Part 9 (1/2)

The first public sign of this ive e scrawled on a wall in the Mexico street where he lived38 Garcia Marquez said that he was touched by this naive appeal in a world where the neas always bad, especially the news fro a welcome comeback (Just four months earlier he had confided to his readers that he ”never dares to write” unless there is a yellow rose on his desk-placed there, of course, by his loving spouse) Garcia Marquez said that he was touched by this naive appeal in a world where the neas always bad, especially the news fro a welcome comeback (Just four months earlier he had confided to his readers that he ”never dares to write” unless there is a yellow rose on his desk-placed there, of course, by his loving spouse)39 Not that he was against sex-he inforht there and then that he had lost his virginity at the precocious age of thirteen-but ”sex is better with all the rest, which is complete love” Novels about love were oncebest, he declared, and even the old Latin Aainst sex-he inforht there and then that he had lost his virginity at the precocious age of thirteen-but ”sex is better with all the rest, which is complete love” Novels about love were oncebest, he declared, and even the old Latin American boleros were back in fashi+on

Perhaps it was not entirely coincidental, then, that, after -awaited intervieith Playboy Playboy azine in-naturally-Paris, the world capital of love The azine had sent Claudia Dreifus, ould later become one of the world's most successful interviewers, and this would be one of the best-researched and azine in-naturally-Paris, the world capital of love The azine had sent Claudia Dreifus, ould later become one of the world's most successful interviewers, and this would be one of the best-researched and most comprehensive conversations with the writer40 He explained his political positions for He explained his political positions for Playboy's Playboy's A that he and Fidel ”talked more about culture than politics”: theirs was really just a friendshi+p! Then he moved on to matters of love and sex He said that none of us ever knows another person completely and he and Mercedes were no exception; he still had no idea how old she was He explained that most of his relationshi+ps with prostitutes when he was a youngsolitude A that he and Fidel ”talked more about culture than politics”: theirs was really just a friendshi+p! Then he moved on to matters of love and sex He said that none of us ever knows another person completely and he and Mercedes were no exception; he still had no idea how old she was He explained that most of his relationshi+ps with prostitutes when he was a youngsolitude

I have fond memories of prostitutes and I write about them for sentimental reasonsBrothels cost money, and so they are places for older men sexual initiation actually starts with servants at home And with cousins And with aunts But the prostitutes were friends tosoood friendshi+ps I could sleep with them because it was horrible to sleep alone Or I could not I have always said, as a joke, that I married not to eat lunch alone Of course, Mercedes says that I'm a son of a bitch

He said that he envied his sons living in an age of equality between s hen he was a young man He finally described himself as a man who desperately needed love: ”I am the shyest man in the world I aureatest weakness? Umm It's my heart In the emotional-sentimental sense If I were a woreat deal My great problem is to be loved s hen he was a young man He finally described himself as a man who desperately needed love: ”I am the shyest man in the world I aureatest weakness? Umm It's my heart In the emotional-sentimental sense If I were a woreat deal My great problem is to be loved more, and that is why I write” Playboy Playboy: ”Youa nymphomaniac” Garcia Marquez: ”Well, yes-but a nymphomaniac of the heartIf I had not become a writer, I'd want to have been a piano player in a bar That way, I could havetoward each other If I can achieve that much as a writer-to have people love one anotherI've wanted for my life” Of course noould try to do that for people through his love stories and for countries through his mediations

Just before this celebrity interviehich would not appear in print for almost a year-one of the best-known books about Garcia Marquez had been published, one which would go on selling large nurance of Guava The Fragrance of Guava was a favour to Plinio Mendoza, who had again fallen on hard times It was an apparently frank but carefully calculated conversation-expertly staged-which surveyed the whole of Garcia Marquez's life and work and gave his opinions on everything froain, politics to woain fallen on hard times It was an apparently frank but carefully calculated conversation-expertly staged-which surveyed the whole of Garcia Marquez's life and work and gave his opinions on everything froine that the so insinuations about sexual flirtations and possible extra up of a new market for a writer for whom the literary expression of love seemed always previously to have been associated with violence and tragedy It is difficult not to i insinuations about sexual flirtations and possible extra up of a new market for a writer for whom the literary expression of love seemed always previously to have been associated with violence and tragedy

