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Dec. 30th, 2025 09:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzy_daveGabriel García Márquez "Until August" (Penguin)
10 years after García Marquez’s death, this novel is believed to be his last and according to the preface by his sons, a heroic battle against memory loss which he felt was the ultimate threat to his creativity. “Memory is at once my source material and my tool. Without it, there is nothing.” The book contains a sample at the end of his self-edited pages. The premise is Ana Magdalena Bach makes an annual overnight trip to place flowers on her mother’s grave on the anniversary of her death. One year she has a one-night stand fling with a man she meets in the hotel bar, and she makes this part of the yearly tradition too. She becomes almost predatory as she selects her man for the night, but it often is a matter of happenstance. She is able to resume her’ normal’ life with her husband Domenico when she returns, but ironically begins to suspect him of infidelity.
Because it is such a short novel and Ana is the focus, this relationship isn’t fully explored, but operates as a foil to her flings. We get 4 years of her ‘tradition’ and on the 5th year, when she has turned 50, something is revealed to her about her beloved mother and the ending has a dramatic turn that makes the story worthwhile.
10 years after García Marquez’s death, this novel is believed to be his last and according to the preface by his sons, a heroic battle against memory loss which he felt was the ultimate threat to his creativity. “Memory is at once my source material and my tool. Without it, there is nothing.” The book contains a sample at the end of his self-edited pages. The premise is Ana Magdalena Bach makes an annual overnight trip to place flowers on her mother’s grave on the anniversary of her death. One year she has a one-night stand fling with a man she meets in the hotel bar, and she makes this part of the yearly tradition too. She becomes almost predatory as she selects her man for the night, but it often is a matter of happenstance. She is able to resume her’ normal’ life with her husband Domenico when she returns, but ironically begins to suspect him of infidelity.
Because it is such a short novel and Ana is the focus, this relationship isn’t fully explored, but operates as a foil to her flings. We get 4 years of her ‘tradition’ and on the 5th year, when she has turned 50, something is revealed to her about her beloved mother and the ending has a dramatic turn that makes the story worthwhile.
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