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amokoma's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
kaleja's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
spenkevich's review against another edition
5.0
‘It's enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.’
Few memories of reading a book can match the sweetness of the warm spring day while at university when I sat in the grass down by a river and began Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s masterful One Hundred Years of Solitude. The novel gripped me immediately and I followed the myth-like tales of the Buendía family and the fictional town of Macondo across multiple generations until the sunlight had vanished, the sound of the river adding an idyllic rhythm to my reading that made me keenly aware of the passage of time the idea of one thing flowing into the next. This novel truly is a tour de force earning its canonization not only as a crucial work of Latin American literature but as an internationally renowned novel of great beauty and insight. The amalgamation of stories all colliding within the novel form a complex web of critical analysis of history that functions as commentary on colonialism, political struggles of war and life under dictatorship, as well as interpersonal issues of family, legacy and love or the lack of it, making this a dense yet delightful novel that will forever reside within the hearts and minds of its readers.
One Hundred Years of Solitude was written in the span of just 18 months but will linger on in immortality as an important work of 20th century literature. It has sold over 50 million copies in over 25 languages (translated into english by the incredible [a:Gregory Rabassa|50060|Gregory Rabassa|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1464035315p2/50060.jpg], the former WWII cryptologist was handpicked by Marquez for the task and reportedly said that Rabassa’s translation was better than his original in Spanish) and continues to charm readers everywhere. It is a cornerstone of modern Latin American Literature that has made Marquez a household name along with [a:Jorge Luis Borges|500|Jorge Luis Borges|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1652029755p2/500.jpg], from whom Marquez drew much inspiration (particularly from the story [b:The Garden of Forking Paths|10438328|The Garden of Forking Paths|Jorge Luis Borges|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1297454026l/10438328._SX50_.jpg|14566729] which you can read here and inspired the cyclical ending of the novel).
[a:Harold Bloom|236|Harold Bloom|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1212940902p2/236.jpg] wrote of One Hundred Years of Solitude that ‘It is all story, where everything conceivable and inconceivable is happening at once.’ And indeed it does feel as if the whole of life is bursting forth from the book, which is a family epic that spans from the 1820’s through the 1920’s. Marquez combines his mythmaking with historical events, using magical realism as a political action of uncovering the meaning hiding in plain sight of historical reality. [a:Carlos Fuentes|1367127|Carlos Fuentes|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1379743694p2/1367127.jpg] writes in [b:The Great Latin American Novel|41720379|The Great Latin American Novel (Mexican Literature)|Carlos Fuentes|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1536174853l/41720379._SY75_.jpg|18094160] that Marquez’s storytelling serves ‘as an act of knowledge, as a negation of the false documents of the civil state which, until very recently papered over our reality.’ While Marquez says in a 1988 interview ‘there's not a single line in my novels which is not based on reality,’ it seems to affirm Fuente’s analysis and point to the reality in storytelling being a method to unlock a reality in life previously unobservable.
In this manner of magical realism, Marquez can move from tales of extraordinarily large men, women floating away into the sky, or absurdly long rain storms to actual historical events, such as the Banana Massacre when the United Fruit Company (now known as Chiquita) called in the army to massacre striking workers at the request of the US. Through this work and it’s investigations into US military intervention, dictatorships and revolutionaries, Marquez wrests the official narrative of history from the colonialist lenses that would prescribe a narrative to the Latin American countries they sought to exploit and gives history its own mythological life to function more freely. This also opens the novel up to multiple ways of reading it, where any of the numerous themes could be emphasized.
‘The secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude.’
As one would expect, solitude is a major theme working through the novel, with Buendía's own sense of solitude enlarged in the isolation of Macondo, which is falling apart by the end of the book. The weight of feeling ones country collapsing to external forces is strongly imposed as the novel careens towards conclusion, and as new technologies arrive and different societies begin to integrate, those of the old guard feel more and more isolated from the world. None of this moves in a straightforward manner, however, and the ending reveals history to be a cyclical process, one of constant creation and undoing. ‘...time was not passing...it was turning in a circle…’
One Hundred Years of Solitude is truly worth the read and holds a very special place in my heart. It is such a fascinating and fantastic blend of magical realism and historical insight that was a major work in world literature. One to read and read again.
5/5
Buendía family tree (source)
Few memories of reading a book can match the sweetness of the warm spring day while at university when I sat in the grass down by a river and began Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s masterful One Hundred Years of Solitude. The novel gripped me immediately and I followed the myth-like tales of the Buendía family and the fictional town of Macondo across multiple generations until the sunlight had vanished, the sound of the river adding an idyllic rhythm to my reading that made me keenly aware of the passage of time the idea of one thing flowing into the next. This novel truly is a tour de force earning its canonization not only as a crucial work of Latin American literature but as an internationally renowned novel of great beauty and insight. The amalgamation of stories all colliding within the novel form a complex web of critical analysis of history that functions as commentary on colonialism, political struggles of war and life under dictatorship, as well as interpersonal issues of family, legacy and love or the lack of it, making this a dense yet delightful novel that will forever reside within the hearts and minds of its readers.
