[The Typing Baker] The Greatest Storyteller of the 20th Century Engraved on Colombian Banknotes

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Sorikkun Lee Jaram presented the new pansori work "Song of the Stranger" last year.

The protagonist, Omero, is a foreign worker from the Caribbean who works as an ambulance driver at a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. Omero accidentally meets the former president of his homeland at the hospital. The president, who was ousted by a coup d'?tat, came to the hospital for treatment. Omero invites the president to his home and treats him with great care. However, Omero's wife nags him, saying he is doing a pointless thing that doesn't make money.

The original work of this pansori, which attracts interest just by its character setting, is the short story "Bon Voyage, Mr. President!" published in 1995 by Colombian novelist Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez (1927?2014). M?rquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. The portrait on the 500,000 Colombian peso bill is of M?rquez.

Novelist Kwon Ri describes Garc?a M?rquez as the greatest storyteller of the 20th century. "When reading M?rquez's books, the phrase 'Where do you sell medicine?' suddenly changes to 'This medicine can be paid in installments over three months,'" he explains. M?rquez's father was actually a medicine peddler. M?rquez inherited the skill of selling medicine necessary for storytellers from his father and, during his impoverished days, went around selling encyclopedias. The unusually long titles of M?rquez's novels, such as "The Most Handsome Drowned Man in the World," also show his humor. The early part of the book about M?rquez's childhood and family relationships helps understand why he could become a storyteller.

M?rquez was born as the eldest son among seven brothers and four sisters. Including four children from his father's previous marriage, he had a total of fifteen siblings. Among them were some who played exceptionally well and troublemakers whom the parents sent to juvenile detention centers. There were siblings who saw ghosts and others who suffered from hysteria. Their professions varied widely, including civil engineers, singers, and firefighters. In this large family, M?rquez witnessed diverse lives and embodied various unique characters in his novels.

Because his parents moved around frequently, M?rquez lived with his maternal grandparents until he was seven. He heard the story of the 1928 Banana Massacre from his grandfather more than a thousand times. The Banana Massacre was a tragic event in Colombian history where the government sent the military to suppress striking banana plantation workers in the northern city of Ci?naga demanding better treatment. It is estimated that up to 3,000 workers died. His grandmother was deeply involved in superstition and shamanism. Novelist Kwon explains that the ambivalent feelings M?rquez must have felt between the reality told by his grandfather and the fantasies of his grandmother became the foundation of M?rquez's magical realism.

Novelist Kwon traveled for over 70 days through cities where M?rquez's traces remain, including his hometown Aracataca, and places reflecting his university days such as Bogot?, Mompox, Barranquilla, and Cartagena, capturing his thoughts and feelings fully in the book. The book contains quite detailed information about M?rquez, seemingly referencing the three autobiographies he wrote in his later years. It mentions many stories from M?rquez's novels, adding interest. Especially, it overwhelmingly references his masterpiece "One Hundred Years of Solitude." If you have read "One Hundred Years of Solitude," your interest in the book will multiply.

Regarding "One Hundred Years of Solitude," Chilean poet Pablo Neruda said it is the finest novel written in Spanish after Don Quixote. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton also praised it as the best novel after William Faulkner.

M?rquez was a novelist, journalist, and passionate socialist. He maintained a long friendship with Fidel Castro. Shortly after the success of the Cuban Revolution, he visited Cuba for reporting and wrote the novel "The Autumn of the Patriarch," modeled on Castro. The book also mentions Colombia's Thousand Days' War, the Cuban Revolution, and Chile's Pinochet military coup, allowing readers to vaguely sense the flow of South American history.

(Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez / written by Kwon Ri / Arte / 19,800 KRW)

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.