One Hundred Years of Solitude

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Summary: 1,000 words aren't enough to review this book...
Review: When you finish this book, you will have a feeling that you have just read something very important, a "great novel", but you will be at a loss to recall what was so meaningful about the book. This is the curious effect of Garcia Marquez' writing style. Garcia Marquez learned to write by imitating many of Western culture's "key" texts (the Bible, Rabelais, Faulkner, the 18th century English novelists, etc), and the influence of these texts shows very strongly.

From the Bible and from Rabelais (and presumably from his grandmother and other small town story tellers he listened to as a child) Garcia learned how to narrate through lists and how to use hyperbole to unsettle the reader. The results are humorous, and as we read Garcia, texts like the Bible echo and resonate in the back of our minds, without being identified consciously. Because of this stylistic quality, the words "biblical" and "rabelaisian" have been used many times to describe this book.

Another fascinating aspect of Garcia's style is the ruptures between the time of events narrated and the time of narrative. Someone well-versed in Gerard Genette's "Narrative Discourse" could have a field-day picking apart all of the ways in which Garcia uses normal narrative to create multiple threads of story which wont get resolved for many pages. There is very little dialogue in this novel, because there is a compactness of time which is necessary to cover so many years and so many generations of narrative succintly. Because of the games played with narrative time, this book has been called "post-modern."

But the most talked about stylistic feature of the book is Garcia's "magic realism", a term invented by readers who couldn't quite identify explicitly what it was about the novel that made it seem so curiously exagerated yet realistic at the same time. A careful reading, and you will discover that there is nothing "realist" in the 19th century sense of the word about this narrative. Without dialogue, our entire notion of the story is colored by the narrator and what the narrator shares with us. This is an anti-Hemingway "all-telling, no showing" narrative with a curious result. Time and again our emotional reactions to the events are dictated by the third person narrator's suspiciously subjective adjectives and omniscience into the minds of characters. We are told that so-&-so was astonished upon seeing X or that the inventions brought by the gypsies were amazing. The world described in this book is heavy with words like "incredible", "amazing", "inexpicable", "astonishing"... you get the idea. Eventually you are lulled into letting the narrator dictate your emotional responses to the events described, rather than formulating your own response to such events. The narrator tells you someone thought something was marvilous, and it seems so to you, the reader. Pehaps this is always the case with reading. In this case it is more pronounced than normal since the narrator's vision is marked by naivete, superstition, and a child-like pre-rational amazement with all things possible and impossible in this world. Such innocence is infectious. The result, you too will feel something strangely magical about the seemingly matter-of-fact world the narrator describes.

But beyond the top-quality narrative brilliance of this novel, thanks to Faulkner Garcia has created a mythical Latin American "everyplace" located in no easily identifiable country. Although Garcia doesn't set the story in any real setting, the local-color element of this story is impressive. Because Macondo, the setting of the story, is nowhere in Latin America, Macondo is, in a sense, everywhere in Latin America. That, perhaps, more than Garcia's delightful "magic realist" narrative playfulness, is what makes this novel truly the quintesential Latin American narrative of the 20the century.

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Summary: Take A Magic Carpet Ride With This Epic Novel!
Review: Gabriel Garcia Marquez' "One Hundred Years Of Solitude" is the literary equivalent of a magic carpet ride, your own magic genii come to life, and Shaharazade's 101 tales wrapped into one brilliant, multilayered epic novel. From page one you will voyage with the most remarkably original cast of characters, through worlds of vibrant color, where the sun shines almost always - when not obscured by a four year downpour. You will find yourself laughing out loud when you are not sobbing in sympathy with someone dying of heartbreak. I do not like to label Sr. Garcia Marquez' work "magical realism." There is no label to accurately describe the writing that gifted us with "One Hundred Years Of Solitude." This is a book that defies description. You must read it to experience the fantastically real world of Macondo, and the people who live there. Once you know them, they will be a part of your own world forever. Have you ever looked at a painting, walked into it and become a part of it? When you open this novel at page one, you are beckoned to enter.

Macondo is a mythical South American town, founded, almost by accident, by Jose Arcadio Buendi­a, and populated primarily by his descendants. This is the story of one hundred years in the life of Macondo and its inhabitants - the story of the town's birth, development and death. Civil war and natural calamities plague this vital place whose populace fights to renew itself and survive. This is a huge narrative fiction that explores the history of a people caught up in the history of a place. And Marquez captures the range of human emotions and the reasons for experiencing them in this generational tale.

There is much that is delightful and comical here. Surprises never cease, whether it be Remedios ascending, or a man whose presence is announced by clouds of butterflies. There is satire, sexuality and bawdiness galore. But there is also a pervading sadness and futility that permeates throughout. Cruelty is a reality in Marquez' world, as are failure, despair and senseless, sudden violence. The plot is filled with passion, poetry, romance, tragedy and the echoes of the history of Colombia and Latin America.

