The Nation compares the lives and memoirs of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. Quick differences: Vargas LLosa was an early success while Garcia Marquez faced a tough battle in the beginning. Vargas Llosa got a scholarship to Madrid right after graduation from the university, where he apprenticed with an eminent historian. Garcia Marquez dropped out of law school to pursue what in his parents' mind was a thankless profession: journalism and writing. Of course, the rest is literary history.

Needless to say, another difference is in their politics. Vargas Llosa solidly belongs to the right, a disciple of Thatcher, and possibly a neoconservative. Garcia Marquez identifies with the political Left, and a friend of Fidel Castro.