Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gerald Martinwrites well. He is especially good at describing the small villagesand towns and banana plantations of Colombia and its rich topography.His descriptions of Colombia's natural beauty are vivid. Thisbiography grips a reader's attention from the very beginning, andholds it to the very end: "One hot, asphyxiating morning in theearly 1930s, in the tropical coastal region of northern Colombia, ayoung woman gazed through the window of the United Fruit Companytrain at the passing banana plantations. Row after row after row,shimmering from sun into shade.Those who love Gabriel GarciaMarquez's novels will find this book quite helpful in understandingseveral of his puzzling obsessions. For example, the author explainswhy Gabriel has written almost obsessively about illegitimatechildren in many of his novels: his family had so many of them! Thisis truly a very detailed, fascinating biography, meticulouslywritten.