one hundred years of solitude novel by gabriel garcía márquez

He also found the voice in his head that became the conduit for the tone he was trying to capture.

The genre is a predominantly Latin American branch of fiction that incorporates mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction. For this, Gabo built on the techniques employed in his time- and narrative-shifting first novel, Leaf Storm (La hojarasca), resulting in a style now known as magical realism. In addition to the attention-seizing opening came an understanding of how García Márquez would finally present a narrative in which legend and fantasy fused with the mundane details of everyday life. Either way, he knew he finally found his way into the story that resisted all previous efforts at being realized. 'Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.'ĭepending on the version of this anecdote, García Márquez either immediately drove his family back home to begin writing or spent the vacation scribbling out ideas. García Márquez found himself ready to write en route to a vacationĪs told in Gerald Martin's Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Life, the author's 'eureka' moment arrived as he was driving the family to their planned vacation in Acapulco in July 1965 and found himself turning over the line that would soon greet readers at the start of the book: Gabriel García Márquez in Mexico City, circa 1962. Then came the rush of inspiration that brought about his fifth, One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de Soledad), a work that not only provided the outlet for years of creative frustration but also profoundly impacted the course of Western literature.

First came the news that a New York publisher wanted the English-language rights to his four novels. And the story he really wanted to tell, based on his recollections of growing up in the tiny coastal town of Aracataca, Colombia, was still gestating in his mind after two decades of starts and stops.įortunately, his luck was about to turn.

His four published novels had earned some fans in Spanish-speaking areas of the world but sold modestly. Yet Gabo, as he was known to friends and family, was profoundly unfulfilled. Meanwhile, a successful side career of screenwriting was also bearing fruit, with multiple projects in production. By the mid-1960s, erstwhile journalist Gabriel García Márquez had carved out a respectable professional career in Mexico City after years of itinerancy.Ī job writing copy for a prominent advertising agency enabled him to properly care for his wife Mercedes and their two young children.

One hundred years of solitude novel by gabriel garcía márquez