One Hundred Years of Solitude (Oprah's Book Club)

Another one of those books that people get all misty eyed and sentimental over: a good way to start a heated argument amongst a bunch of people who have read this book is to say, "Yeah, that One Hundred Years of Solitude, a bit crap, isn't it?" There's a fine line between presenting life as a series of cycles that echo each other and are in many ways (concrete and nebulous) connected, and...more

Another one of those books that people get all misty eyed and sentimental over: a good way to start a heated argument amongst a bunch of people who have read this book is to say, "Yeah, that One Hundred Years of Solitude, a bit crap, isn't it?" There's a fine line between presenting life as a series of cycles that echo each other and are in many ways (concrete and nebulous) connected, and writing repetitiously. It's repetitious. Boring. The characters are unengaging (the point further down the page about the names is completely valid) and superficial. Magic realism is an intrinsically self-indulgent form of writing anyway, and in this case is imposed upon the story in ways that appear arbitrary and unsymbolic. If you're going to have an environment where people are born with pigs' tails, you may as well go the whole hog (sorry) and create a totally twisted world, a la Murakami. Also, I thought it was simply clumsily and badly written, but maybe I just had a crap translation. Read 'Love in the Time of Cholera' instead. That's ace.   hide

This book is the best book I've ever read. I've never seen anyone write with such an unspoken profundity. His characters radiate color and excentricity from the pages. When he tells a joke or a story which rings funny, it's the type of familiar humor you have when drinking with old friends. As the story progresses, deeper and deeper analysis of the characters (which there are a lot of...the...more

This book is the best book I've ever read. I've never seen anyone write with such an unspoken profundity. His characters radiate color and excentricity from the pages. When he tells a joke or a story which rings funny, it's the type of familiar humor you have when drinking with old friends. As the story progresses, deeper and deeper analysis of the characters (which there are a lot of...the family tree at the beginning of the book is very helpful) comes to light. The characters are created and recreated throughout generations and Gabriel conjures up compassion for them (in the way he paints their portraits) in a way that is oh so true to life. The events tell of how we all suffer in solitude and loneliness, yet we cause much of our own suffering and that of others more than we'll ever know. A brilliant exploration of the human character which makes you want to weep the sad tears of the beethoven pathetique but is as life affirming and libidic as a latin samba. Truly a masterpiece.   hide

One Hundred Years of Solitude is an extraordinarily organic novel. Its generations of characters sprout forth, out of control, full of all kinds of human passions and predilections, creating layers of chaos and experience, spirit and energy, sensuality and political absurdity. Tales are told, songs are sung, wars are fought, loves are lost. The natural and the supernatural constantly collide, and...more

One Hundred Years of Solitude is an extraordinarily organic novel. Its generations of characters sprout forth, out of control, full of all kinds of human passions and predilections, creating layers of chaos and experience, spirit and energy, sensuality and political absurdity. Tales are told, songs are sung, wars are fought, loves are lost. The natural and the supernatural constantly collide, and truth is revealed to be fiction. Along the way, political idealists become ghostly shadows while realists pervert the earth itself. Human invention bursts madly forth in all its tragic capacity, and magic itself is the only true faith, inseparable from matter. And all of it is just passing by. This is a novel of South America, but an imaginary one, the South America of dreams and their treacherously suptuous hold on the human heart, in all its rawness. I found this novel politically enlightening and fantastically life affirming. I recommend it.   hide

may be i was not wise enough to understand the book at the time i read it but the solituude bordering on deathby boredom that i felt after reading this book prevents me from even going back to it. the most over rated book i have read so far

to speak of a land of enchantment, even in reference to a contemporary novel, is to conjure up images of elves, moonbeams and slippery mountains. Along with the midgets and fairies, one can expect marvelous feats and moral portents, but not much humor and almost certainly no sex. The idea, it would seem, is to forget the earth. At least that is one idea of enchantment. It is obviously not shared...more

to speak of a land of enchantment, even in reference to a contemporary novel, is to conjure up images of elves, moonbeams and slippery mountains. Along with the midgets and fairies, one can expect marvelous feats and moral portents, but not much humor and almost certainly no sex. The idea, it would seem, is to forget the earth. At least that is one idea of enchantment. It is obviously not shared by the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez, who has created in "One Hundred Years of Solitude" an enchanted place that does everything but cloy. Macondo oozes, reeks and burns even when it is most tantalizing and entertaining. It is a place flooded with lies and liars and yet it spills over with reality. Lovers in this novel can idealize each other into bodiless spirits, howl with pleasure in their hammocks or, as in one case, smear themselves with peach jam and roll naked on the front porch. The hero can lead a Quixotic expedition across the jungle, but although his goal is never reached, the language describing his quest is pungent with life:   hide

