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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
Beautiful prose and vibrant characters. I did not really enjoy one of the main characters in his 70s sleeping with his 14 year old ward, but other than that it is a very interesting story. It has enough detail to make the story seem intimate and real, but still is a sweeping, lifelong story.
I was expecting magical realism, instead it was a sex and waiting for different sex.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Still one of my favorite authors translated by a great writer in her own right.
I loved A Hundred Years of Solitude. And I love the easy slide into magical realism and how Gabriel García Márquez uses asides to slip in and out of the main narrative without it feeling like an annoying detour.
But the way this book talks about sex and females--the old man who has sex with his child ward for years before he casts her off, the woman who was raped and enjoyed it so much she told everyone she would only be happy with her rapist, etc-ruined everything else for me.
But the way this book talks about sex and females--the old man who has sex with his child ward for years before he casts her off, the woman who was raped and enjoyed it so much she told everyone she would only be happy with her rapist, etc-ruined everything else for me.
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Some aspects of this book didn't age well, but it is still written beautifully and has romantic parts.
I might have lived a whole life reading this book and all I want is to read it again when I am 70 and the pains of growing old have reached me as well. Nothing I have read in a while has been so upfront about all the little things that I think it means to be human and live and love and I absolutely adored it.
Edit: I have come down from the awe that the last thirty pages have inspired in me and have to concede that I have one big problem with it and that is the way it treats sexual abuse and rape which is mentioned multiple times and swept aside or romanticized most of those.
Mainly in a side plot at the end which includes the main character grooming his 12 year old protegee and starting a sexual "relationship" with her. He's like 70 at this point. I know this was written in a time where there were slightly different moralities and the author doesn't portray this is completely healthy or normal. Still, it ends with the young girl heartbroken and committing suicide because of course our hero has to end up with the love of his life and I did not care for that.
My "favorite" quote goes something like "for the rest of his life, without reason, he would sometimes feel a sharp pain, remembering her". YOU HAVE GREAT REASONS TO FEEL A LOT OF PAIN! You groomed and abused and abandonned that girl. You ruined a child's life because fucking older women makes you think too much about mortality or something, you gross bastard.
Edit: I have come down from the awe that the last thirty pages have inspired in me and have to concede that I have one big problem with it and that is the way it treats sexual abuse and rape which is mentioned multiple times and swept aside or romanticized most of those.
Mainly in a side plot at the end which includes the main character grooming his 12 year old protegee and starting a sexual "relationship" with her. He's like 70 at this point. I know this was written in a time where there were slightly different moralities and the author doesn't portray this is completely healthy or normal. Still, it ends with the young girl heartbroken and committing suicide because of course our hero has to end up with the love of his life and I did not care for that.
My "favorite" quote goes something like "for the rest of his life, without reason, he would sometimes feel a sharp pain, remembering her". YOU HAVE GREAT REASONS TO FEEL A LOT OF PAIN! You groomed and abused and abandonned that girl. You ruined a child's life because fucking older women makes you think too much about mortality or something, you gross bastard.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a man of the richest words known to me yet. Although I had a hard time connecting with any in the unending parade of ridiculous characters, I couldn't put it down. Regardless of how unbelievable they could be, Marquez's lyrical language swept me off my feet and floated me along the love lives of Fermina, Juvenal and Florentino. I thoroughly savored the long stretches of uninterrupted prose infused with delightful touches of humor and wit. And for the first time in a long time, I enjoyed the ending... regardless of whether it's an open-ended conclusion or not, I find that most books slap on ill-matched, rather abrupt endings that force the reader to make far-fetched assumptions. In this case, Marquez managed to put a clever end that both satisfied the characters as well as the reader.