Colombia’s Gabriel García Márquez, who died in 2014, has released a new novel that is stacking shelves with book merchants at home and around the world. The last work of fiction, “En Agosto Nos Vemos” (“Until August”), was published by the Nobel Laureate’s sons despite the literary master instructing Rodrigo and Gonzalo García Barcha before his death at age 87 that the manuscript had to be “destroyed.” According to a write-up in The New York Times, García’s reasoning was that “the book doesn’t work.”
Finishing the final draft in 2004, when the author was 77, “Until August” has been described by his sons as “the fruits of one last effort to carry on creating against all odds,” given that by the time the fifth draft was completed, García Márquez was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. And for a mind that gave the world one of its most lauded literary landscapes – Macondo – and masterpiece “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” according to some critics, “Until August” does not do justice to the Colombian great whose seminal works changed the history of literature.
The New York Times claims that the legal executors – Rodrigo and Gonzalo García Barcha – “appear to have overrated the story’s value, possibly as a result of sentimental admiration for their father,” before understating that “none of his (García Márquez’s) editors or longtime publishers appears to have thought of protecting him or acknowledging the manuscript’s vapidity.” The sons admit to their “act of betrayal” in the book’s introduction. The NYT goes on to quote Gonzalo García “that the fading faculties that kept him from finishing the book also kept him from realizing how good it was”. By publishing against their father’s demands, the NYT’s review affirms that “despite its deficiencies,” the writing in Until August is “unmistakably” that of García Márquez.
Translated into English by Anne McLean, the release of the novel comes a decade after “Gabo’s” death on April 17, 2014, in Mexico City. Had the author been alive to see the manuscript published, he would have been 97 years old. “Until August does nothing to enlarge the legend of Gabo; it does nothing to diminish it,” writes Sarah Perry in The Telegraph. “With prophetic foresight, Márquez quoted Cicero: ‘No old man ever forgets where he has hidden his treasure.'”
In an article titled “Gabriel García Márquez returns from the dead – with a novel both sexy and disturbing,” Perry believes Until August is “perfectly in keeping for a writer for whom time and mortality were always subordinate to story.” For the Guardian’s Lucy Hughes-Hallett, the 100-page novel “is like a faded souvenir, tatty but treasurable for its associations with the fabulous imaginary world that Márquez conjured up in his prime.”
Despite the debate over whether the sons of “Gabo” should have released or not a posthumous work, Until August presents readers with a narrative both familiar and fresh. The story follows Ana Magdalena Bach, who embarks on annual pilgrimages to her mother’s grave on a small island. A chance sexual encounter with a stranger transforms these trips into opportunities for further sexual exploration. García Márquez centers on a female protagonist like an earlier work, The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother, published as a short story back in 1972.
Marquez’s signature elements are present: a blend of magic realism, and deep exploration of love and desire. The effects of time and mortality are evident also in the text, with a lack of the intricate storytelling and linguistic flair characteristic of Márquez’s earlier works. Some readers may notice grammatical inconsistencies and a less polished prose style, suggesting a merging of Márquez’s older and younger selves.
Ultimately, Until August leaves a profound impression, showcasing Márquez’s keen observations and emotional depths. This “microscopic story,” as the NYT refers to Until August, will neither enhance nor diminish García Márquez’s literary legacy among his fellow Colombians or global audience. It will, however, offer a poignant glimpse into the complexities of aging and artistic creation. “We realized that the book was complete, we realized that we didn’t have to do a lot of editing. There are no additions, there are no great changes,” remarked Gonzalo García to BBC’s Radio 4. “Was it a betrayal to my parents, to my father’s wishes? Yes, it was a betrayal. But that’s what children are for,” he said.
