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Summary: So many Buendias
Review: This book was everything it is billed to be. I picked it up as a "classic to read over the summer". This is one of the better choices I've made in this annual quest. Although I must admit to getting very lost at times trying to keep all of the Jose's, Ursula's and others straight. I often found myself re-reading chapters to figure out exactly who was involved! That said, the re-reading was not unpleasant, as it can often be when you get lost.
This is a book that you should add to your "things to read to remain well-rounded" list (just make sure you have plenty of time - this is not a quick read.)
Rating: 
Summary: An Unforgettable Masterpiece
Review: I've read my share of books in my lifetime and I couldn't exactly say what the 10 greatest books I've ever read are. But I can say with certainty that One Hundred Years of Solitude is absolutely one of those books. I was fortunate that I knew nothing about this book before I started reading so I had no preconceived notions about it. What unfolded within those pages was a uniquely imaginative masterpiece that I never expected. 100 years of the Buendia family in the mythical South American town of Macando told in a magical realism tale doesn't begin to explain the essence of magnificent novel. Magical realism is best not explained but experienced by reading One Hundred Years of Solitude. I would implore everyone who hasn't done so already to add this masterpiece to their repertoire of greatest novels read.
Rating: 
Summary: well done but overrated
Review: Marquez masterpiece is confused hodge podge of mystical comedy intwoven with futlity, fuzzy logic and frustration. Marquez tells the story of the town of Macondo founded by Jose Arcadio Buendia. The book revolves around three generations of the family that tells the history of the town and its inhabitants. Marquez moves in a semi linear fashion using major events to move along the 100 year timeline. The Buendia family is full of lively characters most severly faulted in various manners and each having their own little piccadillioes. Offspring share only a handful of names and all people with the same namesake are painfully famliar. The town is amidst of curses, magic and wonder in an interesting dichotomy that combines the majestic with the tragic. Every character is doomed to fail or change in some undesirable way except for Ursula Buendia whose love and warmth is only extinguished in her death. The men are bullheaded and all the characters are two dimensional and predictable in their actions and reactions but Marquez uses this represent his chatoic and futile world where nothing can be prevented. Macondo and its inhabitants are unable to change or adapt to the modernizing world and thus eventually must succumb to its fate. This is one of those sometimes wonderful, sometimes frustrating books that goes on a little too long. Marquez style can't maintain interest the whole book and I got upset with the characters after awhile because of thier similarity. Bottom Line: 50 years of solitude would of preferable! Fans interested in Latin Literature should check it out but I prefer Love In A Time Of Cholera to this.
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Summary: This book deserved the Nobel!
Review: I am fascinated by the Mystical Realism with which Marquez uses to absorb his readers and keep them reading at a frenetic pace because they simply cannot put this gem of a read down! This book is wonderful, to say the least. I'm honored to read such a heart-felt magical exploration of the Buendias family and the subsequent growth of their village into modernization by invention and exposure to cultures other than their own. It is impossible, really, to define what this story is ABOUT in a paragraph or so....there are twists and turns and vivid accounts of nothing in particular; but you won't be sorry you bought this book. I am co-moderator of a book club and our group raved about this book from cover to cover. If you want to be a well-rounded reader, than you must have a copy of this book on your shelf. Its more than just significant, it's a treasure.
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Summary: review of 'one hundred years of solitude'
Review: I picked up the book because of its curiously interesting title, though it was very different from what I thought. One Hundred Years of Solitude reads very much like the first few books of the Bible in its entire description of a family history that combines both the real and the fantastical. It is about history and existence. Characters find themselves caught up in daily chores, incestuous love, greed, war, solitude, suffering, and madness etc.; and thus caught up in time and history that repeat in a ceaseless cycle. In the midst of everything happening in the hundreds of pages, one gets the feeling that 'nothing has happened in Macondo, nothing has ever happened and nothing will ever happen.' The fate of the land is revealed as the last Aureliano decodes the book that contains secrets and prophecies to everything he needs to know. This book has one of the most unique and powerful endings I ever come across, leaving one somewhat devastated and painful from anguish because the novel and its ending convincingly portray the paradox of struggling to be human in the face of fatalism and futility. (If you patiently make it through the first 400 and more pages before reaching the end you might actually cry. But if you do take short cuts and turn to the last bits halfway through, it will lose its effect and it defeats the purpose.) There are no main characters; each is unique in his or her own way though some are more memorable than others. There is also no main plot, except towards the end when the last Aureliano discovers the fate of the land. There are however many small stories interwoven into the novel. I recommend this book to anyone interested in post-colonial literature and to readers who are not looking for central characters or plots. (Do remember that this is a family history that reads somewhat like the Bible) The way to enjoy this book is to enjoy the events (however small) scattered throughout the hundreds of pages and not to be too concerned about its ending. Only then will the true beauty of the book manifest itself. Do however make sure that your edition comes with a family tree, if not the repetition of names can be rather confusing and annoying. (There is Aureliano Buendia, Aureliano Jose, Aureliano Segundo, and a couple more Aurelianos as well as a number of Arcadios) This book is not recommended for readers looking for reading leisure, pleasant stories or happy endings. Nevertheless, in the words of Aureliano Segundo, "Don't let it get away, because it only comes every hundred years." And "Don't let it get away, life is shorter than you think." I like this book because it reminds me of what it means to be human.
