I remember struggling with that issue when one of my favourite authors was identified as a Quisling. It was years ago. I was reading through the Nobels, and when I came to 1920, I read on and on until I read all his work.
His name: Knut Hamsun.
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| Knut Hamsun via Wiki |
To my mind, his body of work was towering and the award just.
I remember hesitating when I learned of his political beliefs, the same way I've hesitated when learning other writers had checkered pasts.
But I don't regret reading Hamsun's body of work. It was brilliant.
I now feel that way about Marquez. His "Solitude" was absolutely mesmerizing and the award he received and the accolades bestowed on him for his writing is not diminished by this piece by Charles Lane speaking of his relationship to Castro.
I have no love or hate for Castro. I had no admiration for a man who qualified as pro-Fascist, but the two men wrote well, engaged their readers, wrote about subjects unrelated to their politics and got my full attention.
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