Gabriel García Márquez's Until August (2024) | Book Review and Analysis
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- Опубліковано 7 сер 2024
- A reflection on Gabriel García Márquez's Until August (En agosto nos vemos). English translation by Anne MacLean published by Knopf on March 12, 2024. I read the Spanish edition published by Vintage Español on March 6, 2024.
My thoughts on García Márquez's The Autumn of the Patriarch:
• Gabriel García Márquez...
Contents:
00:00 - Introduction
00:56 - About Until August
02:23 - Connections with other texts
03:30 - Three themes
07:32 - Publication context
08:49 - The controversy (and I just had to mention Borges)
10:43 - My impressions
11:31 - A matter of genre
12:53 - Bottom line
Well, this book has mixed reviews due to the fact that GGM requested to their family not to publish it before passing. I will get it to see what's inside the book. Greetings from Colombia South America..
That's a good point, and I do see the problem there, just as in the famous case with Kafka. I hope you enjoy the book, my friend! 😃 Thank you so much for watching and commenting, have a fantastic day, y viva Colombia! 🇨🇴
Excellent analysis!! Thank you!
Thank you so much for watching and commenting, Nella! 😃 I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Have a fantastic day, my friend!
This was excellent! So glad to have discovered your book reviews, Jorge!
Thank you so much, my friend! I'm so happy that you are a part of Jorge's Corner. 😃 Have a fantastic day!
Hola jorge! Every video of yours makes my day! Thank you very much. And obviously I am going to buy this book in spanish! Have a wonderful day, my friend! Ps. Yesterday I saw the movie "lucky per". I loved it. And immediately after I started the novel. It seems very good by the premises.
Thank you so much, Marinella! 😃 Yes, I definitely recommend reading it in Spanish. I wish we could read everything in the original. I still need to try the book that you recommended for my first read in Italian. One of these days! I also need to check out the Lucky Per adaptation. I need to watch some movies before I get to that one, but it's definitely on my list. Thank you once again for stopping by, my friend! Happy reading!
Hola Jorge! I’m so glad I found your channel! Thanks for your vid! I loved your thoughts on GGM & Until August. Your comparison of the book to The Lady with the Dog is very interesting bc Chekhov is my fav writer. And you validated my opinion that one of GGM’s major themes is memory (the word I prefer to recollection). It’s exactly what I thought when I read 100 Years… which is the only one of GGM’s major works that I’ve read. So you’ve reinvigorated my love for GGM & make me want to read Until August & all the others! Thanks again!
Hola, Susan! 😃 Thank you for watching and commenting, and welcome to Jorge's Corner! I definitely need to read more by Chekhov, so I'll prioritize him. I cannot recommend GGM enough. No One Writes to the Colonel is one of the best novellas I have ever read. His short stories are brilliant too! I'm planning to do more videos on him (relatively) soon. Have an amazing day, my friend, and happy reading!
Yeah, now every day a video! Good!!!
Haha, no, this was a special occasion! 😃 I want to do a film review; I'm considering some options. Talk to you soon, my friend!
Hi Jorge,thanks for the excellent discussion of this controversial book.I have read every novel of Garcia Marquez but was a bit nervous about reading this after some mixed reviews but you have persuaded me to try,it does have an intruguing premise.I agree that Max Brod was absolutely right to disregard Kafka's instructions and go ahead with publication as tbe writer was at the height of his powers at the time, but as a Nabokov fan I was shocked when his son disobeyed his orders and allowed his uncompleted novel to be published as it was a very inferior work. Congratulations on you 2k subscribers and have a great day.
Thank you so much, Richard! 😃 How wonderful that we are both Gabo enthusiasts. I will do more videos on him, so I'll share my GGM story then. You've reminded me that I need to read more by Nabokov. His work is one of my many readerly blind spots. I hope you enjoy Until August, my friend! Have an amazing day!
I really loved this review and I completely agree with a lot of things that are said in it. In was skeptical myself of the thought that this "lost novel" or novella had been found and was going to be published, and that we only have received, according to the foreword and afterward by the editor, only a trickle of what was intended by Marquez himself. But I quite enjoyed this book and I would say that it is up there, because it once again shows the author's warmth, his compassion, his humanity, his ability to bring to life people who are complex and interesting and, though at times they did feel like sketches, were people. And it worked. I would also agree that it is a controversial decision to publish the work of an author who has been ten years dead, but I had a truly lovely experience listening to the audiobook of this story and I spent a very tearful last few minutes listening to it because that was it, it was over. I savoured the novella as much as I could and enjoyed every moment, though there were times when I wanted to year my hair out and tell Ana to pull herself together. But it is a great book, not among his best, but it is still an excellent read, and very interesting to have been found beside the manuscript of "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" too
Thank you so much for watching, Ryan, and for your amazing comments! 😃 I'm so glad you mention his compassion; that is one of Gabo's salient features as a narrator, and one that I wish more authors exhibited. I could also relate to your feelings once the experience of the text was over. Something similar happened to me when I finished reading the short stories of Julio Cortázar. I wonder if more texts will be found and published in the future. A few weeks after I read Until August, my feelings have not changed, and I'm still thankful for the opportunity to read it. Thanks again, my friend, and have an amazing day!
