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A review by 1sonja1
Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez
Did not finish book. Stopped at 11%.
I didn’t finish One Hundred Years of Solitude, even though I understand why it’s so widely praised. The writing is beautiful and unique, and the magical realism is one of the book’s strongest aspects. I appreciated how it reflects violence and trauma in isolated communities and the way it uses symbolism to explore themes like memory, history, and repetition.
But I struggled with how women are portrayed. They’re mostly reduced to roles like mother, virgin, or overly sexualized figures, and rarely have any real agency. Even the stronger female characters eventually submit to male authority. There’s a lot of sex in the book, and much of it is unconsensual or disturbing. While this might be intended as a critique of power dynamics, the scenes are often written from the male perspective in a way that felt voyeuristic, even fetishizing. That made me really uncomfortable. For me, there's a difference between showing harmful behavior and writing it in a way that risks normalizing or aestheticizing it.
On top of that, I found the characters hard to connect with. There are so many of them, and none seem to grow or reflect on their actions. I understand this reflects the novel’s cyclical structure and themes of inherited guilt or fate, but it made the story feel repetitive and emotionally distant.
I see what the novel is trying to do, but I couldn’t continue reading. The way it handles gender and power just didn’t sit right with me.
But I struggled with how women are portrayed. They’re mostly reduced to roles like mother, virgin, or overly sexualized figures, and rarely have any real agency. Even the stronger female characters eventually submit to male authority. There’s a lot of sex in the book, and much of it is unconsensual or disturbing. While this might be intended as a critique of power dynamics, the scenes are often written from the male perspective in a way that felt voyeuristic, even fetishizing. That made me really uncomfortable. For me, there's a difference between showing harmful behavior and writing it in a way that risks normalizing or aestheticizing it.
On top of that, I found the characters hard to connect with. There are so many of them, and none seem to grow or reflect on their actions. I understand this reflects the novel’s cyclical structure and themes of inherited guilt or fate, but it made the story feel repetitive and emotionally distant.
I see what the novel is trying to do, but I couldn’t continue reading. The way it handles gender and power just didn’t sit right with me.