So Garcia Marquez confir and noould never forsake it again, as long as he was capable of practising it Until quite recently it had been a vocation, a compulsion, an ambition, sometimes a tor his literary ”strike,” he had told an interviewer so to realize that he was never as happy as when he riting42 Now at last he had an idea for a new book: a book about love and reconciliation As spring arrived in Europe he began to make notes Now at last he had an idea for a new book: a book about love and reconciliation As spring arrived in Europe he began to make notes

That summer he and Mercedes travelled around the Old Continent with Colo classical music radio station, HJCK, and his wife Gloria Valencia, Colombia's best-known television presenter They took in Paris, Amsterdam, Greece and Rome Then Gabo and Mercedes returned to Mexico By now he had fixed on the specifics of the new novel; it would be created around, of all things, the love affair between his parents, about which he had so long been in denial

In late August Garcia Marquez and Mercedes vacationed once o had just graduated from Harvard and acco a career in the cinereat friends the Feduchis and Carmen Balcells also spent time with them and the Comandante Fidel not only honoured theave them a dinner invitation to his apartners had eaten since the death of Celia Sanchez Castro is an enthusiastic chef and cooking is one of his favourite topics of conversation, especially at that tin to produce a Cuban Caht everyone ate at Antonio Nunez Jimenez's house and on this occasion conversation turned froave them a dinner invitation to his apartners had eaten since the death of Celia Sanchez Castro is an enthusiastic chef and cooking is one of his favourite topics of conversation, especially at that tin to produce a Cuban Caht everyone ate at Antonio Nunez Jimenez's house and on this occasion conversation turned fro a visit to Colombia and said that ”Gabriel,” as he has always insisted on calling hi accused of being a Cuban agent” Castro was consideringa visit to Colombia and said that ”Gabriel,” as he has always insisted on calling hi accused of being a Cuban agent”

”It's a bit late for that,” replied Garcia Marquez

”When I hear people saying Castro pays Garcia Marquez,” said Mercedes, ”I say it's about timesome of the money”

”That would be bad, if you sent ument 'Senores, we can't pay Garcia Marquez because he is too expensive' Not long ago, so as not to coht, I said to some Yankees: 'It's not that on't sell ourselves, you understand, the fact is that the USA hasn't got enough ht? And it's the saent You knohy? We haven't got enough o, silent until then, said: ”When I arrived at a North American university, they asked me how my father reconciled his political ideas with his money and his lifestyle I answered as best I could but there's no satisfactory answer to the question”

”Look, you just say to them, 'That's a problem for my mother, not my father,'” said Castro ”You should say, 'Look, ot a sou, my ives asoline,” said Garcia Marquez without a shadow of a s out a policy here for when they talk to you about your bank accounts You must tell the to his ability and to each according to his work and as Gabriel is a socialist-he's not yet a co to his ability and he receives according to his work Besides, the coo warmed to the topic: ”Once, out of nowhere, a boy turned to me and said, 'Your father's a communist' I asked him, 'What does that mean, that he has a party card, he lives in a communist country?'”

Castro replied, ”You should tell him, 'My father is a co; he gives according to his ability, they've printed about ato his needs'”