One Hundred Years of Solitude was written in the span of just 18 months but will linger on in immortality as an important work of 20th century literature. It has sold over 50 million copies in over 25 languages (translated into english by the incredible [a:Gregory Rabassa|50060|Gregory Rabassa|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1464035315p2/50060.jpg], the former WWII cryptologist was handpicked by Marquez for the task and reportedly said that Rabassa’s translation was better than his original in Spanish) and continues to charm readers everywhere. It is a cornerstone of modern Latin American Literature that has made Marquez a household name along with [a:Jorge Luis Borges|500|Jorge Luis Borges|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1652029755p2/500.jpg], from whom Marquez drew much inspiration (particularly from the story [b:The Garden of Forking Paths|10438328|The Garden of Forking Paths|Jorge Luis Borges|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1297454026l/10438328._SX50_.jpg|14566729] which you can read here and inspired the cyclical ending of the novel).
[a:Harold Bloom|236|Harold Bloom|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1212940902p2/236.jpg] wrote of One Hundred Years of Solitude that ‘It is all story, where everything conceivable and inconceivable is happening at once.’ And indeed it does feel as if the whole of life is bursting forth from the book, which is a family epic that spans from the 1820’s through the 1920’s. Marquez combines his mythmaking with historical events, using magical realism as a political action of uncovering the meaning hiding in plain sight of historical reality. [a:Carlos Fuentes|1367127|Carlos Fuentes|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1379743694p2/1367127.jpg] writes in [b:The Great Latin American Novel|41720379|The Great Latin American Novel (Mexican Literature)|Carlos Fuentes|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1536174853l/41720379._SY75_.jpg|18094160] that Marquez’s storytelling serves ‘as an act of knowledge, as a negation of the false documents of the civil state which, until very recently papered over our reality.’ While Marquez says in a 1988 interview ‘there's not a single line in my novels which is not based on reality,’ it seems to affirm Fuente’s analysis and point to the reality in storytelling being a method to unlock a reality in life previously unobservable.
In this manner of magical realism, Marquez can move from tales of extraordinarily large men, women floating away into the sky, or absurdly long rain storms to actual historical events, such as the Banana Massacre when the United Fruit Company (now known as Chiquita) called in the army to massacre striking workers at the request of the US. Through this work and it’s investigations into US military intervention, dictatorships and revolutionaries, Marquez wrests the official narrative of history from the colonialist lenses that would prescribe a narrative to the Latin American countries they sought to exploit and gives history its own mythological life to function more freely. This also opens the novel up to multiple ways of reading it, where any of the numerous themes could be emphasized.
‘The secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude.’
As one would expect, solitude is a major theme working through the novel, with Buendía's own sense of solitude enlarged in the isolation of Macondo, which is falling apart by the end of the book. The weight of feeling ones country collapsing to external forces is strongly imposed as the novel careens towards conclusion, and as new technologies arrive and different societies begin to integrate, those of the old guard feel more and more isolated from the world. None of this moves in a straightforward manner, however, and the ending reveals history to be a cyclical process, one of constant creation and undoing. ‘...time was not passing...it was turning in a circle…’
One Hundred Years of Solitude is truly worth the read and holds a very special place in my heart. It is such a fascinating and fantastic blend of magical realism and historical insight that was a major work in world literature. One to read and read again.
5/5
Buendía family tree (source)
viryr's review against another edition
4.0
Una lectura obligada que se volvió todo un placer leer. Sin duda Gabriel García Márquez es un de los escritores latinoamericanos más importantes por sus bellas obras.
Cien años de soledad cuando lo leí se me hizo un poco complicado por tantos personajes y por que no le encontraba sentido pero al final solo es entender la forma de redacción de García Márquez y este libro habla de amar, de la belleza y la necesidad de soledad.
Tanto el escritor como a su obras lo han catalogado de extremo a extremo, Y seria bueno releerlo despues de tanto años.
“Realmente había pasado por la muerte, pero había regresado porque no podía soportar la soledad”.
Cien años de soledad cuando lo leí se me hizo un poco complicado por tantos personajes y por que no le encontraba sentido pero al final solo es entender la forma de redacción de García Márquez y este libro habla de amar, de la belleza y la necesidad de soledad.
Tanto el escritor como a su obras lo han catalogado de extremo a extremo, Y seria bueno releerlo despues de tanto años.
“Realmente había pasado por la muerte, pero había regresado porque no podía soportar la soledad”.
deribash's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
werlig's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
lemonyemily's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
It's weird and I loved it.
daniellop's review against another edition
5.0
Me ha matado por dentro. Me enganchó desde el inicio y esta tan bien escrito que es imposible dejar de pensar en él. Solo viene a confirmar que los libros sobre sagas familiares y el realismo mágico me flipan.