I first read "One Hundred Years Of Solitude" in 1968, while living in Latin America. I have read it 2 or 3 times over the years, always picking up new pieces of wonder that I had previously missed. This is my favorite novel, and I am an avid reader. My favorite fictional character is Melquiades, the gypsy who foretells the future of the township and whose ghost accompanies the reader until there is no more to read. Having read this in Spanish and English, I must laud Gregory Rabassa's extraordinary translation which faithfully brings to life not only Marquez' story, but his lyrical prose. This is one of the 20th Century's best works of fiction. It is a masterpiece not to be missed.
JANA

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Summary: gabby is the best
Review: i thought that this book was great

Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING AT EVERY HIGHSCHOOL!
Review: I was not forced to read this in higschool; I was not forced to read it in college where I took several literature classes. It's a shame it took me so long to discover such a masterpiece and I wish I could go back to make this novel more influential throughout my ENTIRE life. The magical realism of this novel is unbelievable. It leads to a very exciting epic journey into the livliehood of hundreds of years in generation after generation of a family. The passion of the author seeps through it's every page. I believe it was a descriptive account of the feelings a young boy had growing up in Columbia through all of it's governmental changes; and how it changed his life in such a way to be able to write such a moving work of art. I believe it speaks to all of us, that we can all identify with SOMEOME in the book, and is a portrayal of what we all come to know as a familial circular history. As sad and tragic as it may be sometimes. I can definitley say that this book changed my perspective and thinking in some ways and I only wish I had had the experience earlier.

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Summary: I believe we have all lived in Macondo one time.
Review: The best book about South America, the way of living there, the state of terrorism people are living in, the -everyday- civil war. The full history of a nation; all these, given with a super-inspired form of a (mythic?) family biography. I guess people of "Macondo" are all people of Colombia, all people of South America and, finally, all the people of the world, whenever a man cannot be free to live on his own will. Thank you, Gabriel. I believe I am a better person now.

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Summary: The book to compare all other books to
Review: By far, out of every great novel and bestseller and "epic" I have ever read (granted I am only 20) this is the book I compare all others to. The only other book to come close is Bellefleur, all other books wither and die and blow away compared to this one. Beware - after reading this you will be continuously disappointed with all other books you read. This book deserves a platinum, diamond encrusted shelf of it's own.

Rating:
Summary: A book is worth your time
Review: After reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude, I am entertained and also feel sad by its comic style of tragedy. In the book reveal a history of Buendia family of Macondo, which is founded by Jose Arcodio and destructed by a predicted wind while Aureliano was deciphering the parchment written by a mysterious gipsy, Malquiades. This book did not inspire me the view of creation to destruction of the human race though many book reviews mentioned it before I began reading this novel. What I felt after reading it is human being destine to solitude. No matter young or old, no one can escape from the fate to be alone. Despite of the serious concept of this novel, it indeed a fun-read book, a page-tuner, a time killer, and also a book that you can devote great deal of time to decipher it as if we are members of Buendias who are trying to interpret Malquiades's parchment.

Rating:
Summary: A great novel
Review: Most magnificent, incredible novel that flows by like a bizarre dream but like most dreams lacks coherent plot or discernable direction. It's good, compassionate, humane, complex and very long folk tale spiced with philosophy and politics. Unfortunately I don't speak Spanish well enough to read this masterpiece in the original but I read it both in English and Russian translation and I would recommend it to any mature reader. An English speaker should only attempt to read this book if he is comfortable with other large foreign novels. If you can handle large works of Dostoevski (Dostoevsky) or Balzac in period translation, - cover to cover, - then go ahead. Otherwise don't even try to because what you'd be up against is pure torture. An abridged version of the novel or the same work narrated by a professional actor on audio tape could be considered a lighter cuisine but I am not familiar with either abridged version or the tapes. I guess people from nations which have had long periods of civil unrest and war on recent their historic consciousness could better relate to this work, its atmosphere and its characters than those who lack such experience or for whom it would be an extremely distant historic memory. While it is certainly not an easy read, as a complete work of literary art the One Hundred Years of Solitude must be one of the best 20th century novels written in any language.

Rating:
Summary: Well-crafted
Review: As with most well-crafted books, especially those that are above average, they can't be skimmed. Such is the case with this one. It's detailed and attention must be paid. This sometimes proves difficult when sections of it move slowly, but overall it is an effective work of fiction. Highly recommended, along with "Empire Falls" and "Bark of the Dogwood."

Rating:
Summary: Three & a half stars
Review: Well, I have to say that Oprah's latest choice was a little disappointing for me. There were parts of this story that spaned 100 years of a families generations that I enjoyed. I loved how unique the stories were. And each person in the family had their own quirks & personalities. There were surprises along the way & some shocking moments. Overall, the story & characters were great.

The part of the book that dragged it down for me was how the stories were woven together. I'm not sure if that is a part of this magic realism. I could accept that magic realism makes things that could never happen, happen. But it was the flow of the book that I had a hard time with.

Some tips: You'll need to pay attention to every word on your page. If you zone out for one moment, you'll surely miss something. Make sure you read the book with the family tree in the front- I used it probably just about every chapter. It's hard when everyone's names are the same or similar. Also, stick with it. There are parts that are slow and parts that are very interesting. In the end, the read was worth it, even though along the way I was a bit frustrated. I wouldn't have given the author a nobel prize, but I agree that it's a memorable book.