It's a funny thing about book reviews. It's been documented by publishing industry researchers that a negative book review can sometimes bump sales as well as a positive one, and good writers have bemoaned the fact that a great review, even a great front cover review in the New York Times Book Review, might not help sales at all. Of course, publisher incompetence can help cause the latter situation, as was recently revealed in a rather shocking New York Magazine interview:

It's kind of a dirty trick to assign the well-known political writer Paul Berman, who has railed against Latin American left-wing leaders like Che Guevera, Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro, to review Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Life by Gerald Martin. A major biography of a literary giant must be considered on its own terms, but Berman nails Gabriel Garcia Marquez for a single perceived failing: he openly adores Cuba's controversial Communist dictator Fidel Castro.

(Please enjoy the LitKicks debut of Jay Diamond, whose credits include Heeb Magazine and his own Hex Ed Journal)

"If you're not with me tomorrow, that would be the worst."
-Bonnie "Prince" Billy.

It's a new day. The weather's nice, Barack Obama is going to be President of the United States, and Jonathan Lethem has written a superb article about Roberto Bolano's 2666 on the front cover of this weekend's New York Times Book Review.

"You'll notice an empty chair has been placed next to the podium on stage. This is to symbolize those writers who could not be here today due to political oppression."

In 1919 the character of Zorro first appeared in a pulp magazine story titled The Curse Of Capistrano. Over the years the legend of Zorro has won many fans with the story of Spanish California's own version of Robin Hood. It seems the legend of Diego de la Vega is alive and well in a new novel, aptly titled Zorro, penned by best-selling author Isabel Allende.

Our weekly Seen and Heard update will return soon, and we hope that it will contain a lower percentage of obituary coverage. We recently heard from LitKicks member Rubiao who also noted this trend and wrote in to share some thoughts on another great writer that passed away on February 21, 2005.

It seems that this month was a bad month for famous literary icons and for at least one major religious icon as well. Those giants who have passed away have overshadowed at least one of the lesser-known writers who have moved on recently, namely one Guillermo Cabrera Infante. This Cuban giant living in exile wrote with the most unique style I have ever encountered.

I've never read a critical source about Borges. I don't really feel the desire to. And I think Borges might be pleased with that. Why? Well it seems to me that Borges, more than any other writer, realized that reading is the process of making a book one's own. Of adopting it.

As with many writers, the seeds that bear the fruit of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' fiction are found to have been planted in his childhood. Born on March 6, 1928 in Aracataca, a coastal town in northern Colombia, he was raised by his maternal grandparents. His grandparents were perhaps the most important people in his life. Garcia Marquez would write: "I feel that all my writing has been about the experiences of the time I spent with my grandparents." Both were excellent story tellers. His grandfather was a Colonel and helped found Arataca.