Reviews

An audacious, provocative, often absurd, and yet delightful story. One Hundred Years of Solitude is closely associated with (and possibly the origin of) magical realism in that it combines the everyday ongoings in a small Caribbean village with a number of strange, unexplained supernatural events that don't seem to particularly surprise the characters, e.g. living for well over 100 years, seeing the dead, and levitating. As you keep reading, the cyclic nature of the narrative becomes increasingly salient: the Buendía family's quirks and behavioral tendencies become more pronounced, and you get the sense that everything has happened before. On one hand, the way Marquez moves through the generations is impressive: he skillfully manages several threads and picks up new ones before dropping older characters'. On the other hand, towards the end of the story, as the speed of the cycles seems to accelerate (in alignment with Ursula's observation on the increasing pace of time), I felt as if the events were getting rather repetitive; maybe the author intended that to be the case to really emphasize the cyclical nature of the family, but I found myself less engaged in the dramas of the later generations. Most of the male members in the Buendía family are named either Jose Arcadio or Aureliano (or some combination thereof), which makes keeping the generations separate rather a challenge. As the characters, especially the matriarch, Ursula, enter the final period of their lives, they too seem to get the generations muddled. The edition I read included a family tree, which was enormously helpful; if your edition doesn't, I'd encourage you to make one as you go along. This book is definitely worth reading.

cassi0507's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.0

Need to reread this because I have no idea what the point of it was aside from don’t get involved with your family members.

catharticcheesecake's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

namrata_jain's review against another edition

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5.0

A very poignant read and beautiful characters. What a beautiful history of a family stuck in a cyclic history doomed to make the same mistakes time and again.
I was really reluctant to let the book end and that's a feeling I get for very few books.

lena_dooms's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

aker_br's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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