Loneliness stretching into the sea

I wanted to read a serious book, but constraints of time made me scan my bookshelves for one that I'd be able to finish quickly. Among the several as-yet unread books, I happily found Marquez's The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor. Besides its thinness (106 pages), what prompted my choice was the title. I've always enjoyed tales about the sea and seamen (Robinson Crusoe and Swiss Family Robinson being childhood favorites, and later, The Old Man and The Sea). Moreover, the blurb said it was the author's first major work; this was another feature I found interesting. Then there was the fact that this was a true story.
The book is a story retold by Marquez. Luis Alejandro Velasco, a twenty-year-old Colombian sailor, had recounted his experiences to Marquez, who was a staff reporter for El-Espectador, a Bogota newspaper. Marquez says the book is "a journalistic reconstruction". Velasco was one of the eight crew members who had been swept overboard the Caldas, a Colombian destroyer, in 1955. He was the only one who survived. The account first appeared in the Bogota daily that year, and was published as a book in 1970.
The preface, aptly called "The Story of This Story", is in itself, a very exciting piece of writing. It's like reading two different stories in one book, both about the same person and the dramatic events in his life. The preface tells us about a dictatorial regime and the unfortunate consequences of a young sailor's unwavering honesty in his narration. It describes what happened to Velasco after his rescue, while the book is a day-to-day record of his perilous, gruelling experiences at sea.
The foreword also gives us the inside story of Velasco, who had become a hero on returning alive after ten days on a life-raft in the Caribbean sea, and how because of political reasons, his fortune changed. According to him, in his case, "heroism consisted solely of not allowing himself to die of hunger and thirst for ten days". From being a national hero (one who had acquired a lot of money and glory), Velasco soon became a non-entity. He had to pay a huge price for his refusal to change or censor his story. Marquez sees his photograph after a few months, and thinks he "looked as if life had passed through him, leaving behind the serene aura of a hero who had had the courage to dynamite his own statue."
Velasco's story begins as their ship departs from Mobile, Alabama, to return to Colombia. His skill as a chronicler comes to the fore when he begins talking about what happens after he and seven other sailors fall into the water. Luckily, he finds a life-raft. He looks on, helpless and petrified, as his crew members drown. He spends ten days struggling against the forces of nature; his encounters with sharks, a massive turtle, sea-gulls, hunger and thirst overtake one another.
Every detail of his breath-stopping adventure is thrilling and chills the bones. We read on, with nail-biting concern, as he fights not just with death (in various forms), but also with hope, hope that comes and goes.
At the outset, he feels sure he will be rescued. Then, as the days pass, he goes through despair and hope, in turns. He becomes delirious and has hallucinations, and at one point, the thought of dying fills him with a "strange, dim hope". The vast loneliness stretches into the sea and like the sea, while we wonder at man's capacity to endure, at his urge to live that makes him face such adverse circumstances.
It was a near miracle how Velasco managed to overcome all his hardships and be rescued. As the book ended, despite feeling happy and relieved that he had been saved, I found myself wishing that the book had continued. Velasco's account rekindled the faith in me that God can save anyone anytime He wants, and that fortitude can be our savior in the worst of times.

Nausheen Rahman is a teacher and critic.