Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by nanastudies
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
5.0
Once again, I’ve made the mistake of reading other people’s reviews of One Hundred Years of Solitude before writing my own. Now I’m stuck with feelings of frustration sparked by their opinions rather than reflecting on the emotions the book itself awakened in me. I truly have no one to blame but myself.
Excuse my arrogance, but to those who read this book with the Buendia family tree printed out to follow every character’s storyline, I fear you’ve taken a stroll around the point. The novel is written in a way that intentionallly blurs the lines between the characters. You’re meant to confuse the heroes for one another, to feel lost and frustrated by the constant repetition of old patterns, and to witness the cyclical traps they keep falling into over the span of generations. That is the point. Marquez did not write his book with the intention of assigning homework to its readers.
It seems that a lot of people are afraid of relinquishing control over their reading experience that they fight against the essence of the book itself, only to complain later that it’s “too convoluted” or “hard to follow”. This fear of surrendering to the narrative counters what Gabriel Garcia Marques tried to craft.
As for the book itself, I could spend hours discussing the brilliance of the story told. It opened a whole new world of Magic Realism that I wasn't aware I needed in my life.
Excuse my arrogance, but to those who read this book with the Buendia family tree printed out to follow every character’s storyline, I fear you’ve taken a stroll around the point. The novel is written in a way that intentionallly blurs the lines between the characters. You’re meant to confuse the heroes for one another, to feel lost and frustrated by the constant repetition of old patterns, and to witness the cyclical traps they keep falling into over the span of generations. That is the point. Marquez did not write his book with the intention of assigning homework to its readers.
It seems that a lot of people are afraid of relinquishing control over their reading experience that they fight against the essence of the book itself, only to complain later that it’s “too convoluted” or “hard to follow”. This fear of surrendering to the narrative counters what Gabriel Garcia Marques tried to craft.
As for the book itself, I could spend hours discussing the brilliance of the story told. It opened a whole new world of Magic Realism that I wasn't aware I needed in my life.