Comments on Gabriel García Márquez's Black Eye

Marquez a proud Colombian lefty from the rural class, who lacked a good left and Vargas Llosa a proud and scary right winger and presidential candidate from Peru's ruling class who had a good right.

Both had 2 good novels: La ciudad y los perros from Vargas Llosa and Cien años de soledad from Marquez. Both, however good, could not shine the shoes of Jorge Luis Borges or Ernesto Sabato.

Northamericans still consider them the most important Latin American writers because of their capacity to write about magical themes.

Unfortunately that magical realism crap is still kept alive today with the bad writings of Isabel Allende.

Allende is okay in small doses. She's a popular genre writer and so people give her a hard time.

As for the feuding, the Gore Vidal vs. Norman Mailer feud mentioned in the article is hilarious. You can actually see part of it in a Dick Cavett clip on youtube. It's a total slobs vs. the snobs moment, where sadly, the slob loses.

Great story.
McCarthy said of Hellman, "Every word she says is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'." I had a lot of occasion to quote that one when I was in Seattle politics.

...the cause was a woman, specifically, Mr. Vargas Llosa’s wife, whom Mr. García Márquez consoled during a difficult period in the marriage.

Consoled...right.

Have you read the Cynthia Ozick essay in the new Harper's? She steps into the center of the Franzen/Marcus fight.