Rating: 
Summary: the genealogy tree is invaluable
Review: After trying futilely to read Cien Años de Soledad in its original tongue and realising my Spanish just wasn't up to it, I bought and finished the English edition of this great novel. (Note to Dorea, my Spanish-1 instructor from years ago: I tried my best, and I failed my miserably. The lesson is, I'll never try that again.)There is a clear theme in this book, at least to me. Five generations of this family, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, are all bonded. Lust, tragic character flaws, and fate tie the generations together. However, this is a difficult story to follow, as many readers have already mentioned. The characters in the multiple generations are given very similar names, making the genealogy tree at the beginning of the book invaluable. (By the way, the tree in this edition is much better drawn than the one in the Spanish-language Catédra edition, although that one has a nice 50-page introduction.) Although I wouldn't say I was ever thoroughly bored by the writing, I sometimes felt the storyline was a bit rambling. It's still a powerful story, and the apparent rambling is more than justified by (and perhaps even a prerequisite for) the incredible final page.
Rating: 
Summary: I've never read a more rich or vivid book ...
Review: I had no idea what I was getting into when I purchased _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ at a local used book store. The characters are so real and alive that this novel instantly becomes one of those rare books that sweeps you up and into the story. It is the story of the large and complex Buendia family, full of vibrant people, death, birth, love, neurosis, hate, confusion, and every other emotion possible. The intensity makes this book so alive that you spend as much time contemplating it as you do reading it. But for all the life Marquez puts into it, he lets it die with a terrible fit of realism in one of the most pragmatic endings that will leave you crying and reflecting. There's nothing more vivid out there.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing journey of one family
Review: It's very difficult to describe "One Hundred Years of Solitude". On a very basic level it is the story of the Buendía family from the time they found the city of Macondo to ... well, that would give the story away too much, but let's say it chronicles the rise and fall of the town and the family. Like with most great books, however, the story is of minor importance. What we get from this book is wonderful, vibrant, characters - individual, but at the same time, so alike. One of the overwhelming themes in the book, and it's commented on explicitly, is the circle of life. We see the same patterns repeated throughout the generations - literary techniques like the use of the same or similar names for various characters reinforce this. The book also gives us an insight into the politics of the times - and, perhaps of today. In the story a series of wars breaks out between the ruling conservatives and the opposition liberals. These wars, in which one of the great characters of the book, Colonel Aureliano Buendía, plays an instrumental role end as the liberals become more and more like the conservatives they despise. One of the greatest influences on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's writing was, apparently, his grandmother who used to mix completely fantastical elements into her story with a total belief in their reality. This same device - though I doubt his grandmother considered it that - is used throughout One Hundred Years of Solitude. Women aged over 145 are commonplace; mysterious gypsies with magical powers are revered; ghosts naturally inhabit the house and interact with the family. The theme of myth and reality is enhanced by the way the villagers trust the gypsie's magic more than modern inventions and the way that events and entire characters in the story become legend by the end of it. "What is truth?" we ask ourselves. The language used in the book is beautiful; I wish that I had the ability to read it in the native Spanish but I have the impression that the majority of it carries through. Reading the book I was often reminded of Toni Morrisson's Beloved which has similarly beautiful language mixed with themes of family, magic and ghosts too. Some of the themes can be disturbing - incest, near rape, trophy women, etc. are dealt with in a very real way. Finally, if you are at all interested in reading one of the greatest books of literature, you must read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the best "flow" ever achieved in a narrative
Review: What can I say about this book other than "read it"? It is a beautiful account of a scion of the Buendia family. It describes all sorts of affairs and events in their lives and in the village to which their blood is inextricably related: Macondo, in the jungles of northern South America. But it is much more than that. Pick up a copy and read any passage: you fill find something strange and beautiful on every page. Many lines I think are comparable to the poetry of Lorca. I cannot imagine the effort it took to write this book, with so much beauty on each page (They say that in the 1-2 year period it took Marquez to write the book his family plunged from sustainability to abject poverty). This is perhaps the most enjoyable book I ever read. I seriously mean that. Usually, at some point, I begin counting pages and chapters and so on, but not with this book. Almost every page is like the first page. Marquez skillfully breaks open the world of his characters so you can feel their blood pulsing while you read. This book is alive. Usually I like to discuss the plot, the themes, etc. But I treat this book differently. It should not be dissected, merely read. In the words of Plato: Take the book and read!
