海角大神

He鈥檚 still with us, but we鈥檙e going to miss the brilliant workings of Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez鈥檚 mind. The Colombian novelist and Nobel laureate has dementia, M谩rquez's brother last weekend, and is not writing.

鈥淗e is doing well physically, but he has been suffering from dementia for a long time,鈥� brother Jaime Garc铆a M谩rquez said in a lecture in Cartagena, Colombia, over the weekend.

Best known for epic works of fiction illustrating 鈥渕agical realism,鈥� including 鈥淟ove in the Time of Cholera,鈥� 鈥淥ne Hundred Years of Solitude,鈥� and 鈥�Chronicle of a Death Foretold,鈥� Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. In 1999, he was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer and treated with chemotherapy, which accelerated the onset of dementia, Jaime Garc铆a M谩rquez .

鈥淒ementia runs in our family and he鈥檚 now suffering the ravages prematurely due to the cancer that put him almost on the verge of death,鈥� he said. 鈥淐hemotherapy saved his life, but it also destroyed many neurons, many defenses and cells, and accelerated the process.

鈥溾��Sometimes I cry because I feel like I鈥檓 losing him鈥�but he still has the humor, joy and enthusiasm that he has always had,鈥� Jaime Garc铆a M谩rquez said.

Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez had been working on the second part of his autobiography, 鈥淰ivir Para Contarla鈥� (鈥淟iving to Tell the Tale鈥�), which brother Jaime said is unlikely to be completed because of the author鈥檚 condition. 鈥淯nfortunately, I don鈥檛 think that鈥檒l be possible, but I hope I鈥檓 wrong.鈥�

Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez was a pioneer of the literary school known as magical realism, an aesthetic genre of fiction in which magical elements blend with the real world. He now lives in Mexico and has not written anything since the publication five years ago of 鈥淢emoirs of My Melancholy Whores.鈥�

Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.