Reviews with content warning for Murder - One Hundred Years of Solitude

This is my first book by Marquez and it will definitely not be the last. There were a lot of great themes and funny parts in this book that I don’t really even know what I should say about it.

I see why it is a classic and recommend everyone reads it at least once to know what’s it all about.

Content Warnings

nudibranc_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

Content Warnings

rincewind23's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

purplehulk713's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.25

This book is so beautiful, but it must be understood in the context of Latin American history otherwise it might seem really dense beyond its very poetic prose. Which it still can be at times. However, even though he doesn’t necessarily mean to be, García Márquez is often incredibly funny in his writings. He said things like

The decrepit lawyers dressed in black who during other times had besieged Colonel Aureliano Buendía and who now were controlled by the banana company dismissed those demands with decisions that seemed like acts of magic.

and

Fernanda viewed her as an undesirable witness of her shame and lamented the fact that they had abandoned the medieval custom of hanging a messenger who bore bad news.

Let’s take a journey to Macondo, Colombia and visit the Buendía family.

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botosmr's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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nmsp123's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

2.0

I read this book for my college reading class and although it was interesting in some parts it was very much confusing. I wanted to love the book but it was exhausting and really hard to keep track of the characters because of the men having the same name constantly.
Some parts were political and I’m not really into that so I just zoned out which sucks because it’s an important plot. There’s some weird incest stuff involved. The book is just crazy to say the least.

Content Warnings

kallsypage's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

Whew, what a journey. It was my first time reading this classic. I enjoyed most of it and I appreciate its literacy genius although it can be a bit difficult to read due to some of the content (see content warnings below). It can also be challenging to follow at times.

There are multiple characters with the same name and the story does tend to bounce around so it can be difficult to figure out which of the characters are being referenced until you either keep reading for more context or think back on your own mental/physical notes. This was obviously an intentional choice by the author perfect for literary analysis. It also helps to look up a family tree which I referenced a number of times while reading.

A few literary analyses I read often referred that the cycle of deaths in this family as an allegory for the cycle of violence in Latin American history due to colonialism and desire for power. This is something I can see vividly in Gabriel García Márquez’s depictions, especially with the Banana Massacre in 1928.

Overall it is a heavily character driven story with intriguing depictions and finely walks the line between reality and the supernatural (magical realism at its best). It’s disparaging, depressing, surprising, frustrating, bizarre, hopeful, and at times all of these all at once. I’m definitely not done dissecting all of the underlying messages.

Content Warnings

b00ks_'s review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this book, only because I listened to the audiobook. It was so much easier to understand. It was super interesting to see the same events repeat throughout each generation. I did find the portrayal of women pretty problematic. They were always quiet, submissive, way too young for their husbands and sometimes related to them.

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