Gabriel García Márquez to Stop Writing?

The Guardian Book Blog reports that this famous Nobel literature laureate has said he is laying down his pen. It is said that he made a similar announcement in the 1970, but resumed writing in the eighties.

If you read Marquez as a writer, my friends and I were saying, at a meeting in Sacramento the other day, that you make little progress. I can't tell you how many times I have attempted On Hundred Years of Solitude and ended up putting it down so I could write. Faulkner, Morrison, Ben Okri, Dambudzo Marechera, and a few other writers have the same effect on me, but I am lucky in that I had to read them first for literature classes, hence I could not allow the inspiration to write my own work stop me.

I don't know; it's just how it works. Some authors' works are just overwhelmingly rich, and they rub off on you in a very inspiring way.

So now the question is, as the Guardian asked, Is his retirement a way to open up room for other, perhaps newer, Latin American writers?

Comments

Ivor W. Hartmann said…
Maybe I'm just naive but why stop writing, ever, if that's among the things you do in this life, best? Sure, slow down, even take a hiatus. But to stop entirely?

Not sure about this whole idea of one author dominating a continent, which is what the Guardian's question would seem to imply. There are scores of established and upcoming Latin American writers. Perhaps, and like Africa, not as many visibly publicised and published as Europe and the US. But still, like Africa, they are there, and writing.
April 3, 2009 at 12:03 PM
Ivor W. Hartmann said…
As I suspected, The Maestro has never stopped writing, and has no plans to:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/06/gabriel-garcia-marquez-still-writing
April 6, 2009 at 9:10 AM
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