One of the best books I’ve ever read. I’ve read somewhere that Marquez was going on holiday with his family and turned back, because he finally knew how to write it. It is beyond my comprehension how you can plan such a saga, how to make each of the hundreds of characters one from flesh and blood, fascinating, human in the volcano of passions and emotions, ambiguous. How to inscribe solitude...more

One of the best books I’ve ever read. I’ve read somewhere that Marquez was going on holiday with his family and turned back, because he finally knew how to write it. It is beyond my comprehension how you can plan such a saga, how to make each of the hundreds of characters one from flesh and blood, fascinating, human in the volcano of passions and emotions, ambiguous. How to inscribe solitude and the curse of “the city of mirrors” into each character. How to stick together magic, history, superstitions and religion. How to mix grotesque with philosophy. How to create such vivid images and at the same time mock Catholicism, superstitions, capitalism and revolution. How can you name 70% of characters combination of the names Jose, Arcadio and Aureliano and become a classic? A true masterpiece.   hide

One Hundred Years of Solitude strikes me as a good book, but not as an always enjoyable read. It's not that the storyline is confusing or hard to follow because in more ways than one all it is is a basic saga. What makes it certainly difficult is the abundance of characters of seemingly equal (un)importance. The fact that they are part of the same family and often share similar or...more

One Hundred Years of Solitude strikes me as a good book, but not as an always enjoyable read. It's not that the storyline is confusing or hard to follow because in more ways than one all it is is a basic saga. What makes it certainly difficult is the abundance of characters of seemingly equal (un)importance. The fact that they are part of the same family and often share similar or identical names does not help. But the character development that sometime surpasses reason, imagination and imagined or real histories is unbelievably masterful and realistic even when not plausible. Even though the book may take a while to get into, once the reader disconnects himself/herself from the reality sufficiently, there's sometime deeply attractive about this piece of absurdity.... =)   hide

This book was really hard for me to get into and to get through. It's taken me nearly a month, and normally I can get through a 400 page book in half a week. All the similar names were REALLY confusing - which made me feel frustrated, I mean c'mon, similar names shouldn't really boggle my mind now should they!? I went to grad school for chrissakes!I finally hunkered down this weekend and powered...more

This book was really hard for me to get into and to get through. It's taken me nearly a month, and normally I can get through a 400 page book in half a week. All the similar names were REALLY confusing - which made me feel frustrated, I mean c'mon, similar names shouldn't really boggle my mind now should they!? I went to grad school for chrissakes!I finally hunkered down this weekend and powered through it. By page 300 or so, I felt like I was finally "getting" it. I started to get really sad that the book was ending actually, and that one by one the Buendias began dying off. I started to get the patterns and see the similarities with my own life - I think many gringo Americans can relate to having a murky past that is just LOST to memory, as it was for the 2nd to last Aureilano. In the end, this book was deeply moving and emotional and told a magnificent story. I just had to "let go" and go with it, and trust that by the end of that vignette I'd understand and get it. And I did :)   hide

I happen to love Marquez, but this was not my favorite by far. I'm usually a rather fast reader, but this book exhausted me. I get that there's 100 years of solitude to get through, but yeesh! I love the message, but I think about 100 pages in the middle could have been skipped and he would have still made his point. Marquez wants the reader to understand that life repeats patterns especially...more

I happen to love Marquez, but this was not my favorite by far. I'm usually a rather fast reader, but this book exhausted me. I get that there's 100 years of solitude to get through, but yeesh! I love the message, but I think about 100 pages in the middle could have been skipped and he would have still made his point. Marquez wants the reader to understand that life repeats patterns especially in families over and over again. Point taken.   hide