Rating: 
Summary: Flawed but still fantastic
Review: Macondo ("Solitude") and the unnamed "city of the viceroys" ("Cholera"), while perfectly "real" and realized in a literary sense, seemed to this reader not to quite sit anywhere on any actual South American landscape but after the reading to shimmer above plain or coast like Remedios beginning her ascent to heaven with the laundry. "Living to Tell the Tale" at last brings them down to earth (for a Northern reader, anyway), connecting these cities of the imagination with the real Colombia as known so profoundly in so many of its dimension by the author. What's most remarkable is how many of even the most fanciful-seeming details of the novels derive directly or through transmutation from the author's own life in Colombia (presuming we can trust the factuality of the history, whose author refuses to let us grow comfortable with traditional notions of truth and tale). The author manages to satisfy our curiosity for a behind-the-scenes peek at the formation of an artist while creating a brand-new work of art that merits praise in its own right. Here we see a young man struggling to comprehend and exercise his own gifts at the same time that (more troubling) others are recognizing those gifts and expecting or depending on him to make much of them. Here we see a life lived in the midst of a people at once united in the joy of life and torn apart by political forces that threaten with violence and poverty. Like many other Gabo fans, I eagerly awaited the appearance of this book and read it as soon as I could pull back the cover. Now that I'm done reading it, I remain grateful for this late gift from an author who will surely endure as long as literature itself does, alongside the likes of Joyce and Nabokov. Yet I can't agree in whole with many of the early reviewers who in the glow of excitement over this publishing event seem to have overlooked some of the book's flaws, for flaws there are. The author's recollections of his childhood are as charming as they could be; they seem to have been cherished and polished over a lifetime in the tumbler of the author's memory, as if he were only waiting to achieve a sufficient age for him to justify their appearance on the page in this fashion. The problems set in later in the book. From a generosity that may be congenital or may be the fruit of a retrospective old age, the author seems determined to thank (by mentioning) everyone who ever befriended him or helped him in his early career--the problem is that we don't care about all of them. Furthermore, while he may believe that journalism and fiction are fraternal twins, his journalistic account of his career in journalism, with all of its I-did-this-then-I-did-that, does not manage to create the interest and awe that his best fictions do. In a few places observations are repeated that one would like to put down to poor editing rather than to the lapse in control of an old man heroically laboring in his sickness (and mostly succeeding) to bless the world one more time. The peripheral presence of Mercedes in this later portion of the book does as much as anything to preserve the aura of magic cast in the earlier part and to renew one's enthusiasm for volume two. Meanwhile, the flaws of volume one are much too minor to prevent any lover of Gabo's particular brand of dreamy verbal beauty to hesitate one minute over buying and reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Bravo Gabito!
Review: Magisterial Magical Memoir by the Maestro period!
You are with him in a hot room in Macondo and while he smokes he tells you his life in poetry.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT!
Review: Marquez has influenced so many writers living in the US: from Jorge Reyes (Rediscovering Cuba) to Cristina Garcia (Dreaming Cuban), to even internationally recognized authors such Isabel Allende (The House of Spirits). Which is why his books, his voice, his voice has moved from simply being good to being great! And this book, the first in a three-volume installment, proves it.
Rating:
Summary: Truly one of the most delightful writings ever!!!
Review: Oh~~the long expected English version finally came out. Reading such a book is definitely an extraordinary mental experience, especially for those who have read the fictional writings of Garcia Marquez. As you are reading through the book, you will find that it reminds you of what you read in his other books, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. You will awe him because of the fact that Garcia Marquez is capable of transforming the simplest trivialities in his life into the most delicate and imaginary stories that one could ever read. Hope everyone enjoy reading this book~~ HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Rating:
Summary: One Writer's Beginnings
Review: One advantage of writing an autobiography is that you obviously control what the reader finds out about you. I suspect that Mr. Marquez omits many things about himself in this wonderful, rambling memoir of nearly 500 pages; but he gives us story after story on practically every page; and we do get a myriad of fascinating details about both the man, his family and friends and his thoughts on writers and writing. Marquez comes from a large Colombian family, both in and outside marriage, and says that he owes his nature and "way of thinking" to the women in his family who had "strong characters and tender hearts." His mother obviously fits this description. Although intensely jealous of her husband's infidelities, she brings home one of her husband's children born outside their marriage because "'the same blood that's in my children's veins just can't go wandering around out there.'" In addition to Marguez's parents, whom we recognize in LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA, there are countless other fascinating people and stories seen and told through the eyes of this great writer. Who else, for example, would know a blind accordian repairman? Or whose family would dig up the remains of Marquez's grandmother Tranquilina and transport her in a sack when they make one of their many moves? It is any wonder that Marquez loved Faulkner's AS I LAY DYING? On writers and writing-- Marquez has always loved poetry and believes that the short story is superior to the novel, this from a man who has given the world ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE and LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA. It is not surprising that he prefers the feature story to an interview or straight reporting. Marquez readily admits that dialogue is not his forte. (We'll gladly settle for his magical tales, however.) He would agree that good readers make good writers as he has read everyone. Writers in English include D. H Lawrence, Graham Greene, James Joyce, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck, Erskine Caldwell, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne et al. Hawthorne's THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES "marked" him for life. Upon discovering that a wooden crate that arrived one morning was filled with books, he writes: "My heart leaded up before I did. . . The first thing I did was to display the books on the table in the dining room while my mother finished clearing away the breakfast dishes." He goes on to "smell" them as he says he always does with new books. Of course this volume is chockfull of sparse, wondrous descriptions. Drugs create an "artificial paradise." A man at an "all-night haunt" is "an Adonois-like man in his sixties." The moon is a "cold plate in the sky." Someone wears a "merinque-white uniform." Another person's hair was so unruly, that it "looked borrowed." An old man has a "maternal belly." This volume is the first of a trilogy. We certainly hope that Mr. Marquez lives to finish his marvelous tale.
