Part 9 (2/2)

Within e from the media, and the police set up roadblocks at either end of Calle Fuego The first journalists invited hine-with photos, of course-and the neighbours caon turned up that ht to hion was in Mexico to restore a painting he had given Garcia Marquez, a self-portrait one of whose eyes had been shot out by the painter hied through the Garcia Marquez house, fetishi+stically describing every last detail outside and in-they particularly noticed the yellow roses and guavas on every table-and each cla for an ”exclusive” intervieith the h the Garcia Marquez house, fetishi+stically describing every last detail outside and in-they particularly noticed the yellow roses and guavas on every table-and each cla for an ”exclusive” intervieith the man of the moment

Garcia Marquez had not spoken to his mother for three weeks because her phone was down and an enterprising Bogota journalist used the wonders of technology to link thea told the whole of Colo about the neas that ”Maybe now I'll get my phone fixed” Which she very soon did She also said that she'd always hoped Gabito would never win the prize because she was sure he would die soon afterwards Her son, well used to these eccentricities, said that he would be taking yellow roses to Stockholm in order to protect hianized an improvised press conference for theover his house He announced that he would not wear evening dress at the cereuayabera shi+rt or even a shi+rt or even a liquiliqui liquiliqui-the white linen tunic and trousers worn by Latin Arandfather This topic becaht up to the moment of the ceremony emblematic of the fear that Garcia Marquez would cause soarity and let the country down He also announced that he would use the prize money to found a newspaper to be called El Otro (The Other), in Bogota: in his opinion half of the prize had been awarded in recognition of his journalisena Coloht up to the moment of the ceremony emblematic of the fear that Garcia Marquez would cause soarity and let the country down He also announced that he would use the prize money to found a newspaper to be called El Otro (The Other), in Bogota: in his opinion half of the prize had been awarded in recognition of his journalisena

At one in the afternoon, Garcia Marquez and Mercedes left the journalists to it and fled the Calle Fuego, took a roo their closest friends They spent the afternoon in seclusion with just eight people while their house was still in uproar Alvaro Mutis was designated as the Garcia Barcha family chauffeur for the duration of the ton, meanwhile, confirmed on that same day that despite his new status Garcia Marquez would still not be given a visa to visit the United States, fro for Cuba in 1961 (On 7 November he would write in his column in El Espectador El Espectador that he would rather ”the door be closed than half open”-which was quite untrue because he was still profoundly irked by the prohibition-so on 1 Dece to ban the publication of his books in the United States since, if they were still refusing him a visa, why should they allow his books to enter?) that he would rather ”the door be closed than half open”-which was quite untrue because he was still profoundly irked by the prohibition-so on 1 Dece to ban the publication of his books in the United States since, if they were still refusing him a visa, why should they allow his books to enter?)51 This happened also to be the day the dissident poet Arely thanks to Garcia Marquez's mediation between Castro and Mitterrand Valla dares, supposedly paralysed, according to his supporters, was accois Debray and astonished everyone by rising fro on arrival at the airport in Paris This happened also to be the day the dissident poet Arely thanks to Garcia Marquez's mediation between Castro and Mitterrand Valla dares, supposedly paralysed, according to his supporters, was accois Debray and astonished everyone by rising fro on arrival at the airport in Paris

