I'm Not Here to Give a Speech

by Gabriel García Márquez, Edith Grossman Narrated by Luis Bermudez

Overview

Throughout his life, Gabriel García Márquez spoke publicly with the same passion and energy that marked his writing. Now the wisdom and compassion of these performances are available in English for the first time. I'm Not Here to Give a Speech records key events throughout the author's life, from a farewell to his classmates delivered when he was only seventeen to his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Written across a lifetime, these speeches chart the growth of a genius: each is a snapshot offering insights into the beliefs and ideas of a world-renowned storyteller. Preserving García Márquez's unmistakeable voice for future generations, I'm Not Here to Give a Speech is a must-have for anyone who ever fell in love with Macondo or cherished a battered copy of Love in the Time of Cholera.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

11/05/2018
Though the late Nobel laureate García Márquez (1927–2014) professed discomfort with public speaking, as the title indicates, this collection demonstrates that he was still a powerful storyteller with the spoken as well as printed word. The talks are arranged chronologically, from a farewell address in praise of friendship he gave at age 17 in 1944 to his classmates at the National Secondary School for Boys in Zipaquirá, Colombia, to a 2007 speech on writing One Hundred Years of Solitude to Real Academia Española and the king and queen of Spain. In the latter, he marvels at the millions of readers the book has touched, not to boast but “to show that there are a number of human beings who have demonstrated with their habit of reading that their souls are open to be filled with messages in Spanish.” Perhaps the most notable selection is his 1982 speech accepting the Nobel Prize, “The Solitude of Latin America,” which counsels Europeans “with an enlightening spirit” to realize that expressing solidarity with Latin Americans’ “dreams will not make us feel less alone” unless accompanied by concrete action. These talks, so eloquently rendered by García Márquez’s longtime translator Grossman, capture the novelist’s passion, genius, and energetic way of telling a story with a clear moral. (Jan.)

From the Publisher

I’m Not Here to Give a Speech is a welcome reminder of his immense contributions to literature, as well as his skill in using literary fame to highlight the distinct culture and creative strength of Latin America." —Christian Science Monitor

“Márquez speaks with the future in mind. . . . Language is his love.” —The Independent

"A set of speeches given over the course of his long literary career offers snapshots of the Colombian author's uniquely eloquent humanitarian voice and vision. . . . Essential truths in the rare and generous voice of a maestro." —Kirkus Reviews
 
“This neat collection sets out the revered Colombian novelist’s two key passions. . . . First is a quest to identify a Latin American spirit, and to celebrate and defend it. Second is an enduring belief in the power of the imagination. . . . [He was] as poetic and polemical in speaking as he was in writing.” —Art Review

“I’m Not Here to Give a Speech radiates a familiar humorous charm and robust sensuality. . . . The book is of a piece with the fiction, and equally haunting.” —The Irish Times
 
"These talks, so eloquently rendered by García Márquez’s longtime translator Grossman, capture the novelist’s passion, genius, and energetic way of telling a story with a clear moral." —Publishers Weekly

Kirkus Reviews

2018-10-14

A set of speeches given over the course of his long literary career offers snapshots of the Colombian author's uniquely eloquent humanitarian voice and vision.

García Márquez (1927-2014), the author of such classics as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera and winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature, was a passionate advocate for his Latin American culture and identity. In his Nobel speech, "The Solitude of Latin American," he expresses his heartfelt hope that the Swedish Academy was ultimately recognizing through his work the underappreciated richness of the Latin American imagination, "because the greatest challenge for us has been the insufficiency of conventional devices to make our lives believable." His idealistic vision of cultural rapprochement shines through many of these speeches, as he offers a plea for the convergence of sciences and arts ("for the questioning of both is the same over the same abyss") and the significant role of the intellectual in society. Throughout his life, García Márquez was a fierce activist for social change. In "The Cataclysm of Damocles" (1986), he laments that in the nuclear age, the only reason we have not annihilated ourselves in a cosmic disaster is that "the preservation of human life on Earth continues to be cheaper than the nuclear plague. In "The Beloved Though Distant Homeland" (2003), delivered in Medellin, he rues Colombia's devastating proliferation of narco-violence. Friendship forms the theme of two of the most affecting speeches, in which he celebrates the work of Álvaro Mutis (1993) and Julio Cortázar. Elsewhere, García Márquez reveals his deep roots in poetry and journalism. Regarding the latter, during a 1996 speech in Los Angeles, he presciently noted that the discipline was dangerously veering into a terrain of "innocent or deliberate mistakes, vicious manipulations, and venomous misrepresentations that give the news article the dimensions of a deadly weapon."

Essential truths in the rare and generous voice of a maestro.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176263534
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	07/20/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

A SOUL OPEN TO BE FILLED WITH MESSAGES IN SPANISH Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, March 26, 2007
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "I'm Not Here to Give a Speech"
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