Rating:
Summary: One of the Greatest Books of the 20th Century
Review: I was supposed to read One Hundred Years for a class back in high school but I dropped the class and the book was left unread for years. I went back to it years later when I needed something to read. It actually took me two attempts to read it because the first chapter doesn't exactly draw you in.
But I'm glad I gave it a second try because its one of the best books I ever read, folling only to Lord of the Rings, 1984 and perhaps The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
One of the things I like about this book is that it doesn't seem to have an easily identifiable main character (which is similar to many of my favourite novels, for example Lord of the Rings and Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels). In other words its more plot than character driven. Its like the family itself is the main character in this one hundred year old story. Also like the two aforementioned novels there are so many characters sometiems its hard to keep track, but its worth it. I like the way magic is referred to in such a matter-of-fact way.
The structure of the book is also different; for me at least the climax seems to be somewhere in the middle of the book and from there the story seems to wind down.
Rating:
Summary: It's up to us, I suppose
Review: Twenty-one dauntless people led by Jose Arcadio Buendía founded the settlement of Macondo somewhere between the mountains and the Caribbean Sea, bordering the swamp. One Hundred Years of Solitude is the rise and fall of Macondo and six generations of Buendías. It is a study in the futility of mad adventures to defeat the guile of church, state and the Banana Company. Márquez tells this tale as if it were oral tradition, a legend passed along through generations, spoken to children in rapture by once sturdy great-grandmothers rocking on the porch on cool summer nights. Grandmothers, when telling a story to youngsters, are apt to blend illusion and reality, and Márquez preserved that quality of the narration. For example, the insomnia plague that infected the residents, not with drowsiness but with gradual loss of memory, requiring that every object be tagged with its name and purpose until Melquiades, the ancient sage, returns with a curative potion. Young Rebeca, an unrecognized relative of the Buendías, probably brought the insomnia plague. Rebeca, who has an ancestral urge to eat dirt and whitewash, arrived at the Buendía home with her parent's bones in a sack. The sack roams through the house, with an annoying clac clac rattle, because no one has died yet in Macondo and the community lacks a cemetery. That will change soon enough, though. Macondo, founded in tranquillity and innocence, welcomes bands of gypsies bearing science (like ice and alchemy), magic and illusions. The town admits Arabs too, who trade manufactured gadgets for macaws. The state invades in the form of Don Apolinar Moscote, a self-proclaimed magistrate in a town that did not need one. Likewise, the residents had become "accustomed to "...arranging the business of their souls directly with God..." until Father Nicanor, invited to perform a wedding, decides to stay and build a church. The people of Macondo, unaware they require a church, donate pitiful amounts for Father Nicanor's project until he resorts to levitating six-inches by drinking hot chocolate. Eventually the Banana Company arrives and dumps 3,200 citizens into the sea rather than pay their workers a decent wage. Solitude is withdrawal and denial, a loneliness and helplessness, an acquired madness instilled by philanthropy and greed upsetting tranquillity and innocence. Márquez does not offer solutions for this phenomenon. It's up to us, I suppose.
Rating:
Summary: Disapointing reading? No way.
Review: Gabriel García Márquez is one of the greatest paperback writers of Latin America of the 20th Century. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE is considered his best book, I disagree but it's great anyway. The story makes a web unable to be broken, the story is a fantastic adventure of a fantastic tribe. If you find the book boring or difficult; why don't you read some Tim Morrison?
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Book!
Review: A wonderful read. Marquez' prose is amazing, poetic!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing read
Review: I was expecting a consistent story or at least an engaging narrative that takes fantastical twists. Instead, so many characters are introduced (many have the same name) making it very difficult to care about any of them. Also, the struggles between the rebels and whoever it is they are fighting (and why, come to think of it) are vague and uninteresting. I can't imagine what about this book is so transfixing to so many people. Count me out, I guess.
Rating:
Summary: Macondo: Our World Summed Up in 422 Pages
Review: This novel is an amazing work, which once I had started, I was unable to put it down. It is a long read, but definitely worth the time it takes. The author does an amazing job in his depiction of the characters, giving us the feeling that we are seeing all of humankind on the page in front of us. Macondo is a fictional town which goes through a metamorphoses in the space of 100 years, and in that time, we see a basic outline of all of human history. The book is rather ambiguous in many places, and the fact that five or six different characters have the same name can become confusing. But all in all, this is a wonderful book, which basically shows us a portrait of human reality.
| 
