's autobiography, Gabo writes: "I am consoled, however, that at times oral history might be better than written, and without knowing it we may be inventing a new genre needed by literature: fiction about fiction." Solitude & Company joins other great oral histories, like Jean Stein and George Plimpton's Edie: American Girl, their oral history biography of Edie Sedgwick, or Barry Gifford's oral history of Jack Kerouac, Jack's Book—an intimate portrait of the most human side of Gabriel García Márquez told in the words of those who knew him best throughout his life. Prologue -- One hundred years of solitude: The earthquake of 1967 -- B.C. -- Before Cien Anos De Soledad: 1. The son of Luisa Santiaga and Gabriel Eligio -- 2. Raised by grandparents -- 3. The coast gets ready to speak -- 4. First and last friends -- 5. The citation of one hundred years of solitude -- 6. To be a prankster or a writer -- 7. Another whiskey -- 8. La Cueva -- 9. "The guy has the persistence of that business" -- 10. Slickers and hicks -- 11. The neck of the swan -- 12. SOFTAG: Society of Friends to Aid Gabito -- 13. Sacred crocodile -- 14. "That communist newspaper" -- 15. "Tell me more" -- 16. Solitude and Company -- 17. "There Was a Blinding Light" -- 18. Geography Lesson -- 19. BOOM! -- 20. Gabo Is Adjective, Substantive, Verb -- A.C. -- After Cien Anos De Soledad: 21. Rich and famous -- 22. The death of five kings -- 23. "Excuse me, what's your name?" -- 24. Persona Non Grata -- 25. Something new -- 26. "Shit, he died" -- 27. "I don't want to be in Stockholm by myself" -- 28. Ex Cathedra -- 29. Damaged goods -- 30. Dreams of power -- 31. Knockout -- 32. Cod-liver oil -- 33. The start -- Epilogue: The day we all woke up old -- Notes on the most important voices -- List of images.