All around the world Garcia Marquez's friends celebrated Plinio Mendoza wept in Paris He was not the only one By contrast the publisher Jose Vicente Katarain, already on his way to Mexico, learned the news in the airport on arrival and began to dance; the girl at the news stand asked if he'd won the lottery Indeed he had Down in Cartagena, as the faio said, to anyone ould listen, ”I always knew it” No one reminded him of the prediction that Gabito would ”eat paper” Luisa Santiaga said her father the Colonel reat things for Gabito Most of the reports would present the family as eccentric inhabitants of their own little Macondo: Luisa Santiaga was Ursula and Gabriel Eligio was Jose Arcadio, though as usual he wondered aloud whether he ht not be Melquiades But little by little, despite his pride and undoubted euphoria, Gabriel Eligio began to h Mitterrand's influence, he said (”those things count, you know”); Gabito was just one of the ot quite so dalena decided to declare 22 October a regional holiday and proposed that Colonel Marquez's old house in Aracataca should becoanized street de with Garcia Marquez to return to the country as a spokesman for the oppressed, to save Colombia A reporter asked a prostitute in the street if she'd heard the news and she said a client had just told her about it in bed; this was thought to be the best hoe Garcia Marquez could receive In Barranquilla the taxi drivers on the Pasoblivar heard the news on their radios and all sounded their horns in unison: after all, Gabito was one of thean to call Garcia Marquez ”the new Cervantes,” echoing an idea which Pablo Neruda had been one of the first to suggest when he read One Hundred Years of Solitude One Hundred Years of Solitude in 1967 in 196752 This comparison would be made many times down the years from this moment on This comparison would be made many times down the years from this moment on Neeek Neeek, which also had Garcia Marquez on the cover, called hi storyteller”53 Perhaps Sal from London, best summed up the opinion that prevailed both then and thereafter His piece was entitled ”Marquez the Magician”: ”He is one of the nobel judges' icians in contemporary literature, an artist with the rare quality of producing work of the highest order that reaches and bewitches a mass audience Marquez'sfrom London, best summed up the opinion that prevailed both then and thereafter His piece was entitled ”Marquez the Magician”: ”He is one of the nobel judges' icians in contemporary literature, an artist with the rare quality of producing work of the highest order that reaches and bewitches a mass audience Marquez's masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude One Hundred Years of Solitude, is, I believe, one of the two or three most important and most completely achieved works of fiction to be published anywhere since the war”54 Meanwhile, just a week after the announceood friends, Felipe Gonzalez, leader of the Spanish Socialist Party, was elected Prime Minister of his country, yet another cause for celebration and political euphoria Last year Mitterrand; now Gonzalez Was the prize soe? Garcia Marquez told Gente Gente of Buenos Aires, ”I can die happy because now I a of Buenos Aires, ”I can die happy because now I auel de la Madrid was inaugurated as the President of Mexico for the next six years He and Garcia Marquez would never be close but Garcia Marquez attended the cereurated as Priovern Cuba, Garcia Marquez flew on to Madrid to salute Gonzalez-and be saluted He let it be known that he had talked to Castro for eleven hours in Havana and that the Reagan government had refused him an unconditional visa to touch down in New York Meanwhile, in Paris, Mercedesnote for Garcia Marquez was that his elder son, fil to travel to Stockholuished father's career The two had met up in Zacatecas the previous month and no one knohat transpired Neither man has ever been prepared to sayon Monday 6 Deceovernment-chartered Avianca juota to Stockholation led by Minister of Education Jaiether with Garcia Marquez's twelve closest friends chosen by Guillerulo to save hie nura, and seventy anized by the Minister of Culture with the advice and assistance of an anthropologist, Gloria Triana

