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Reviews tagging 'Incest'
Cien años de soledad 50 Aniversario by Gabriel García Márquez, Gabriel García Márquez
546 reviews
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
A very strange and confusing read that completely reshaped my idea of what a novel could be. I found that this book was most enjoyable on the reread…which I began immediately after finishing the book for the first time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Incest, Sexual violence
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have often heard this one described as a work of art or a favourite. The author has won a Nobel Prize, after all.
But, it just wasn't for me.
As much as this book wasn't my jam, the writing was beautiful. It's unique and lyrical; I had to re-read parts to make sure I understood the ugly things it was describing at times.
Those awful things? A LOT of inc3st and rap3 that I did not expect. It almost felt like a core theme. The story mostly focused on the men in the Buendía family and they didn't seem to me to have any redeeming qualities. Prone to pride, obsession, and lust, they kinda did whatever they wanted and the women in their wake tried to hold everything together.
Some of the women, though, were compelling, and I enjoyed the passages that focused on their lives. Úrsula, the matriarch, was such a complex and interesting character. Alive for nearly the whole book, she single-handedly holds everything together. I felt so much for her.
Another female character standout was Remedios the Beauty. Unapologetically weird and doing her own thing without shame, I could have read a whole book of her. She almost seems like a prototype for the unhinged women I love in fiction today.
But, it just wasn't for me.
As much as this book wasn't my jam, the writing was beautiful. It's unique and lyrical; I had to re-read parts to make sure I understood the ugly things it was describing at times.
Those awful things? A LOT of inc3st and rap3 that I did not expect. It almost felt like a core theme. The story mostly focused on the men in the Buendía family and they didn't seem to me to have any redeeming qualities. Prone to pride, obsession, and lust, they kinda did whatever they wanted and the women in their wake tried to hold everything together.
Some of the women, though, were compelling, and I enjoyed the passages that focused on their lives. Úrsula, the matriarch, was such a complex and interesting character. Alive for nearly the whole book, she single-handedly holds everything together. I felt so much for her.
Another female character standout was Remedios the Beauty. Unapologetically weird and doing her own thing without shame, I could have read a whole book of her. She almost seems like a prototype for the unhinged women I love in fiction today.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, War
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Incest, Pedophilia, Mass/school shootings
Minor: Sexual content
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Colonisation
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, War
Minor: Forced institutionalization
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I had high hopes for this but it was frankly exhausting to read and the reward was not worth the slog. The characters (aside from Ursula, maybe) were quite flat and seemed more like little action figures that the author was using to explore ideas as opposed to fleshed out individuals - is that the point? I don't think characters with depth are incompatible with magical realism!
I also found the writing style / pacing exhausting - the entire book as structured as "X happened and then Y happened" with very little pause for dialogue and reflection.
There were some funny moments and lovely quotes, but I still feel like I walked away from this book having gained nothing.
In terms of generational family comedy-dramas I think Buddenbrooks blows this out of the water!
I also found the writing style / pacing exhausting - the entire book as structured as "X happened and then Y happened" with very little pause for dialogue and reflection.
There were some funny moments and lovely quotes, but I still feel like I walked away from this book having gained nothing.
In terms of generational family comedy-dramas I think Buddenbrooks blows this out of the water!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
first read (dnf): some of the themes explored kind of put me off; it was not what i was expecting… i will give this a second chance before the year ends
second read (finished): possibly a book that is challenging for me to rate, it's all muddy between which outweighs what. strikingly, that kind of is the point. something i would say is a good read but something i also do not think i would recommend, especially anyone in my case when i first attempt to read this to get out of a reading slump.
i only succeeded this time around because i decided to read it thematically, as those themese are what drew me to pick this up in the first place: the cyclic time, memory, nostalgia and the town of Macondo being their own characters, and the fractured identity of the Buendia family realized and derealized in their solitude.
at some parts the writing is just breathtakingly lyrical, you need to read it over and over, and then at some parts you want to wash your eyes with bleach you wish you are also there with the magical powers to forget.
