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jsuispoesie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
When I was 15 y.o. - after bein traumatised by the description of an abort in the first part of the narration - I decided I woul never read this book. Here I am, ten years later, after finishing this terribly long book, with the unpleasant sensation that this is gonna be one of the best reading of the year. Let's be clear, I absolutely despise the scene of rape and child abuse that the narrator throws in the stories like nothing. There are too many characters, and after a while I started to hate everyone because the characters I loved were no longer the center of the story. I'm not sure I completely understood all the war part, but I guess it's kinda the point of it. After all it really seemed like a spent a hundred years reading this, but at the end of the day I could not - not - like these characters, only because I saw them from the beginning of their life to their end. I don't give it 5 stars for the reasons I enumerated, but gosh I hate the fact that I liked this book!!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abortion, Pedophilia, and War
Moderate: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Vomit, Rape, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Incest, and Alcohol
Minor: Genocide
anastasiadreaming's review against another edition
This novel conveys a sense of meaningless in life, and alongside that, with my motivation to continue reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Incest
mayo_confessionary's review
It's boring and the way is structurr doesn't help. It doesn't confuse, but it does bored me since I want to learn about new characters and we go back to the same lame ones who are so pathetic. Haven't met a single Buendía who isn't a piece of shit.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest and Sexual content
Moderate: Suicide, Pedophilia, and Child death
sarasanchez's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Pedophilia, Incest, Antisemitism, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism
tommy_g's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity
Moderate: War, Mental illness, Incest, Sexual content, Police brutality, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Death, Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship
venlaa's review against another edition
Not into incest or pedophilia
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia and Incest
jonmayb's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I read this book in Spanish, knowing that it would allow me to get the most out of it possible, and I certainly feel as though I did. This book could certainly be considered an incredible feat of literature, and I recognise its worthiness of the Nobel, but I don't think this was the right book for me. However, I will note, this is certainly a book I'll likely be able to get more out of on a reread.
Spanning six generations of the Buendía family, Gabriel García Marquez exhibits breathtaking world-building. Throughout approximately 500 pages of beautiful, although, at times annoyingly convoluted prose, the town of Macondo, from its establishment, to its dissipation, comes to feel real. Additionally, I found the themes of history repeating itself to be really compelling, as well as the terms of forgetfulness and belief. The part towards the end of the novel where Aureliano Babilonia is walking through Macondo only to find that to be particularly compelling. The prevalence of ghosts and spirits in this book, and their presence as something simply accepted, and not viewed as otherwordly also made for an interesting read. The reappearance of Melquíaldes and his scrolls throughout the work served as an interesting link between generations, as did the theme of solitude.
However, despite being able to recognise this work's merits, I found it to be a nearly unbearable read at times. While Gabriel García Marquez's prose was incredible, and I'm very grateful to have opted to read this work in Spanish, as I mentioned before, it was extremely convoluted at times. Sentences dragged on, changing topics and points of views multiple times within them. At one point, I found a sentence that lasted three and a half pages and had 992 words in it.
Nonetheless, I found this book to overly rely on the abuse of women as a plot device. While, unfortunately, domestic and sexual abuse was something common during this book's time period, the way García Marquez describes them leaves a lot to be desired; sexual abuse tends to be written quite light-heartedly, in a manner in which women are portrayed as becoming near accomplices in it.
Additionally, aside from the interesting points it touches upon, and the genuinely profound themes of forgetfulness, belief, and such, I found this book to feel mostly artificially profound. Many of the more absurd events were seemingly crafted to just require the reader to extract their own meaning from it. For example, when . Even in many reading guides I found, multiple interpretations were put forth, or otherwise didn't present an interpretation at all.
To be honest, I had to claw my way through this book. Even though I can recognise that it was written that way intentionally, I disliked how characters simply floated in and out of relevance. However, upon finishing it, struck by the novel's ending, all my feelings of dislike for the book got obscured. Reflecting upon the book, it's difficult to consider how I would rate it, even remembering how much I struggled to get though it.
Spanning six generations of the Buendía family, Gabriel García Marquez exhibits breathtaking world-building. Throughout approximately 500 pages of beautiful, although, at times annoyingly convoluted prose, the town of Macondo, from its establishment, to its dissipation, comes to feel real. Additionally, I found the themes of history repeating itself to be really compelling, as well as the terms of forgetfulness and belief. The part towards the end of the novel where Aureliano Babilonia is walking through Macondo only to find that to be particularly compelling. The prevalence of ghosts and spirits in this book, and their presence as something simply accepted, and not viewed as otherwordly also made for an interesting read. The reappearance of Melquíaldes and his scrolls throughout the work served as an interesting link between generations, as did the theme of solitude.
However, despite being able to recognise this work's merits, I found it to be a nearly unbearable read at times. While Gabriel García Marquez's prose was incredible, and I'm very grateful to have opted to read this work in Spanish, as I mentioned before, it was extremely convoluted at times. Sentences dragged on, changing topics and points of views multiple times within them. At one point, I found a sentence that lasted three and a half pages and had 992 words in it.
Nonetheless, I found this book to overly rely on the abuse of women as a plot device. While, unfortunately, domestic and sexual abuse was something common during this book's time period, the way García Marquez describes them leaves a lot to be desired; sexual abuse tends to be written quite light-heartedly, in a manner in which women are portrayed as becoming near accomplices in it.
Additionally, aside from the interesting points it touches upon, and the genuinely profound themes of forgetfulness, belief, and such, I found this book to feel mostly artificially profound. Many of the more absurd events were seemingly crafted to just require the reader to extract their own meaning from it. For example, when . Even in many reading guides I found, multiple interpretations were put forth, or otherwise didn't present an interpretation at all.
To be honest, I had to claw my way through this book. Even though I can recognise that it was written that way intentionally, I disliked how characters simply floated in and out of relevance. However, upon finishing it, struck by the novel's ending, all my feelings of dislike for the book got obscured. Reflecting upon the book, it's difficult to consider how I would rate it, even remembering how much I struggled to get though it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Pedophilia, and Sexual content
Moderate: War
sophie_trtr's review against another edition
J'ai apprécié la plume de Garcia Marquez, on sent qu'il écrit avec une rage très forte, il sait normaliser des sujets graves (de nombreux personnages meurent et leur décès est évacué en une phrase ), un peu trop à mon goût. Ce livre n'est pas pour moi, il y a beaucoup trop de trigger warnings pour que je puis apprécier ma lecture : inceste, pédophilie, sexualité, mort. Le lire était devenu une corvée, je passais certains passage et je n'étais plus investie.
Je comprends pourquoi beaucoup apprécient cette oeuvre, même si ce n'est pas mon cas.
Je comprends pourquoi beaucoup apprécient cette oeuvre, même si ce n'est pas mon cas.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Death, and Sexual content
Moderate: Pedophilia and War
michaelion's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The most confusing part of this book is the names. But! It's clear that was intentional. Everything else? Pretty lovely. (I don't mean that literally for every aspect. Don't cancel me.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, War, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Incest, Murder, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Child abuse, Colonisation, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Rape, Suicide, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Minor: Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Homophobia, and Vomit
rousseure's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
this book has amazing commentary and makes great points but it was boring and read like a string of facts from a very detached narrator
more like 100 years of incest
more like 100 years of incest
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Incest, Slavery, Murder, Gun violence, Sexism, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Child death, Death, and Adult/minor relationship