When Garcia Marquez's guests finally arrived in Stockhol point Hundreds of Europe-based Colo at the airport As the night wore on the terees but the Swedes told them they were lucky it wasn't colder and that it hadn't snowed55 Groups of friends and family from Spain and Paris had arrived earlier in the afternoon: Carether with the Feduchis and journalist Ramon Chao; Mercedes and Gonzalo, Tachia and Charles, and Plinio Mendoza, frois Debray and Mitterrand's wife Danielle, though without Culture Minister Jack Lang, another friend, who had to cancel at the last moment The Colombian ambassador was also there, plus the Cuban a in the Arctic cold Groups of friends and family from Spain and Paris had arrived earlier in the afternoon: Carether with the Feduchis and journalist Ramon Chao; Mercedes and Gonzalo, Tachia and Charles, and Plinio Mendoza, frois Debray and Mitterrand's wife Danielle, though without Culture Minister Jack Lang, another friend, who had to cancel at the last moment The Colombian ambassador was also there, plus the Cuban a in the Arctic cold56 Tachia appointed herself official photographer to Garcia Marquez and his friends and she even et herself a press pass As her old fla room she thrust herself forward and took the first photo of the conquering hero, and then she photographed the wildly enthusiastic Coloh the airport's steel barriers in the Northern darkness Gabo and Mercedes went on to the Grand Hotel, where an opulent suite of three roohts57 Exhausted, jet-lagged, over-excited and overwhelmed, Garcia Marquez fell asleep Then, ”I suddenly woke up in bed, and I reive the saht, 'Rudyard Kipling has slept in this bed, Thomas Mann, Neruda, Asturias, Faulkner' It terrified me, and finally I went out to sleep on the sofa” Exhausted, jet-lagged, over-excited and overwhelmed, Garcia Marquez fell asleep Then, ”I suddenly woke up in bed, and I reive the saht, 'Rudyard Kipling has slept in this bed, Thomas Mann, Neruda, Asturias, Faulkner' It terrified me, and finally I went out to sleep on the sofa”58 The next e group of friends representing his entire past, including Carroup of people had never been brought together before Some didn't even know one another, some probably didn't like one another Plinio Mendoza said that Garcia Marquez had behaved at the airport like a visiting bullfighter saluting his fans and that he got dressed every day in his suite, again like a bullfighter, with all his friends around him On one occasion he took Alfonso Fuenmayor from ”the suite of the happy few” into the solitary bedroom and showed him his speech: ”Take a look at that, Maestro, and tell me what you think” Fuenmayor read the piece with admiration and said at last he understood Garcia Marquez's political position His friend replied, ”What you've just read is One Hundred Years of Solitude One Hundred Years of Solitude, no more, no less”59 As the hour approached, Mendoza recalls, ”In the e I saw Gabo and Mercedes, placid, untroubled, talking, co upon theue, in the house of Aunt Petra or Aunt Juana so”60 The literature prize winner's speech was to be given at 5 pm in the theatre of the Swedish Acadee, with 200 specially invited guests and a total audience of 400, followed at 630 by a dinner in honour of all the prize winners in the house of the Acadeiven at 5 pm in the theatre of the Swedish Acadee, with 200 specially invited guests and a total audience of 400, followed at 630 by a dinner in honour of all the prize winners in the house of the Acade his trademark hound's-tooth jacket, dark trousers, a white shi+rt and a red polka-dot tie, was introduced by the lanky Lars Gyllensten, Permanent Secretary of the Academy and himself a well-known novelist, who had written the co the award of the prize Gyllensten, as speaking in Swedish, could barely be heard because the Colombian radio commentators present at the cere a football esture with his fingers before he started his own speech, entitled ”The Solitude of Latin Aressive, defiant, alical realisuised attack on the inability or unwillingness of Europeans to understand Latin Aive the continent the time to mature and develop that Europe itself had required It restated his lifelong objection to ”Europeans” (including North A their ”sche realities Garcia Marquez claimed that the prize had been awarded in part for his political activism and not only his literature He finished at 535 and received an ovation for severalof Thursday the 9th Garcia Marquez and Mercedes travelled out to the Prime Minister's residence at Harpsund for a private dinner with Pal Danielle Mitterrand, Regis Debray, Pierre Schori, Gunter Grass, Turkish poet-politician Bulent Ecevit, and Artur Lundkvist The Swedish Foreign Office said this invitation was a special distinction, rarely given before Garcia Marquez had been introduced to Palme by Francois Mitterrand in his Rue de Bievre hoh he was absolutely exhausted, he found hi for another two hours about the situation in Central America in a conversation which would be influential in proposing a peace process to be brokered by the six presidents of the isthmus, ould later be known as the Contadora Process62 All of this was but a series of hors d'oeuvres to the main course on 10 Dece the rehearsal in the Konserthus, in the afternoon the great event, the presentation of the nobel Prizes by the King of Sweden at four o'clock before an audience of 1,700 people That day Mercedes, ”the wife of the nobel,” appeared in Colombia on the cover of Carrusel, an El Tiempo supplement The article inside was by her sister-in-law, Beatriz Lopez de Barcha, entitled ”Gabito Waited for Me to Grow Up”63 One can i said to her, ”OK, you want to wipe out that piece by Consuelo Mendoza last year, why not letpictures?” Mercedes: ”OK, but just this once” One can i said to her, ”OK, you want to wipe out that piece by Consuelo Mendoza last year, why not letpictures?” Mercedes: ”OK, but just this once”