I remember Nabokov's The Original of Laura scandal from fifteen years ago. This seems much more complete.
On the other hand, this June, we will have a new Celine novel, one thought to be destroyed, which he actually wanted to be published.
I looked up the Nabokov scandal; I wasn't aware of it, but it sounds like a similar situation! I look forward to the Céline novel, though I'll confess I've read only Journey to the End of the Night. (More to come about this at some point.) Thank you for watching and commenting, my friend, and have an excellent day! 😃
Thanks very much!
Thank you so much for watching and commenting, my friend! 😃 Have a wonderful day!
Thank you for a very erudite and considered analysis in terms of both context and construct. I had been wary of buying the book on release. However, you have convinced me to ignore the naysayers and get it on publication. Just one question; have you read the English version and if so, does the translation hold up as well as those by Gregory Rabassa and Edith Grossman?
Thank you so much for watching and commenting, my friend! 😃 I hope you enjoy Gabo's latest book. Unfortunately, I have not experienced the English version yet, but when I do, I will share my thoughts on it. Considering the talent involved before, I am quite curious about the translation. Have a fantastic day, and happy reading!
@@JorgesCornerThank you, Jorge.
Supongo que la leeré en el futuro, pero de momento creo que prefiero releer "Cien Años de Soledad." Me gusta tu camiseta, ese tipo de dibujos con luna me recuerdan a Federico García Lorca aunque me acabo de dar cuenta de que solo dibuja una luna menguante en el retrato a Salvador Dalí.
¡Totalmente! 😃 Mucho mejor releer Cien años de soledad, o cualquiera de las obras importantes de Gabo. Jaja, es verdad, el dibujo de la camiseta tiene algo de García Lorca. "Bajo la luna gitana, las cosas la están mirando y ella no puede mirarlas." A mí me recuerda a Claromecó, un balneario en el sur de la provincia de Buenos Aires donda iba de campamento con mi familia. ¡Mil gracias por la visita, muchos saludos, y feliz lectura!
Hola, querido Jorge. No he comprado la obra y no creo que lo haga de momento, pero me ha gustado escuchar tu opinión, como siempre honesta y personal, de la misma. Me ha interesado especialmente tu distinción genérica entre novela y novela corta (¡cuántas veces las necesidades editoriales y publicitarias se imponen al rigor literario!), porque ahora mismo estoy trabajando en un vídeo para explicar algunas diferencias entre ellas.
P. D.: ¿Habrías leído la obra en inglés antes que en español si hubieras tenido acceso a las dos versiones simultáneamente? Me causa curiosidad saberlo. ¡Saludos!
¡Mil gracias, querido Gonzalo, por la visita y el comentario! 😃 No es una obra indispensable, así que no hay apuro. Tenés toda la razón: hay mucha cuestión editorial y de mercadeo que contribuye a borronear el límite entre novela y novela breve/corta. Yo también estoy pensando en hacer un video algún día, seguramente en inglés, para compartir mis ideas sobre este género elusivo. Para responder a tu pregunta, siempre que tengo la opción prefiero leer en el idioma original, sobre todo si las opciones son español/inglés, pero ha habido excepciones. He leído a Hebe Uhart en inglés y no en español, porque en su momento sólo tenía acceso a su obra en inglés. Recuerdo también Formas de volver a casa, de Alejandro Zambra; otra que leí en inglés primero. Los cuentos de Julio Ramón Ribeyro. Y luego he leído It, de Stephen King, "Eso," en español pero no en inglés. Fue muy interesante. He leído un montón de Stephen King, pero esa novela tiene un gusto especial para mí al haberla leído en mi lengua madre, y hasta el día de hoy la considero mi favorita. ¡Gracias totales una vez más, amigo, y feliz lectura!
@@JorgesCorner Nunca he leído un libro originalmente escrito en español en su traducción al inglés, solo fragmentos (como el inicio del Quijote, por pura curiosidad), aunque podría ser divertido e interesante. ¡Lo pensaré! Un saludo fuerte, amigo.
I don't understand why she was having yearly physical encounters with strangers,do you?
Great question, Susan! 😃 I wish I had more background in psychology for this one, haha. It seems to be a need for connection without attachment, at the risk of oversimplifying. I'll admit it's something I don't understand but that adds a dimension of mystery to the character. Hope this helps! Thank you so much for watching and commenting, my friend, and have a wonderful day!
It's actually just a long story rather than a novel. I liked it but the ending did not belong with the rest of the story.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting, Jack! 😃 That's another way to approach it, yes. Regarding the ending, as good as it may be, there *is* something strange about it. Have a wonderful day, my friend!