Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Many many years ago, I had to purchase several contemporary novels to read for a class in literary criticism. One of these assigned books was One Hundred Years of Solitude, by the author in this article's title. I had not yet purchased any of the books when I happened to notice the Marquez book in a grocery store and decided to give it a quick look.

I opened the book to the very first page and read the first line, which was something like (I don't have the book with me here in a Starbucks in Northridge, CA), "On that day, just before he was executed, Juan Carlos Buendia recalled the time many years before when his father had shown him ice."

Now that is a first line for a novel. For me, standing there next to the gew-gaw book aisle at a Ralph's (which is right next to where I am sitting now, come to think of it; strange), That sentence led to the next and the next and the next, as I lost all consciousness of myself and my literal surroundings. When I returned to conventional consciousness, it was because my sciatic nerve was in more agony than I could ignore. I was on page 34.

It is the best contemporary novel I have ever read.

Here is one more recommendation. If Marquez and I ever discussed politics, I expect we would agree on very little. I believe he is a pretty staunch Marxist. But here is one of the amazing things about most great fiction: You can read hundreds of pages without ever having an inkling of any political ideas that are trying to emerge. More than that, you are in the midst of an experience that proves why politics is not and can never be the ultimate solution. Politics is transcended.