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yasmeina's review against another edition
3.0
I FINALLY FINISHED THIS BOOK!! It didn’t actually take me that long but reading one page felt like it took one hour. Ok anyway
At the beginning I was like ‘this is interesting bc it’s so absurd’ but then the absurd and crazy things kept happening and I kind of stopped caring. I didn’t really see the point of all these absurd things happening other than to draw connections of the family if that makes sense (it probably doesn’t) Also incest. Weird
Anyway the writing itself was easy to follow until there were giant sentences of mini sentences and I started to feel like I was hallucinating. I also liked the ending, partly because I was waiting for this book to be over (sorry) and partly because it was actually comprehensible
I think I’ll reread this in maybe 2 years? And try to REALLY digest every chapter
At the beginning I was like ‘this is interesting bc it’s so absurd’ but then the absurd and crazy things kept happening and I kind of stopped caring. I didn’t really see the point of all these absurd things happening other than to draw connections of the family if that makes sense (it probably doesn’t) Also incest. Weird
Anyway the writing itself was easy to follow until there were giant sentences of mini sentences and I started to feel like I was hallucinating. I also liked the ending, partly because I was waiting for this book to be over (sorry) and partly because it was actually comprehensible
I think I’ll reread this in maybe 2 years? And try to REALLY digest every chapter
om_sharma's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
izzymcl's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
graywild's review against another edition
another DNF for me. I read over 200 pages and just couldn't get into this story. Difficult read with many characters sharing the same name. Isolation, death, fate all important themes but book was too much for me.
filipppp's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
bibi20's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
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
2.5
tracib's review against another edition
3.0
This is one of those books were it felt like it was very important to read and I should love it. It’s on so many “best books” lists, the author won a Nobel Prize-shouldn’t this be the greatest thing since sliced bread?
It wasn’t, and to me it had to do mainly with the editing. The chapters were long, and did not have any breaks between situations. One example-a very minor character is brought in and shot in the last sentence of a paragraph. The very next paragraph makes no mention of the situation and goes on to discuss another character, which the previous paragraph had been discussing before the minor character. So it felt very disjointed. Just having a physical break between paragraphs would have helped in that instance. And so many of the sentences were almost run-on sentences. There were several paragraphs that were only made up of one or two sentences. I did have to stop and re-read several very carefully. I’m not sure if this was an issue with the translation or with the overall editing, but it made it very difficult to read. I sympathize with everyone who has struggled with this book.
The other thing that made this book difficult to enjoy was the fact that the male characters all had the same name with a few minor variations thrown in. And it was the same with the female characters. This made it very confusing to remember who was who, especially as the family kept growing. And it didn’t really get any easier as characters died, because they still didn’t go away or were talked about by others. The only thing that saved me was that the paperback version had a family tree listed in the beginning. I constantly went back and referred to it, sometimes multiple times for one page. And the previous owner had photocopied an additional tree, which I found near the back of the book. If this had been an Ebook I’m pretty sure I would have given up immediately.
I did love the flights of fancy-the gypsies with their flying carpet, four years of constant rain, girls using bedsheets to ascend to heaven, 140 year old women, just to name a few. In that respect I didn’t take the book too seriously-I wasn’t concerned with if those events actually happened or if that was someone’s imaginative way of interpreting it. Instead I just went along with the ride.
Overall I’m glad that I stuck with it, but I don’t think I would recommend it. If Goodreads allowed half stars, this would be 3.5. Now I’m off to read something a little lighter. Perhaps War and Peace?
It wasn’t, and to me it had to do mainly with the editing. The chapters were long, and did not have any breaks between situations. One example-a very minor character is brought in and shot in the last sentence of a paragraph. The very next paragraph makes no mention of the situation and goes on to discuss another character, which the previous paragraph had been discussing before the minor character. So it felt very disjointed. Just having a physical break between paragraphs would have helped in that instance. And so many of the sentences were almost run-on sentences. There were several paragraphs that were only made up of one or two sentences. I did have to stop and re-read several very carefully. I’m not sure if this was an issue with the translation or with the overall editing, but it made it very difficult to read. I sympathize with everyone who has struggled with this book.
The other thing that made this book difficult to enjoy was the fact that the male characters all had the same name with a few minor variations thrown in. And it was the same with the female characters. This made it very confusing to remember who was who, especially as the family kept growing. And it didn’t really get any easier as characters died, because they still didn’t go away or were talked about by others. The only thing that saved me was that the paperback version had a family tree listed in the beginning. I constantly went back and referred to it, sometimes multiple times for one page. And the previous owner had photocopied an additional tree, which I found near the back of the book. If this had been an Ebook I’m pretty sure I would have given up immediately.
I did love the flights of fancy-the gypsies with their flying carpet, four years of constant rain, girls using bedsheets to ascend to heaven, 140 year old women, just to name a few. In that respect I didn’t take the book too seriously-I wasn’t concerned with if those events actually happened or if that was someone’s imaginative way of interpreting it. Instead I just went along with the ride.
Overall I’m glad that I stuck with it, but I don’t think I would recommend it. If Goodreads allowed half stars, this would be 3.5. Now I’m off to read something a little lighter. Perhaps War and Peace?
santsu's review against another edition
En päässyt pitkälle. Ei vaan kiinnostanut, vaikka äiti kuinka suositteli.
neartaking's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
noel_rene_cisneros's review against another edition
5.0
En la tercera lectura de esta novela la encuentro un tanto envejecida, sin embargo es innegable la capacidad para embrujar al lector. Es innegable el profundo conocimiento del español de García Márquez y uno lo disfruta como un banquete, un banquete hecho de platillos muy condimentados. Una prosa hiperbólica y adjetival.