by Bagriel Garcia Marquez

Seldom has there been a more fitting match between author and subject. Mr. Garcia Marquez wades into his flamboyant, often improbably and ultimately tragic material with enormous gusto, heaping detail upon sensuous detail, alternating grace with horror, perfume with the stench of corruption, the elegant language of public ceremony with the vulgarity of private moments, the rationalistic clarity of Bolivar's thought with the malarial intensity of emotions.