Rating: 
Summary: Deep symbolism.
Review: I read this book long time ago. I really liked the style, besides the story line, that is very good. The author takes you from one situation to the next with deep symbolism I completely uderstand. It is an intense read, and it is funny one.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I expected much more from this book. It started out interesting enough but, seemed to drag on and on. In the end it was depressing and a little confusing. I like a fiction book to be entertaining and thought provoking; with a point, I did not at all enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Translation
Review: This book was beautifully translated, there was nothing that was lost. Every generation blends together so well that it's amazing. I know others find it boring at times, but I found that there isn't a moment of boredom while reading it. I loved this book. It was so very well-written, and the characters truly shine and come alive. I think everyone should read this classic!
Rating: 
Summary: Started out good..
Review: I read this book before it became an Oprah pick- and was almost appalled that she had chosen it as something she deemed worthy for others to spend their precious time reading! It started out good to me, I didn't mind the magic realism. I actually thought it was quite charming. But after awhile it seemed that the story just went on, and on, and on... with no real end in sight. Most of the book just seemed kind of like page fillers to me,with no real significance to the story. I was ready to put the book down before I got even half way through, but forced myself to trudge through it to the bitter end. As far as recommendations go, I would recommend passing on this book- or at least borrowing it from a devoted Oprah book club reader. Don't spend your money on it.
Rating: 
Summary: I didn't much care for the "magic"...
Review: Okay, I too discovered this book while flipping the tv channels and saw Oprah raving about it and decided to judge for myself. I admit the book is captivating, but hardly the best book I have ever read.
One first glimpse at the family tree increased my curiousity, some intriguing relationships there, for sure, and I love sagas. The names were not at all confusing for me. Then after a few pages I thought... well, it's easy to read (for me anyway) and the author never forgets to come back to the scene he left hanging several pages earlier.
Then all of a sudden something didn't make sense... Mmmm, this is strange, I said to myself, but let's go on. So I kept going and got used to this "magic realism" you all commented about it but didn't much care about it. At times I wished the magic didn't interfere with the credibility of the story. If you have to tell us about history, tell us as it was, without useless "magic" twists. I love historical fiction when it teaches me something new about the political and social problems of the times and places in the book and I did learn some of this by reading this book, but the "magic" side did not work for me. Especially that Remedios the Beauty ascended to heaven... well I struggled to even find a spiritual meaning of that. The only woman to be so "down to earth" ending up like the Virgin Mary... No, it didn't work for me.
The only character I really got attached to was Ursula, the matriarch, she was the anchor, a steady point in the whole story, although I kept asking myself..."How long can this woman live??" but the longer she lived the longer I wanted her to live. After her death everything came crushing down, the descendants completely lost their sanity and the house she cared so much about was slowly devoured by termites and red ants, so at that point I stopped caring about the whole saga, it made me feel as if the whole family line existed for nothing. Was this the real intention of the author? To tell us how irrelevant we are in the great scheme of things? Anyway, the author does leave to the readers' imagination as to the end of the last Aureliano, will he go mad or will he find love again and live and prosper? At that point I stopped caring and closed the book. Let's read another one...
Rating:
Summary: The Star Wars of literature
Review: This is not a classic that will challange your mind, but it is more like star wars to movies as this book is to literature. It is not a book to understand as a story (althougth is a bunch of mixed stories), the greastness of this book is that is written in pure instinct. This is something written not by a person, but rather by the tao.
Rating: 
Summary: Thank goodness...