second read (finished): possibly a book that is challenging for me to rate, it's all muddy between which outweighs what. strikingly, that kind of is the point. something i would say is a good read but something i also do not think i would recommend, especially anyone in my case when i first attempt to read this to get out of a reading slump.
i only succeeded this time around because i decided to read it thematically, as those themese are what drew me to pick this up in the first place: the cyclic time, memory, nostalgia and the town of Macondo being their own characters, and the fractured identity of the Buendia family realized and derealized in their solitude.
at some parts the writing is just breathtakingly lyrical, you need to read it over and over, and then at some parts you want to wash your eyes with bleach you wish you are also there with the magical powers to forget.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Pedophilia
Moderate: Violence
challenging
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Violence
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Incest
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Violence
Moderate: Xenophobia
Minor: Child death, Death
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
I have heard of this book and its author in passing for years now, but was never inclined to finally pick it up, mostly because I'm not usually keen on the genre of magical realism or fantasy. I much prefer stories that dive deep into the characters' psychologies, offering glimpses into human nature (or a fabricated human nature) in situations that are almost agonisingly mundane.
This book surpassed my expectations to be sure. The story follows the founding family of a fictional Latin American (Colombian perhaps?) town over the duration of a century. And yet, despite such a massive inter-generational scope, each character was afforded dignity, individuality, and such a psychological lucidity that kept me captivated through the latter half of the book.
As one can imagine, the one uniting factor of this family is the vice of solitude, of self-awareness that fails to transcend the limits of one's own skin. Within a paradoxically ever-changing yet never-changing whitewashed house coalesce multiple layers of memory, nostalgia, and various pasts into a single, embodied instant. And that instant - dynamic, evolving - is contained within the psychological and physical parameters of the self, a single, solitary self that time and time again fails to recognise the fact that it exists in a matrix of other selves colliding with and refracting off of each other. A solitude that is self-consuming, manifest in the tedium of repetitive actions, in the misery of cowardice, pride, regret, and desire. A solitude that is condemned to the present, unconscious of the weight of the familial past and all its lessons; a solitude, in short, that takes a century and reduces it to a speck of time, a single embodied instant that is gone just as quickly and indeliberately as it had appeared. I felt a certain affinity towards the women of the family, especially Amaranta.
This book surpassed my expectations to be sure. The story follows the founding family of a fictional Latin American (Colombian perhaps?) town over the duration of a century. And yet, despite such a massive inter-generational scope, each character was afforded dignity, individuality, and such a psychological lucidity that kept me captivated through the latter half of the book.
As one can imagine, the one uniting factor of this family is the vice of solitude, of self-awareness that fails to transcend the limits of one's own skin. Within a paradoxically ever-changing yet never-changing whitewashed house coalesce multiple layers of memory, nostalgia, and various pasts into a single, embodied instant. And that instant - dynamic, evolving - is contained within the psychological and physical parameters of the self, a single, solitary self that time and time again fails to recognise the fact that it exists in a matrix of other selves colliding with and refracting off of each other. A solitude that is self-consuming, manifest in the tedium of repetitive actions, in the misery of cowardice, pride, regret, and desire. A solitude that is condemned to the present, unconscious of the weight of the familial past and all its lessons; a solitude, in short, that takes a century and reduces it to a speck of time, a single embodied instant that is gone just as quickly and indeliberately as it had appeared. I felt a certain affinity towards the women of the family, especially Amaranta.
Both of her actions had been a mortal struggle between a measureless love and an invincible cowardice, and that the irrational fear that Amaranta had always had of of her own tormented heart had triumphed in the end.
To comment on the writing style, I found it to really lend itself to the entire story. García Márquez's prose shines brilliantly throughout the whole novel. Fantastical elements are wound into the story so quickly and effortlessly that ultimately produces an air of oral history, as though I was sitting and listening to my grandmother tell me an anecdote from her youth. The town and the Buendía household are given such character that they appear to animate themselves.
Returning to my initial hesitation in picking up the book from the beginning, I believe I must have misplaced the word 'realism' and intead took it to mean 'truth.' While classical realism does not exist here, truth does. And I would go so far as to say that truth is presented more lucidly when the reality around it can be bent.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Incest, Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment
Minor: Addiction, Child death