A review by graywacke
رائحة الجوافة by Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, فكري بكر محمود, Gabriel García Márquez

4.0

Márquez won the Nobel Prize in 1982, but this interview took place before that. Márquez was a different person before and after [b:One Hundred Years of Solitude|320|One Hundred Years of Solitude|Gabriel García Márquez|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327881361s/320.jpg|3295655] (published 1967). Before he was world-traveling journalist from coastal Columbia who went through starving stretches where he was unemployed (including once when his publisher was shut down), had written numerous wonderful stories and four full books, none of which had sold more than a 1000 copies. He wrote at night after work, all night, and was constantly searching out connections and feedback about his writing, openly sharing passages with close writer friends. Afterward, fame entered and Márquez responded by becoming extremely private, focusing on his family and developing a writing routine he never broke - 9am to 3pm everyday. When he finished [b:The Autumn of the Patriarch|23887|The Autumn of the Patriarch|Gabriel García Márquez|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1410136666s/23887.jpg|6325280] early one day, he struggled with how to fill his time until 3:00.

Mendoza fills in a nice role as a writer who knew him in his younger hungry days, and has remained close to him, and, based on this book, is an elegant writer himself. This is a short book, stretched out to over a hundred pages by photos and line spacings. Márquez is both interesting and reticent, and Mendoza needs to pull things out of him. He comes across as very closely connected to Caribbean culture, as one obsessed with solitude (of course), and who claims his most personal and autobiographical (and technically best) work is the really disturbing [b:The Autumn of the Patriarch|23887|The Autumn of the Patriarch|Gabriel García Márquez|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1410136666s/23887.jpg|6325280], a book about the complete corruption of power which took almost 20 years to write. In the end he as little to nothing to say about his most famous work. He seems to have very mixed feeling about both the book and the impact it had on his life.

"I believe writers are always alone, like shipwrecked sailors in the middle of the ocean."

...

"I've never really been interested in any idea which can't stand many years of neglect."

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35. The Fragrance of Guava : Conversations with Gabriel Garcia Márquez by Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza
published: 1982
format: 118 page little paperback
acquired: March
read: Jun 14-18
rating: 4