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A review by peej_
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
adventurous
challenging
lighthearted
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? It's complicated
4.75
I think it would be hard for me to add anything else to reviews of this book that have not already been said by better critics and writers than I, but I will say this:
oftentimes as I try to get back into reading after Ye Olde Adolescent Hiatus that so many of my peers and those before me have gone through, I find myself stuck starting books that I should read vs. books that I want to read. Not wanting in the sense of thinking the concept of a book is interesting and starting to read it; rather in the sense of wanting to read the book after you’ve gotten some ways in. I’ll try to pick up a book that adults are supposed to read, something that’s complicated and well-esteemed and at the reading level that every standardized test I took in school told me I was.
As a result, I’ve read books (some even in the short number of reviews I’ve published here) that were informative, books that won awards or were deemed classics, but were terribly hard for me to get through and enjoy much of the time (#respectfully you cannot get me to read Tom Sawyer ever again). Some just seemed so thick and their prose so antiquated I could barely bother (1001 Nights, I promise I’ll get back to you someday baby). At a certain point I felt like I was doomed to only enjoy YA novels, manga and those airport reads people pick up while starting their holiday. All fun and good things in their own right! But nothing that I could enjoy while being challenged.
Enter Cien Años de Soledad— Nobel Prize Winner, national treasure of Colombia, the seminal work of Latin American fiction.
I can’t say it was easy for me to get through that first chapter as it was my first time in maybe a year reading a proper book, but that’s more atrophy than anything. Once I found my footing, I was hooked. The book is complex and intricate, containing the lives of what seems like an entire village all in beat with the grand scale of time itself, yet still shrouded with a presence of disconnection from reality. It’s very easy to keep plugging along, seeing the world through the almost supernatural lives of the Buendías, but the last 100 pages hit like a truck. I didn’t find a place I wanted to stop in that final act. I was entranced in a proper novel for the first time ever (I think).
If you’re looking for a perfect blend of what you should vs. want to read, if you’re looking for a bit of challenge but still a well-paced work of fiction, read Cien Años de Soledad. You will thoroughly enjoy it.
oftentimes as I try to get back into reading after Ye Olde Adolescent Hiatus that so many of my peers and those before me have gone through, I find myself stuck starting books that I should read vs. books that I want to read. Not wanting in the sense of thinking the concept of a book is interesting and starting to read it; rather in the sense of wanting to read the book after you’ve gotten some ways in. I’ll try to pick up a book that adults are supposed to read, something that’s complicated and well-esteemed and at the reading level that every standardized test I took in school told me I was.
As a result, I’ve read books (some even in the short number of reviews I’ve published here) that were informative, books that won awards or were deemed classics, but were terribly hard for me to get through and enjoy much of the time (#respectfully you cannot get me to read Tom Sawyer ever again). Some just seemed so thick and their prose so antiquated I could barely bother (1001 Nights, I promise I’ll get back to you someday baby). At a certain point I felt like I was doomed to only enjoy YA novels, manga and those airport reads people pick up while starting their holiday. All fun and good things in their own right! But nothing that I could enjoy while being challenged.
Enter Cien Años de Soledad— Nobel Prize Winner, national treasure of Colombia, the seminal work of Latin American fiction.
I can’t say it was easy for me to get through that first chapter as it was my first time in maybe a year reading a proper book, but that’s more atrophy than anything. Once I found my footing, I was hooked. The book is complex and intricate, containing the lives of what seems like an entire village all in beat with the grand scale of time itself, yet still shrouded with a presence of disconnection from reality. It’s very easy to keep plugging along, seeing the world through the almost supernatural lives of the Buendías, but the last 100 pages hit like a truck. I didn’t find a place I wanted to stop in that final act. I was entranced in a proper novel for the first time ever (I think).
If you’re looking for a perfect blend of what you should vs. want to read, if you’re looking for a bit of challenge but still a well-paced work of fiction, read Cien Años de Soledad. You will thoroughly enjoy it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Incest and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Infidelity