Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez Has Dementia

Sad news, rocks the literary world. Gabriel García Márquez's writing career has come to end due to dementia. In article from The Guardian titled, Gabriel García Márquez's writing career ended by dementia, Conal Urquhart writes the following:
The Nobel prizewinning author Gabriel García Márquez is suffering from senile dementia and can no longer write, his brother has revealed.
Jaime García Márquez told students in Cartagena, Colombia, that his older brother, affectionately know as Gabo, calls him on the telephone to ask basic questions.

"He has problems with his memory. Sometimes I cry because I feel like I'm losing him," he said.

The 85-year-old Colombian writer won the Nobel prize in 1982 and is best known for novels including One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
He has fought a long battle against lymphatic cancer which he contracted in 1999 and it is believed that the cancer treatment has accelerated his mental decline.

I had the opportunity to read Gabriel García Márquez's novella, Memories of My Melancholy Whores a few years ago. What a unique writer. I am saddened to hear the news of Gabriel García Márquez's declining health. I wish him and his family the best during this difficult time.

3 comments:

  1. This is sad. Dementia is so life-altering. My grandmother suffers from dementia and it breaks my heart. She doesn't read anymore because she doesn't remember what she's read. This is a woman who worked for 25 years as a children's librarian and took my own children to the library every Saturday. Now books mean nothing to her. She doesn't even remember how important they once were. But we do. :(

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    1. Dementia is very life altering. My maternal grandfather had Alzheimer's and it was so sad seeing him mentally deteriorate over the years. He was vibrant an active all his life and then see him suffer was heart wrenching. He passed away 12 years ago and I still miss him so much. I partake in Alzheimer's Fundrasing Walks to help find a cure for Alzheimer's as it's the 5th leading cause of death in the USA.

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  2. I hate this... Dementia robs people of their minds, of their sanity and of their integrity. It's horrible! And it's happened to such a brilliant writer too!

    My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

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