Gabriel García Márquez in Retrospect

Gene H. Bell-Villada is professor of Romance languages at Williams College.

• Introduction. García Márquez: His Vast Range, His Varied LegacyGene H. Bell-VilladaPart One. Oeuvre, Backgrounds, Legacy1. García Márquez: Writer for the WorldNicholas Birns and Juan De Castro2. Politics and Death across the Life of WritingRegina Janes3. Translation and ApprenticeshipEdith Grossman4. García Márquez and mamagallismo: On Fatigued Roosters, Resistance, Sense of Humor, and the Colombian PersonalityMarcela VelascoPart Two. Re-reading the History of Macondo5. Names and Narrative Pattern in One Hundred Years of SolitudeGene H. Bell-Villada6. The Enlightened Blindness of Úrsula IguaránMaría del Mar López-Cabrales7. Satire, Ecocentrism, and Luddite Discourse in One Hundred Years of Solitude: Regional Approaches for a Global Environmental CrisisWilliam Flores8. Rediscovering Ice: García Márquez, Aira, and Vallejo on Childhood MemoriesHéctor HoyosPart Three. Later Works9. After the End: Bolívar in the Labyrinth of HistoryMichael Wood10. The Magic of Love, the

[T]he best homage to a great author is to imagine ways to read his work anew. Gene Bell-Villada’s timely selection of essays does exactly that: it sheds new light on a multifaceted writer that still manages to stimulate the critical imagination of readers from around the world. . . . Among its many virtues, this book reminds us that García Márquez embodied a unique pleasure in the act of writing. Most of the collection’s papers share this “joie d’ecrire,” as they combine rigor, poetry, and a dose of playful wit that suits the analysis of a lyrical mamagallista like Gabo. Among them, Bell-Villada’s own good-humored introduction is unparalleled. This tone allows many of the texts to both celebrate the writer and deal with him in an intellectually nuanced way that, instead of solidifying the icy statue of the canonic author, brings a renewed warmth to his work and makes him, once again, our contemporary.