Soon after lunch theabout his liquiliqui liquiliqui since the day he heard the news Sorandfather the Colonel, sometimes, less modestly, that it was to honour his own most famous creation, Colonel Aureliano Buendia since the day he heard the news Sorandfather the Colonel, sometimes, less modestly, that it was to honour his own most famous creation, Colonel Aureliano Buendia El Espectador El Espectador carried a letter the day after the ceremony from Don Aristides Gomez Aviles in Monteria, Colombia, who remembered Colonel Marquez well and said he would never have been seen dead in a carried a letter the day after the ceremony from Don Aristides Gomez Aviles in Monteria, Colombia, who remembered Colonel Marquez well and said he would never have been seen dead in a liquiliqui liquiliqui: he was far too posh for that and would never have been caught out in the street without a jacket on, still less at a nobel Prize ceremony64 In these discussions a man who really had worn a In these discussions a man who really had worn a liquiliqui liquiliqui in his youth, Gabriel Eligio Garcia, never got a ot a mention

Suite 208, Grand Hotel Stockhol froht Garcia Marquez the Daraph of the great writer standing in his intimate apparel, surrounded by his male friends in the dinner jackets which they had all rented for 200 krona apiece Mercedes handed them yellow roses, one by one, to ward off la pava, as bad luck is called in the Spanish Caribbean, and helped fix theanized the photographs65 Then out came the Then out came the liquiliqui liquiliqui which, Ana Maria Cano in which, Ana Maria Cano in El Espectador El Espectador cattily observed three days later,”as wrinkled as an accordion” cattily observed three days later,”as wrinkled as an accordion”66 All this was later Now, dressed defiantly in his liquiliqui liquiliqui-the closest thing when all is said and done to a recognizably Latin American lower-class uniform-with, oh horror, black boots, Garcia Marquez prepared himself for the moment of truth If the liquiliqui liquiliqui rinkled, no doubt those of Nicaragua's Augusto Sandino and Cuba's Jose Marti and other heroes of Latin American resistance had been wrinkled, not to mention that of Aureliano Buendia He covered hiainst the Nordic elehtly together and went down the steps to accompany Gabo for the most memorable ua's Augusto Sandino and Cuba's Jose Marti and other heroes of Latin American resistance had been wrinkled, not to mention that of Aureliano Buendia He covered hiainst the Nordic elehtly together and went down the steps to accompany Gabo for the most memorable moment of his life”67 Then Mendoza switches to the eternal present: ”The streets are covered in snow, photographers everywhere By Gabo's side, I see his face tighten for a moment I can feel, with the antennae of my Pisces ascendant, the sudden tension The flowers, the flashes, the figures in black, the red carpet: perhaps from the remote deserts where they lie buried his Guajiro ancestors are talking to hilory is the saoing on because as he pushes on through the ures in formal dress I hear him mutter in a low voice in which there is a note of sudden, alar up at my own funeral!'” Then Mendoza switches to the eternal present: ”The streets are covered in snow, photographers everywhere By Gabo's side, I see his face tighten for a moment I can feel, with the antennae of my Pisces ascendant, the sudden tension The flowers, the flashes, the figures in black, the red carpet: perhaps from the remote deserts where they lie buried his Guajiro ancestors are talking to hilory is the saoing on because as he pushes on through the ures in formal dress I hear him mutter in a low voice in which there is a note of sudden, alar up at rand ballrooned to evoke a Greek te three hundred Coloasp when Garcia Marquez appears in his all-white outfit: he looks as if he is still in his there, which is covered in yelloers, sitting in blue and gold ar Carl Gustav the Sixteenth, Queen Silvia, the beautiful half-Brazilian who spent her childhood in So Paulo, Princess Lilian and Prince Bertil, who all just arrived as the national anthem was played Beside them is a podium from which Permanent Secretary Gyllensten will speak The laureates are all to the left, on red seats: Swedes Sune Bergstrot Samuelsson and Briton John Vane for medicine, A for cheler for economics Behind are two further rows of seats in which the academicians, the Swedish cabinet and other notables are seated Garcia Marquez alone in his liquiliqui liquiliqui surrounded by dress suits, stoles, furs, pearl necklaces Between hie N for nobel inscribed in the circle-painted or chalked?-that awaits him surrounded by dress suits, stoles, furs, pearl necklaces Between hie N for nobel inscribed in the circle-painted or chalked?-that awaits him

