All other historical fiction is bland and dutiful by comparison : Garcia Marquez

Amazing how much material Gabriel Garcia Marquez develops with very little narrative movement in "The General in His Labyrinth": the first 90 or so pages simply involve Bolivar's retreat from Columbia toward the coast and possible exile to England, having lost most of his family fortune and having relinquished power, the greatest liberator in Latin American history, maybe the history of the world, now a fallen idol, despised by political enemies, even by the people in the towns and villages, dying but unafraid - that's the setup, but all that "happens" so far is he makes his way out toward the coast, through hardships and physical torments - yet what a portrait of a man, and of a country, so real and vivid - yes, this is historical fiction and he must be working from sources, I'm sure he wants the novel to be historically accurate, but no sources can capture the the mind of Bolivar in such clarity and depth, it's the work of a novelist to do that. I'd have to say nobody living today writes with the precision and fluid elegance of Garcia Marquez (he must also be blessed with a great translator - Elizabeth Grossman, I think?), all the other historical fiction I've read (not all that much) is bland and dutiful by comparison (Tolstoy the exception). Mentioned in yesterday's post how some of us became aware ca 1970 that 100 Years of Solitude was a classic work of fiction, just being discovered by N.Americans; I also recall that when I was books editor in the '80s noting that Love in the Time of Cholera was probably one of two books I reviewed during the 3-4 years on that assignment that would be read forever (Beloved was the other). Too bad it became sort of a running joke in that movie Serendipity.