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Summary: The birth of Magical Realism
Review: This is quite possibly the most amazing book I have ever read, and I've worked my way through a large portion of the world's "classics". Unlike many books used in college level english courses that require heavy dissection before you get everything from the novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude can get its point accross even if you don't quite realize it. True, its an allegory for the history of humanity, and there are many many buried themes and ideas that you can rip out of the text and create a kind of analytical understanding, but this is one of the rare books that gets everything accross that it needs to simply in the feelings conveyed. A book this magical suspends disbelief and brings you to a mental state where anything is possible, and again, with its exquisitely crafted messages you understand everything Marquez is trying to convey simply with emotions, no higher, more analytical delving is required.
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Summary: Not the best book ever
Review: My High school english teacher swore that this was God's gift to literature. I tend to disagree. I understand what Garcia Marquez is trying to get at with his symbolism, but the reptitious names and slow plot make a good book lag.
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Summary: One Hundred Years of Solitude: a beautiful piece of art
Review: IMPRESSIONS:
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is an amazing and wonderful book. It displays magical realism and its best and weaves through the lives of the Buendia family and the town of Macondo which they have founded.One single sentence can give you the shivers and the wording and phrasing of this book is amazing! So deep and profound with such intense language then you end up loving and obsessing this book and lamenting that you can't write like Marquez. RECOMMENDATIONS:
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes magical realism, Latin American literature, reading classics, or just being inspired and touched in a raw and unusual way. It's one of those books that you could read over and over again for the rest of your life and you would still be discovering something new and different in each reading. SYNOPSIS - FICTION:
Probably Garcia Marquez's finest and most famous work, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, alive with unforgettable men adn women, and with a truth and understanding that strike the soul. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is a masterpiece of the art of fiction. RANDOM INFORMATION:
Marquez won the Nobel Price for this, so I would also recommend you read his acceptance speech which I am sure you can find somewhere on the internet. WARNING: do not read it, however, until after you have read the book.
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Summary: One Hundre Years of Solitude
Review: It is a wonderful journey where the author takes you back and forward in a smooth way through the live in Macondo the little town in the middle of nowhere.It may takes you a while to understad I read the book 3 times the first time I had it and so far I read it 8 times in my lifetime and it never stops to excite me.You want to forget your problems, travel to Macondo and learn about making gold and many other things! discover another world.
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Summary: I know, I know, it's the best book ever written...
Review: I was supposed to read this book for an honors english course in college and I never finished it. I just picked it up again, determined to get the monkey off my back and I realized why I never got through it the first time. The symbolism of this book is in moments breathtaking. The characters of the patriarch Jose Arcadio or his friend Melquiades, the indomitable Ursula, you will fall in love with these and perhaps others. I will not argue against the craft of this novel, it's clearly brilliant and worth reading for its illuminating voice and surprising imagery. My issue is with the experience of reading the book. The characters you can really fall in love with show up early in the book and are all dead by about halfway through, replaced by their children and grandchildren who are at worst despicable and at best apparitions. By the end I was left feeling sort of hollow, lost and abandoned by both the story and the characters. Thematically, the book seems to evade making a decision about what it wants to say, or even more than that, it evades even the idea that it should be about something thematically. I'm sure many people will want to lop my head off for saying something like that, but in the end I felt like the book became too symbolic and lost its grounding in reality. The conclusion seemed to say that history at some point will find an end to its cycle and will no longer be doomed to repeat itself. That might be a beautiful ending, except that everything we have come to care about in the novel is at that point a wasteland. So I would say read this book to admire its literary brilliance and significance, but if you're looking for a nice weekend read be prepared that you may end up feeling something akin to desolation. If on the other hand you just went through a nasty breakup or something like that, try Allende's House of Spirits -- a bit more human and more uplifting. That's just my opinion.
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