He was visibly nervous when Professor Gyllensten of the Swedish Academy started to speak When it came to Garcia Marquez's moment, last but one, Gyllensten spoke in Swedish, then turned to the Colo eyes, looking for all the world like the hapless little boy in the Colegio San Jose de Barranquilla, and switched to French, su the Colo to receive the prize Garcia Marquez, who had chosen Bartok's Inter piece of music, left his yellow rose on his seat as he inable misfortune without that totee with his fists clenched and the tru, then stopped inside the painted circle to await the King Now, as he shook hands with the ratiating hi the , then to the guests of honour and then the audience, whereupon he received as generally agreed to have been the longest standing ovation in the history of those august cere piece of music, left his yellow rose on his seat as he inable misfortune without that totee with his fists clenched and the tru, then stopped inside the painted circle to await the King Now, as he shook hands with the ratiating hi the , then to the guests of honour and then the audience, whereupon he received as generally agreed to have been the longest standing ovation in the history of those august ceremonies: several minutes69 The ceremony finished at 545 pm and as Garcia Marquez filed out with the other winners he raised his hands above his head like a cha h to be invited had forty-five et themselves across to the vast blue hall of the Stadhus (Stockholrand Swedish Academy banquet The menu had been prepared by Johnny Johanssen, Sweden's top chef, and was a ”typically Swedish” affair Reindeer fillets, trout and sorbet, with banana and alne, sherry and port70 Garcia Marquez, defiantly, lit a Havana cigar The highlight of the proceedings-as everyone would agree-was the arrival of the seventy Colombian musicians Garcia Marquez's friend Nereo Lopez had been following their adventures and misadventures in Stockholar The highlight of the proceedings-as everyone would agree-was the arrival of the seventy Colombian musicians Garcia Marquez's friend Nereo Lopez had been following their adventures and misadventures in Stockholm with his ca all the woins and I've promised their mothers” On arrival in the Town Hall, which was draped in roup fro he was in a church Lopez wondered how the Swedes felt when they saw ”that heterogeneous group froam of Indian, Black, Carib and Spanish which makes up theto hireat ice cream known as the He had watched Gloria Triana anxiously chaperoning all the woins and I've promised their mothers” On arrival in the Town Hall, which was draped in roup fro he was in a church Lopez wondered how the Swedes felt when they saw ”that heterogeneous group froam of Indian, Black, Carib and Spanish which makes up theto hireat ice cream known as the nobel Flambe nobel Flambe had been the main attraction at these cere in The entire perforra Grande de Coloo on for thirty minutes instead of fifteen had been the main attraction at these cere in The entire perforra Grande de Coloo on for thirty minutes instead of fifteen72 Each laureate read a three-minute speech followed by a toast Garcia Marquez went first with a piece entitled ”In Praise of Poetry,” which claimed that poetry was ”the most definite proof of the existence of man”73 What no one knew at the time was that he had more than just a little help fro the speech and then thinking about it, ht have deduced Two of the other laureates asked hin copies of What no one knew at the time was that he had more than just a little help fro the speech and then thinking about it, ht have deduced Two of the other laureates asked hin copies of One Hundred Years of Solitude One Hundred Years of Solitude After the toasts everyone filed up to the first floor to the ”Great Gold Roo This started with a waltz followed by sundry North European dances, then, unexpectedly, ”Besame mucho,” ”Perfidia” and other boleros boleros, followed by foxtrots and ruot back to the hotel, there was a phone call froo, up in the northern desert of Mexico The new laureate ith twenty of his friends, still drinking cha went quiet and Garcia Marquez, with shi+ning eyes, went over to the phone Later he would proudly tell journalists that his sons had ”the flavour of their mother and their father's business sense”74 By then, thousands of miles away in the small Caribbean town of Aracataca, Coloht, an even more vibrant and enthusiastic celebration was under way There had been a Te Deum in the church where Gabito was baptized at nine in the e to the house where he had been born A can was proposed to make Aracataca a historic tourist town on theCouncil of the Magdalena Departetic Governor Sara Valencia Abdala, her-self an Aracataca native75 Garcia Marquez's sister Rita recalled: ”The day the prize was presented there was a celebration in Aracataca organized by the Magdalena governuests; it picked up all the family on the way, cousins, uncles, aunts and nephews, and so we all arrived in Aracataca, where there were more cousins, more uncles and aunts, more family A lot of people It was a wonderful day, there were fireworks, a mass, a side of beef roasted in the open air and drinks for the whole town Our cousin Carlos Martinez Siurated the Telecoh the best thing of all hen they released the yellow butterflies” Garcia Marquez's sister Rita recalled: ”The day the prize was presented there was a celebration in Aracataca organized by the Magdalena governuests; it picked up all the family on the way, cousins, uncles, aunts and nephews, and so we all arrived in Aracataca, where there were more cousins, more uncles and aunts, more family A lot of people It was a wonderful day, there were fireworks, a mass, a side of beef roasted in the open air and drinks for the whole town Our cousin Carlos Martinez Siurated the Telecoh the best thing of all hen they released the yellow butterflies”76 Back in Stockhol to relax He had felt responsible for coe of Latin A that in Colombia, above all, his enemies could hardly wait for hiood ie” of the country was entirely different fro to do He would later say: ”No one ever suspected how unhappy I was during those three days, attending to thewould turn out well I could not afford any nificant, would have been catastrophic in those circumstances”77 (Later, when they were both back in Mexico City, the new laureate would say to Alvaro Mutis: ”TellI just see the photographers' flashes and seethe journalists' questions, always the same questions Tell me what you remember”) (Later, when they were both back in Mexico City, the new laureate would say to Alvaro Mutis: ”TellI just see the photographers' flashes and seethe journalists' questions, always the saly successful was he that even El Tiempo El Tieave hiratulated Garcia Marquez, acknowledging that his life had been hard and he had earned every last ounce of his glory It ended: ”After the euphoria involved in the nobel ceremony, the country o back to its routine But there is so that will not be the same as before: the conviction that our potentialities are still an unexplored richness and that we have barely begun to ee And there to prove it is Garcia Marquez, so that ill never forget this invaluable lesson”79

