Ascent to Glory
How One Hundred Years of Solitude Was Written and Became a Global Classic by Alvaro Santana-Acuna, is a book released by Columbia Univesity that puts in a new perspective one of the most immense and celebrated masterpiece. I didn't know the story of the gestation of this work, and what there was behind it; the realization of this book was long something like 17 years from its germinal idea. In the while, let's say something regarding Marquez. Born in a little place, Aracataca in Colombia, his parents would have dreamt for him a career in the law field, but Gabriel Garcia felt a strong feeling for literature, writing, journalism and although his parents were pretty upset, he decided to leave the university for starting a different existence.
Latin America literature, before the end of the last world war conflict didn't exist; not as the one that we know at the moment. Writers afforded to Paris from Latin America didn't tend to write anything of their countries, absorbed as they were by the European existence; but one day, some of them at La Coupole in Paris, it was 1966, discussed about this new book, that had still to be released, thinking that it would have made the difference.
Marquez was a man plenty of curiosity. He lived in different locations, afforded to Paris where he stayed for a year, then went to Italy fascinated by our cinema, and followed a course organized by Cesare Zavattini, absolutely one of the best screenwriters and not only that we have had; he loved our movies, the neorealistic ones because he thought that they had inside them both magic than realism and this mixture and combination to him was incredibly good.
He was fascinated by Ernest Hemingway and tried to write with his same writing-style (the one of Hemingway was a big novelty in the panorama), re-addressing himself when some friends suggested to cut here and there.
Journalist, writer, Marquez has been lucky enough with his connections. He received financial help; he wrote in several different environments and countries; and we musn't forget the groups of people created in several countries, first readers and co-creators of this novel.
These people brought suggestions, hints and whatever necessary for the creation of this masterpiece. This one is not in fact the word of a voice, but of a moltitude of voices put together.
The novel once finished was promoted pretty largely before the publication so that most people fell in love for this book before its appearance in bookstores.
This extrraordinary publicity created a case and this case meant to Marquez the perfect condition for a strong, solid and continous success generation after generation. Enthusiasm didn't involved only Latin American countries but most european countries, interested to give space to other kind of literature apart the one known till there.
The main problems of Latin American literature was this one: to find its voice, for telling little or big stories, its magic, its universe. Once discovered that there was more than a possibility for the realization of this goal, also "thanks" to the Spanish Civil War and the last world war, then no one would have stopped anymore the fertility of a land that has a lot to tell to the humanity thanks to its suggestions.
When the book appeared, didn't meet a lot of competition; so thanks to the publicity we said before, at the arrival in the bookstores, the magic was complete.
Who was in the USA the first believer in Latin American literature? Faulkner. Faulkner was a great great passionate of Latin America literature also because he loved their language and...didn't like english! He translated wagons of spanish books and under many ways, was helpful for a healthy promotion of the works of Latin America literature.
The USA, with Faulkner had an important voice who made the difference in the
panorama and that could give a new perspective for the book market enlarging the book production available with the introducing of new visions of the world.
A big role for the novel was played by reviewers and reviews published months and months before the appearance in the market of the product.
In general opinions were very good: some of them remarked the classicism of the work, or the non-originality. Other ones, following what said Marquez thought that was also a humorous book, but later, once analyzed much better, the direction taken was completely different, and a gravity descended on it.
Sure this novel is a novel without...borders, because the creation of this book has been done collectively after all, and it is one of that rare experiments where collectivity create a masterpiece. It's not yet clear for example when was invented the first phrase of the novel's opening's sentence. Where was the author when he wrote it? and Marquez was discordant also when offered other versions of the creation of the rest of the book.
Cultural brokers, directly, or indirectly played a big role for the birth of this novel and for its international success; later these brokers meant a lot also for the creation of a solid base that would have established One Hundreds Years of Solitude as a classic. But...How a book becomes a classic? Is there a magical recipe? No, of course. Each book has a different history but in this case a great work has been the one of repetition or reinvention of myths and certain thematic contained in the book: also with the conception, publication, writing compared with other novels.
I can tell you that, if reading this book, you search for the story, realization of One Hundreds Years of Solitude, when you will read for the first time the novel or, you'll read it again, conscious of the process making, you'll live the reading in a completely differently way.
Stimulating, very informative, beautiful book!
I thank Columbia University Press for the physical copy of the book.
Anna Maria Polidori