Review: ... that Oprah chose this book for her Book Club. Because, you know, that Nobel Prize endorsement is just so overdone. (Does anyone know if she has reviewed the Bible yet? the Torah, perhaps?)As a fan of 'stream of consciousness' (or to quote a fellow poster, "rambling'), I actually enjoyed GGM's style. It was a struggle at times, though. But I would recommend it to anyone wanting to expand their streams of consciousness. I suppose if anything positive may be said about the Oprah Book Club, it's that it at least encourages people to read GGM's work.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest books of the 20th Century
Review: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Reading and finishing ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a challenge and a chore. I found myself falling asleep at times, at others I wanted to chuck the book. But as I found myself reading more and more of this classic book, I wanted to finish it and wanted to be able to give an honest critique about one of the most important novels written in the 20th century. Why was this book a chore to read? Because Marquez chose to write this novel in the rambling style imitating his grandmother, who would tell him stories when he was a child. There are paragraphs that go on forever, and in fact, there is one sentence that went on for two pages. When I got past that 2-page sentence, I almost laughed out loud. Wow! Next thought comes to mind - was this book worth reading? Yes! The problem with this book is that one cannot just read the first 100 pages and decide "this is awful". Without getting to the end, one will not have the true satisfaction of what the book encompasses, will not understand what the book was about. When I got to that last page, I put the book down and realized I had just finished an epic novel by an author that obviously deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature. The book was indeed pure genius. To sum it up, ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE is an epic story in the birth, life and death of the small fictional town of Macondo in a South American country. It parallels several generations of Buendias. One of many themes that passed through the family was the fear of one of the descendants would be born with the tail of a pig. Incest is one of the themes that runs rampant throughout the book, one of the many funny elements that kept me reading. (Not to give it away, there is one child that is born with a tail. I'll leave it to the reader to find out!). Another theme I saw that was obvious by the time I ended the book was reality versus magic realism. While the earlier portions of the history of Macondo was rooted in magic brought to the town by the Gypsies, as one reads further into the story, one encounters realities of war, life and death, and other happenings that this town held as important. A major turning point was the start of the Banana Company and the arrival of the white man. And in turn the people of the town had to deal with unions, and workers benefits. What was so shocking was the cover up of an event that came about from a strike. The fact that the townspeople could believe in the lies the Banana company would say to cover up this event was shocking, yes the townspeople easily believed in flying magic carpets and other mystical happenings. It is true that people will believe what they want to believe, and not necessarily what is the truth. The members of the Buendias family were all larger than life. The Jose Arcadios and the Aureliano's were the two main male characters, each generation being named for someone in the previous one. Remedios and Amaranta were the common female names, all of them in their own right standing out as someone that was special and unique. Ursula and Jose Arcadios Buendias were the matriarch and patriarch of the family. Ghosts abound; magic is an every day occurrence. The novel is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's most famous novel and helped give credit to the genre known as Magic Realism (other good examples are HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS by Isabelle Allende and THE SECOND DEATH OF UNICA AVEYANO by Ernesto Mestre-Reed). This reader gives ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE a five star rating. It is not recommend to those who will not have the patience to read a rambling style of narrative. It is difficult, and often times frustrating. As seen by the many negative reviews on Amazon, mostly by Post-Oprah publication readers, please note that this book is not for everyone. But for those who can appreciate fine world literature, this if for you.
Rating:
Summary: Great Writing but a purely cerebral pleasure
Review: After reading half way into the book, I started to enjoy the author's methodology of writing. I have never read a book with such an unique and amazing way of linking things together from different space and time and putting it in a linear fashion. Unfortunately I cannot appretiate the story anymore than the average person can appretiate modern art. It is something only a few select intellectual connoisseur can appretiate. But one thing is how many of the people would actually give it 5 stars if they never knew anything about the Noble Prize or the Oprah book club etc?
Rating:
Summary: You Oprah Idiots!
Review: Scroll back through a few pages to the customer comments from before this became an Oprah selection and you'll see uniformly 5 and 4 star reviews. That's because they were written by people who love and understand literature and don't need a TV celebrity to lead them like sheep to the next stop on the "Kulchur" tour. Oprah's got taste, but obviously her flock doesn't, and frankly you shouldn't be expected to. I won't bother explaining what makes this book one of the finest novels of the 20th century, you 1 and 2-star folks wouldn't get it anyway. So please, put the book down, go back to your TV, and put on the wrestling match. You'll be happier.
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