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The Frenzy of Renown and the Fragrance of Guava: Love in the Ti after, Gabo and Mercedes flew to Barcelona, accompanied by Carmen Balcells There they checked into the Princesa Sofia Hotel to sleep it all off until the New Year They did, however, make another visit to the new Spanish Prime Minister Garcia Marquez would dutifully record in his weekly colu-that he had visited the Moncloa Palace twice in the last teeks to chat to the youthful ”Felipe,” who had looked ”more like a university student” than a president, and to his wife Carmen, accompanied by Mercedes and Gonzalo1 It was clear that the new nobel Prize winner was going to be less discreet and more bumptious than ever In his next article he remarked, ”I consider ic to foret used to the idea that my friends become presidents nor have I yet overcoovernment palaces” The international jet-setter was convinced that Felipe, who understood Latin A to have ”a decisive influence on Latin As the sa to bounce hiy for Cuba, the Caribbean and Latin A the world know about it It was clear that the new nobel Prize winner was going to be less discreet and more bumptious than ever In his next article he remarked, ”I consider ic to foret used to the idea that my friends become presidents nor have I yet overcoovernment palaces” The international jet-setter was convinced that Felipe, who understood Latin A to have ”a decisive influence on Latin As the sa to bounce hiy for Cuba, the Caribbean and Latin A the world know about it