Rating: 
Summary: Dying to Hear the Tale....if there is one
Review: One almost feels blasphemous giving Gabriel Garcia Marquez a less-than stellar rating! But I found 'Living to Tell the Tale' a very tedious read. There were brief moments of true poetry within this thick volume and it was interesting to read about the experiences that later inspired his writing, but overall it was just - well, boring! I couldn't even finish the last few chapters because I just had no reason to care. Nothing was sustaining my interest whatsoever. I sure hope the next two volumes have more substance and focus, because I'm Dying to Hear the Tale ...if there is indeed one to be told.
Rating:
Summary: brilliant
Review: Powerful, brilliant, and essential.Fantastic!! Also recommended: Secret Life of Bees,Nightmares Echo
Unisa Johnson, A reviewer
Rating:
Summary: Let's get it right!
Review: Since when is the translator of a book more important than the author, who is a Nobel Prize winner? please change at least the order... And also, his name is not Marquez, but Garcia (for those new to Hispanic culture, Latins get their father's and mother's last names in that order in their own last names, so Garcia is the last name of Gabriel's father and Marquez his mother's last name). The book is the remarkable story of a great writer and how he became one. I could not believe that the Spanish edition came out before the English one. If you are interested in learning the story of this man, his family, and Colombia you will not be disappointed! So let's get it right, and learn how this great story teller tells his own.
Rating:
Summary: An Amalgam of Marquezian Genius
Review: Thankfully, volumes of scholarly papers will continue to be written, seminars and graduate-level university courses will continue to be developed focusing upon this literary giant --and deservingly so. We are all the more priviledged as beneficiaries of this extraordinary talent. Garcia Marquez writes with the simplicity, serenity, ease and purity that are the mark of an absolute master. His ingenius combination of grace and vibrancy is astonishing. With this new offering, Living to Tell the Tale [Vivir Para Contarla], it all comes together in this long-anticipated personal account of one of the world's remaining literary treasures. The imagery of Garcia Marquez, my all-time favorite writer, is breathtakingly superb. Here we have an exquisite amalgam of Marquezian genius: all the fabulous characters, descriptions and locales we have come to know and cherish from the full range of his fiction. I couldn't agree more with those insightful reviewers who wishly urge for anyone new to Garcia Marquez a necessary reading of several of his important novels prior to indulging in this glorious triumph: "One Hundred Years of Solitude," "Love in the Times of Cholera," "No One Writes to the Colonel," and "The General in His Labyrinth." And for anyone able to read the original Spanish version is indeed for a sublime treat. Don Gabriel, mil gracias de nuevo; you are Humanity's Gift to the World! Alan Cambeira
Author of AZUCAR! The Story of Sugar (a novel)
Rating:
Summary: GGM excels
Review: The book unfolds more as a story rather than an autobiography. Somewhere down the line, the reader forgets that (s)he is reading about the early life of one of the greatest contemporary writers - Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
As with any other GGM book, it is slightly slow to start with, but then when one passes through the labyrinthe of words which GGM lays out for the reader, one realizes that without realizing it, the book has become an addiction for the reader and it just cannot be put down. One sometimes has to read the sentences again and again to be able to appreciate the penmanship of the writer ("This atavistic prejudice, whose embers still smolder, has turned us into a vast community of unmarried women and men with flies unzipped and numerous children born out of wedlock").
A GGM fan will recognize that many incidents in his books have been inspired from his real-life experiences - the messages sent by GGMs father to his mother during their courtship days using the help of a succession of telegraphic operators have inspired the episode of messages sent by Florentino Ariza to his wandering sweetheart Fermina Daza in "Love in the time of Cholera".
At times one wonders at the extremely detailed descriptions GGM gives of his childhood and his mélange of uncles, aunts and fellow writers-to-be. While reading the book, I realized that either my childhood was extremely uneventful or that I have an extremely poor memory. But then I am not GGM !!!!
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