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A review by sjbozich
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel García Márquez
4.0
This is an odd entry into Garcia Marquez's oeuvre. Presented in the first person of the sailor, and in the Introduction Garcia Marquez admits the sailor, 20 year old Luis Alejandro Velasco, had a way with words. GM interviewed him for about 20 hours to get the story down. Published in a Columbian newspaper in 1955, it was then published in book form in 1970, and translated into English in 1986. So, in effect, GM edited the story, rather than wrote it.
I am not sure how the sailor did not state earlier, with all the press, TV and radio interviews, that there was no storm - the accident was caused by overloading a military ship with commercial goods! And his end of the story humility - that he was no hero, he just survived - is refreshing.
But overall, regardless of who wrote it, it is an exciting adventure story to read. Of course most Western readers will think of Hemingway and Conrad while reading this. But it is a much more direct, less literary, read than the works of either of those authors.
Perhaps for Garcia Marquez completists only - but even though it is not all his, there is something about him in it. And, it is a really good adventure story of survival on the sea for 10 days!
My thanks to my local PL for having a copy on their shelves.
4 out of 5.
I am not sure how the sailor did not state earlier, with all the press, TV and radio interviews, that there was no storm - the accident was caused by overloading a military ship with commercial goods! And his end of the story humility - that he was no hero, he just survived - is refreshing.
But overall, regardless of who wrote it, it is an exciting adventure story to read. Of course most Western readers will think of Hemingway and Conrad while reading this. But it is a much more direct, less literary, read than the works of either of those authors.
Perhaps for Garcia Marquez completists only - but even though it is not all his, there is something about him in it. And, it is a really good adventure story of survival on the sea for 10 days!
My thanks to my local PL for having a copy on their shelves.
4 out of 5.