Nevertheless at their infor Gonzalez ion and the need for a security agreement for all,” not necessarily what Garcia Marquez had in mind Garcia Marquez declared that love would solve all the world's probleet back to his latest novel on that very subject: he'd really rather have won the prize next year so that he could have finished the book2 On 29 Dece declared that he still wanted to found his ospaper to enjoy ”the old dignity of bearing nehich perhaps sounded uneasily like the instinct of the go-between, which in Spanish has a less agreeable word, correveidile correveidile: ”run-see-and-tell-him” The Madrid-Havana axis would be a crucial concern of Garcia Marquez's over the coh even he would not be able to reconcile the differences between Castro and Gonzalez

Two oft-repeated general truths about the nobel Prize for Literature are that it is usually given to writers who have coer have any hile works left inside theer writers, the prize is a distraction which robs them of time, concentration and ambition The first was clearly not true of Garcia Marquez: he was one of the youngest of all nobel Prize winners as well as one of the best-known and most popular The second was predicted by those who resented his success, or were jealous of it, but the fact is that Garcia Marquez had already experienced celebrity on a scale that even nobel Prize winners rarely encounter Not only was he not the kind of h this kind of experience in the years after One Hundred Years of Solitude One Hundred Years of Solitude was published: it had been like winning a first nobel Prize Alternatively, then, one alvanized: to write s to do And so it turned out He was more than ready for his new status And yet was published: it had been like winning a first nobel Prize Alternatively, then, one alvanized: to write s to do And so it turned out He was more than ready for his new status And yet

And yethe had already decided in 1980 on a neay of life appropriate to his new position of authority and respectability He was already a friend of presidents: to the not very respectable relation with Fidel, the pirate captain, he had added Lopez Portillo of Mexico, Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela, Lopez Michelsen and Betancur of Colombia, Mitterrand of France and lastly Gonzalez of Spain He had now increased his own vast celebrity by acquiring a kind of roving presidential status (Fidel Castro would say, ”Yes, of course Garcia Marquez is like a head of state The only question is, which state?”) He told journalists he was taking a sabbatical, but clearly he was also hoping to use his new influence to mediate ht say that his openly political period lasted from about 1959 to 1979, and most intensively from 1971 to 1979 Thereafter followed a more ”diplomatic” period The question hether he wouldthis diplo fellow traveller, as in the period 195079, or whether he would gradually adjust his political position behind the cover of his otiations and cultural enterprises

As he flew back across the Atlantic in all his glory, even Garcia Marquez, who planned so very much in his life, whether consciously or unconsciously, ht of celebrity and awesoot what he wanted but soet what you want you don't want it For some time now he had been forced to adjust to levels of adulation that, unless one has witnessed the less than the ”frenzy of renown”3 Noould have to turn his entire life into a carefully organized spectacle Noould have to turn his entire life into a carefully organized spectacle

People who had known him most of his life would say that he beca the prize Sorateful that he continued to attend to thelect Many people said his vanity increased exponentially, others that it was extraordinary how nor said he had always been like a ”new-born nobel Prize winner”4 Carmen Balcells, as able to view literary celebrity more coolly than most, said that the extent of his success and fame was ”unrepeatable” Carmen Balcells, as able to view literary celebrity more coolly than most, said that the extent of his success and fame was ”unrepeatable”5 (”When you have an author like Gabriel Garcia Marquez you can set up a political party, institute a religion or organize a revolution”) Garcia Marquez hi possible to ”stay the same” but that no one viewed him as the same after the journey to Stockholhts on all the time” People tell you what they think you want to hear; the prize requires dignity, you can no longer just tell people to ”fuck off” You are required always to be a at a party, even with old friends, everyone else stops speaking and listens to you Ironically, ”as you're surrounded by more and more people, you feel smaller and smaller and smaller” (”When you have an author like Gabriel Garcia Marquez you can set up a political party, institute a religion or organize a revolution”) Garcia Marquez hi possible to ”stay the same” but that no one viewed him as the same after the journey to Stoc