”They payThey never paythis visit Garcia Marquez and Castro also talked about the implications of Betancur's election in Coloht, was a considerable setback for both Garcia Marquez and the Cuban Revolution Betancur had been inaugurated on 7 August Although a Conservative and an ex-editor of the reactionary newspaper El Siglo El Siglo, his reputation had always been that of a ”civilized” politician as not sectarian and he was an a his personal friends Garcia Marquez had begun flirting with the new regime in press interviews soon after the election, in addition to repeating how ”ho to attend Betancur's inauguration Garcia Marquez spoke well of the new President to Castro, declaring that he was ”a good friend of mine” He was the son of a muleteer; they had known one another since 1954 when ”Gabo” was at El Espectador El Espectador and ”Belisario” at and ”Belisario” at El Colombiano El Colombiano They had always been in contact since then Garcia Marquez explained to Castro, ”In Colombia you are either Conservative or Liberal from birth, it doesn't matter what you think” Betancur, he said, was not a true ideological Conservative, and his governreat rhetorical speaker, he gets through to people, really gets through to them And,” and here came the payoff, ”he asks my advice all the ti once more and, as in previous years, Garcia Marquez's naain, only this ti, then, that he chose, less than aattack on Israeli leader Menachein-and, by direct implication, the nobel Foundation which had awarded hiin had ordered the invasion of neighbouring Lebanon and his lected to protect Palestinian refugees fro the massacres in the Sabra and Chatila caested that Sharon and Begin should be awarded a nobel Death Prize was approaching once more and, as in previous years, Garcia Marquez's naain, only this ti, then, that he chose, less than aattack on Israeli leader Menachein-and, by direct implication, the nobel Foundation which had awarded hiin had ordered the invasion of neighbouring Lebanon and his lected to protect Palestinian refugees fro the massacres in the Sabra and Chatila caested that Sharon and Begin should be awarded a nobel Death Prize45 But there is every sign he had been working on his own candidacy, too When his friend Alfonso Fuenmayor asked him later in the year whether he had been to Stockholrin: ”Yes, I was here three years ago when I came to fix myself up with the nobel Prize”46 Naturally this could just be one of his Naturally this could just be one of his boutades boutades but the truth is that he had one out of his way toSwedish acade influence on the prize going to Latin Ael Asturias and Pablo Neruda And Garcia Marquez had vacationed in Cuba with the Swedish ambassador in the summer of 1981 but the truth is that he had one out of his way toSwedish acade influence on the prize going to Latin Ael Asturias and Pablo Neruda And Garcia Marquez had vacationed in Cuba with the Swedish a for omens he couldn't have had a better one than the return to power of Olof Palme's Social Democrats in the Swedish elections of 19 September 1982 Palme had been a friend of Garcia Marquez for years and had always emphasized his personal debt to Lundkvist's literary works for opening his eyes to the wider world Meanwhile brother Eligio, the family's literary expert, was always absolutely certain that Gabito was going to win the prize in 1982 and was sure that Gabito hiht so too Alvaro Mutis had said his friend's behaviour was ”suspicious” at the tiio talked to hihter, said he was sure that if so to win it, the Swedish ambassador would have talked to that person a month beforehand 47 On Wednesday 20 October the Mexican newspapers were announcing that Garcia Marquez's new novel was to be about love As he and Mercedes sat down for lunch in the early afternoon, a friend called froested that the prize really was in the bag but that he e theirup Gabo and Mercedes looked at one another in stupefaction, unable to say a word Finally she said, ”My God, what are we in for now!” They got straight up from the table and fled to Alvaro Mutis's house for co to their own home in the early hours to wait for confirmation of this accolade which he at least had wanted but which was also a life sentence for the, Mexico City tin Minister of Sweden, called the house in Mexico City and confirmed the news Garcia Marquez put down the telephone, turned to Mercedes and said: ”I'm fucked”48 They had no time to discuss it or to prepare thean to ring The first caller, just two ota Betancur had heard the news from Francois Mitterrand who had heard it from Olof Palme, but the official version said Betancur had heard it froota time They had no time to discuss it or to prepare thean to ring The first caller, just two ota Betancur had heard the news from Francois Mitterrand who had heard it from Olof Palme, but the official version said Betancur had heard it froota tiot dressed as they fielded the first calls and picked at the iht up by theirabout upstairs Garcia Marquez and Mercedes got dressed as they fielded the first calls and picked at the iht up by theirabout upstairs

With the exception of the writing of One Hundred Years of Solitude One Hundred Years of Solitude, nothing in the great Garcia Marquez y has been discussed aspandemonium, and Garcia Marquez's journey to Stockhollish man or woman wins the honour, it barely makes the news (What do writers matter; and who do the Swedes think they are, anyway) But this was not only an award to a man froratulations; it was-it transpired-an award to a hout a vast, isolated continent, a man who millions in that continent considered their own representative and, indeed, their charatulations rained down on the house in Mexico City froraes, Gregory Rabassa, Juan Carlos Onetti, the Coloram the next day: ”Justice has been done at last Jubilation here since yesterday Iratulate both you and Mercedes with all ratulations Pity we couldn't celebrate it with Oone to a better h, it was an opportunity for Latin America to say at last what it felt about Garcia Marquez-Colombia, Cuba and Mexico all claiistic copy was logged with newspapers there and all over the world It was as if One Hundred Years of Solitude One Hundred Years of Solitude had just been published and a billion people had read it simultaneously, five seconds after its appearance, in soether had just been published and a billion people had read it simultaneously, five seconds after its appearance, in soether