See you in August
See you in August It is the last novel written by the Colombian Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez. The work, long awaited by critics and readers alike, was published posthumously on March 6, 2024, while its translations began to be released on the 12th of the same month, first in English and little by little in forty more languages.
This short novel by Márquez—like all of the author's literature— has caused a great impact within the global publishing world. Although the writer strictly requested that the material never be published due to the lack of perfection that he noticed in it, his children made it known, and the world has given it reviews that, like the volume itself, have been irregular. .
Synopsis of See you in August
A story about female freedom in a sexist environment?
Published by Random House, the novel tells the story of Ana Magdalena Bach, a 46-year-old woman who has been married for 27 of them.. Her husband is a man she loves and who loves her, but, as Márquez says: “Nothing is more like hell than a happy marriage.” Ana arrived at the altar without completing her studies, without previous boyfriends and with her virginity intact.
With her husband she had two children, a young man of 22 who is the first cello of the national symphony orchestra, and Micaela, 18 years old, who wants to be a nun of the order of the Discalced Carmelites. With nothing more than her supposedly idyllic life of hers, Ana Design her own destiny, a trip just for her: Every August 16 he visits the place where his late mother lies., which gives rise to adventures and discoveries.
A lady like none of the before
The literature of Gabriel García Márquez It is full of women. In many cases, they are in charge of moving the plot and the men in the story, although none of the previous novels had a true female protagonist, at least not as Anna Magdalene BachWho does not look like Úrsula Iguarán, Remedios la Bella, Ángela Vicario, Pilar Ternera, Petra Cotes or Fermina Daza.
Ana is a woman diametrically opposed to all the female figures in the books. Gabriel Garcia Márquez, who lived in the dramatic and oppressive limits of a sexist society. With Ana Magdalena Bach the author not only defends music, letters and art in general, but also the creative force of women and their needs for love, pleasure, power and freedom.
The importance of matriarchs
Ana Magdalena Bach is a mother, and shares a very special bond with her own deceased mother. The latter used to be a primary school teacher at Montessori, thus sharing her job with teacher Rosa Elena Fergusson, responsible for teaching reading and writing to Márquez. With her, the author learned about poetry by listening to poems from the Spanish Golden Age.
Clearly there is an autobiographical intention in the work, an attitude that is reflected in their characters. This is possible to notice in the case of the author's teacher represented in the protagonist's mother, from whom she inherited the brilliance of her golden eyes, "the virtue of few words and the intelligence to manage the temper of her character."
Did Gabriel García Márquez become a feminist in this book?
“I believe that I actually owe the essence of my way of being and thinking to the women of the family and the many servants who shepherded my childhood,” was something that the author confessed in his memoirs, Live to tell (2002). This explains why her books have a large female cast. See you in August y Memories of my whores sad They appear to be a diptych.
These two volumes share many elements, such as the time in which they are narrated and the setting. However, the real difference lies in its protagonists: on the one hand, a voluptuous old man with his sad prostitutes, on the other, a woman who seeks to emancipate herself with her love affairs and find her place within the world around her. Does this demonstrate any feminist ideology?
What's behind García Márquez's latest novel?
In fact, in addition to the story itself, It is not very clear if the author really felt identified with the emancipation of women. or, as is the case with many older gentlemen, it was a necessity for his female characters to enjoy the phenomenon One Night Stand, or one night sex. However, perhaps It is not worth asking this question, but rather enjoying the poetic passages of the novel.
Although with an irregular rhythm and a poorly polished plot, See you in August It is an effective summary of the style of Gabriel García Márquez, of his interest in politics and those themes that kept him awake so much: love, loneliness, power and death, topics that are addressed in this title and in its entire narrative. This work is a more than worthy closure for someone who is an icon of letters.
About the Author
Gabriel José García Márquez was born on March 6, 1927, in Aracataca, Magdalena, Colombia. The writer hardly needs an introduction, given his contributions to the world of letters, journalism, art and entertainment, in addition to his political militancy and the multiple translations of his works. Throughout his life He was recognized for being a pioneer in magical realism.
Likewise, was a member of the well-known tree Latin American, composed, among many other members, of Julio Cortázar, Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes. Likewise, Márquez was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “For his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the real are combined in a world richly composed of imagination, reflecting the life and conflicts of a continent. ”.
Other books by Gabriel García Márquez
Novels
- Litter (1955);
- El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (1961);
- Bad time (1962);
- One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967);
- The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975)
- A Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981);
- Love in the Time of Cholera (1985);
- The general in his labyrinth (1989);
- Love and Other Demons (1994).
Tales
- The funerals of Big Mom (1962);
- The incredible and sad story of the candid Eréndira and her heartless grandmother (1972);
- Blue dog eyes (1972);
- Twelve Pilgrim Tales (1992).
Nonfiction narrative
- Story of a castaway (1970);
- The adventure of Miguel Littín clandestine in Chile (1986);
- News of a kidnapping (1996).
Journalism
- When I was happy and undocumented (1973);
- Chile, the coup and the gringos (1974);
- Chronicles and reports (1976);
- Traveling through socialist countries (1978);
- Militant journalism (1978);
- Journalistic work 1. Coastal texts (1948-1952) (1981);
- Journalistic work 2. Among cachacos (1954-1955) (1982);
- Journalistic work 3. From Europe and America (1955-1960) (1983);
- The loneliness of Latin America. Writings on art and literature 1948-1984 (1990);
- First reports (1990);
- Journalistic work 5. Press releases (1961-1984) (1991);
- Journalistic work 4. For free (1974-1995) (1999);
- The unfinished lover and other press texts (2000);
- Gabo journalist (2013);
- The nostalgia of bitter almonds (2014);
- Gabo answers (2015);
- The scandal of the century (2018).
Drama
- Love tirade against a seated man (1994).
Speech
- Our first Nobel Prize (1983);
- The loneliness of Latin America / Toast to poetry (1983);
- The cataclysm of Damocles (1986);
- A manual for being a child (1995);
- For a country within reach of children (1996);
- One hundred years of solitude and a tribute (2007);
- I am not coming to make a speech (2010).
Filmmaking
- Long live Sandino (1982);
- How to tell a story (1995);
- I rent to dream (1995);
- The blessed habit of counting (1998).