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A review by redheadreading
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
I picked this up on a whim from my work's book swap box and I've ended up loving it!
Initially I was confused - the family we are following name their children after each other and as the narrative jumps around in time a bit it can be quite confusing to track what's happening at first. There's a sort of circularity to the events, it feels like history is repeating itself which paired with the magical realism elements brings a sense of unreality at times. I tried to pay attention to when the word "solitude" was used as it really feels like Macondo is a place apart from the rest of the world and apart from linear time.
There are some moments of writing that are truly exquisite, but at the start I felt like there was a distance between me and the characters. Maybe because of this blending of fantastical occurances with realism, sometimes events just felt like they were happening and not like they were resonating with me emotionally. That feeling disappeared as the book went on and I ended up being swept up in the beautiful writing and the unfolding drama. I definitely feel like I need to do some further reading to get the most out of this, but what a delightful surprise!
Initially I was confused - the family we are following name their children after each other and as the narrative jumps around in time a bit it can be quite confusing to track what's happening at first. There's a sort of circularity to the events, it feels like history is repeating itself which paired with the magical realism elements brings a sense of unreality at times. I tried to pay attention to when the word "solitude" was used as it really feels like Macondo is a place apart from the rest of the world and apart from linear time.
There are some moments of writing that are truly exquisite, but at the start I felt like there was a distance between me and the characters. Maybe because of this blending of fantastical occurances with realism, sometimes events just felt like they were happening and not like they were resonating with me emotionally. That feeling disappeared as the book went on and I ended up being swept up in the beautiful writing and the unfolding drama. I definitely feel like I need to do some further reading to get the most out of this, but what a delightful surprise!