Gabriel García Márquez: A Life

In early August 1966, García Márquez and Mercedes went to the post office to send the finished manuscript of One Hundred Years of Solitude to Buenos Aires. They looked like two survivors of a catastrophe. The package contained 490 typewritten pages. The clerk at the counter said: “Eighty-two pesos.” García Márquez watched Mercedes search her purse for money. They only had fifty pesos, and could only send about half of the book: García Márquez asked the man behind the counter to remove pages as if they were slices of bacon, until the fifty pesos were enough. They went home, pawned the heater, the hairdryer, and the blender, returned to the post office, and sent the second part. As they left the post office, Mercedes stopped and turned to her husband: “Hey, Gabo, all we needed now was for the book to be no good.”