GABO, THE MIRACLE OF BEING UNIVERSAL, INFINITE, ETERNAL
By Alberto Barciela, Spanish journalist, vice-president of EditoRed
It has many enjoyable merits. Rodrigo and Gonzalo García Bacha, sons of Mercedes and Gabriel, of Gabo and his beloved wife, point this out in their prologue to “En agosto nos vemos” (Until August), the first posthumous book by García Márquez, always immortal and genius, a meritorious result of the hard work and intelligence of Cristóbal Pera, inspired shadow of the Colombian writer, admirer of the order of his secretary Mónica Alonso, fractal of my friend Carmen Balcells, all essential in this unexpected and delicious gift from Random House.
The book, yes, is a hymn to life, to the beauty that subsists in it, or emerges, like the fruit of a spring in the dryness of a rarefied environment. Leaves of joy that support the story of the transformation of a mature woman, Ana Magdalena Bach, and her journey to the island where her mother chose, surprisingly, to be buried. It is not a journey to a grave, it is a journey of life, of rediscovery, of hope, of surprise, of delight and pleasure, in separate nights but embedded in a unique human truth, with which we can casually encounter, perhaps even identify.
Bitter palm, undaunted pigs, undeserving hotels, frightened dreams, minutes of nostalgia, drowned burial mounds, destitute cemeteries, disorderly loves, also joyful, fulminating, furtive; beaches of golden flour, crazy heats and downpours, delicious or delayed terrors, serenities and metaphorical ennoblements, soups of sweat, tumultuous bazaars, eyes of scorn, easy beauties, more or less propitious times, torrential geniuses, enchanting mischievous, supernatural invocations, conventional happinesses, secret wastes, unusual successes, counted nights, scarce; smells of almond groves, recent insecticides or eau de cologne; bodies placed where they feel and a bag of bones. Humor, a lot of intelligent irony. All Gabo at his best, capable of building a world of adjectives, with rich images and erotic, sensual, vivid suggestions.
“En agosto nos vemos” is a jewel, a treasure chest, of words chained to successive stories, capable of recomposing genealogies or being reduced to the fascination of a single reality interwoven like a system of reeds or sticks, magical because it is imagined, suggestive. The book is a literary island tied to a unique, outstanding, “Garcíamarquezian” tradition, written in an “unmistakable and fascinating” style, recognizable, always admirable, unique.
“La hojarasca”, “El coronel no tiene quien le escriba”, “La mala hora”, “Los funerales de mamá grande”, “Cien años de soledad”, “Relato de un náufrago”, “El otoño del patriarca”, “Crónica de una muerte anunciada”, “El olor de la guayaba”, “El amor en los tiempos del cólera” -my favorite-, “El general en su laberinto”, short stories, newspaper articles, so much knowledge, so much flavor, have found a beautiful epilogue.
With Gabo we always realize that the changes are not those of the world, but those that occur in ourselves with his delicious readings. He achieves the miracle of continuing to accompany us on the road to a universal, infinite, eternal Macondo. Wonder, master, wonder. Word.
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