Rating: 
Summary: A bewitching, enchanting journey
Review: 'One hundred Years of Solitude' is not an easy book, make no mistake about it. Or at least it is not an easy book to begin with. However, its mellifluous, dreamlike narrative, and touching appreciation of so many facets of human nature seep into the subconscious as the story of Macondo's existence unfolds, and I defy anyone to put it down if he or she is patient enough to read the first hundred pages or so.Gabriel Garcia Marquez has created a miniature world in which the inhabitants seem to be afflicted by all the horrors of human society at the same time. The novel is crammed full of so much magical imagery that at times it seems like there is nothing more that the author could have put in, yet the focus is incredibly narrow, concentrating almost exclusively on the fortunes of one incredible family. Ultimately, as Marquez doubtlessly intended, the reader emerges from the final pages as if from a slightly surreal, yet utterly fascinating dream; to adequately describe a century-worth of history in under 350 pages may seem like an impossible feat, but the author does just that and more at the denouement, by entirely subverting all that has gone before. This book is essential reading for anyone with even the slightest interest in mythology, history, sociology or just good old-fashioned story-telling.
Rating: 
Summary: Not so much baffling as boring
Review: As one who spent some years working on drilling rigs in Colombian jungles, in fact, was married in Bogota in 1949, who has also dipped into the original "Cien anos de soledad," I regret not to share the general enthusiasm for Garcia Marquez's novel. This does not owe to some curmudgeonly perversity nor was I put off by the supposed difficulties of the book (Joyce and Proust were great discoveries of my youth); rather I found the story not especially entertaining. Neither was I enlightened. Try as I might, I kept putting the book aside and reaching for something more readable, Nero Wolfe perhaps or even the TV remote.The construct of the story, a too-complex tapestry, rambling and often wordy to no purpose, seemed especially designed to flag my attention. So the book has remained half read. Nonetheless I rate the book a strong Seven because I feel I'm probably wrong on this one. Too many friends whose opinions I admire differ with me. And I take into account the fact that I'm the only one I know who has never liked San Francisco.
Rating:
Summary: Worth remembering the names
Review: At one level, this book is about the Buendia family, a not-so-typical Columbian family whose members share confusingly similar names and who have many strange/magical things happen to them. Read in this way, the book will not fail to grip and entertain the reader. While one can never know the author's true intentions in writing such a masterpiece, I read this book as an allegory of something much larger. Garcia-Marquez's description of the fascinating rise and fall of the Buendia family seemed to serve as a mere microcosm of humanity, describing and predicting the the rise and fall of humankind. Read this way, the book had a powerful and moving effect on me, symbolizing love, war, peace, remembrance, time, joy, pain, and a plethora of other emotions beyond my ability to characterize. Although Garcia-Marquez's magical realism genre is vastly different than the realism of Mel Gibson's Braveheart, I found it strange and exciting that both were rare in their ability to involuntarily elicit and take control over the entire gambit of my emotions, tying me up in the author's/director's passenger seat to go along for the ride of a lifetime. For this alone, it was worth the read. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful, poetic blend of reality and fantasy
Review: I had just finished a forced reading of Frankenstein for A.P. English and was rather cynical about books in general when I picked up this book. Once I delved into it, I absolutely could not put it down. It truly is an epic tale. You don't really change scenes (pretty much the entirety of the book is set in Macondo, a kind of Mexican Eden) but so much goes on. There's a third person narrator for a large cast of characters, but every character is developed very well. One of the books main themes is the repetition of time in Macondo, and how easily the past and future can either rule ones life or slip away. There is a wonderful blend of fantasy and reality and how sometimes what is fantastic is more believable than what is real. I never wanted to leave this world I entered when I started to read. Just reading it was a very deep and satisfying experience. I highly recommend this book. A tip: When you are reading, keep and eye out for Meliqindes and his documents.
Rating:
Summary: Many Years Later
Review: I loved this piece of literature. I have to call it literature bacause not many novels reach the high standards of creativity, sensitivity, knowledge, bewilderment, enlightenment, spiritualism, fantasy, historical significance etc., etc. The essence of what goes around comes around is an important ingredient in life, and that is what this book is about; the times of life that reinvent itself and are circuitous. This story of the Buendia family could have been the story of the Kiev family in Russia, or the Blem family in Norway, or the chen family in China; it's a universal story, that is timeless and important to those who love and want to be loved in return.
Rating:
Summary: BEST ENDING EVER!
Review: No, the story doesn't exactly have a plot, but more of a collection of fantastic stories of each member of a large family through generations. Each character has their own obsession, problem, passion, or insanity. You get to follow generations through almost supernatural events. All the while there is something much bigger happening, and Marquez succeeds in bringing it all together beautifully in the end. This book has the best ending I have ever read that left me absolutely awestruck and weeping as I was devastated that the adventure was over.
Rating:
Summary: One man ...
Review: SPOILERS!!! Don't read on if you've not experienced the magic of this book. Draw your own conclusions; you're adults, no? That having been said:
Oh for heaven's sake ... OK, for all of you whiners out there who complain bitterly about the novel containing so many similarly named characters, try this: It's a story about ONE MAN, ok? One man's life, from the mystery of ice to through the fecundity of youth/middle age to the senility of the childish couple, offspring carried away by ants and then carried away themselves by a whirlwind.
It sure seems lonely out here.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting wordsmith
Review: starts interesting but stream of consciousness gets old
and range of players is limited.
yes unique literature but not that satisfying.
ANd thats what I felt.
If I dont skim a book so I do drink in all its flavors, then that is a good novel.
Do we write jsut for the literati? or anyman?
TO whom are we trying to convey some of life?
Do I need to repeat the same atmospehre over and over?
Should I marvel in how they show stupidity or comic relief?
Rating:
Summary: What can I say...
Review: The critics ran out of adjectives to describe this one. When I finished reading the last word in the last sentence on the last page, I understood what they were talking about.
This is NOT just a novel. It is a fairy tale. It is an epic. It is poetry. García Márquez is a modern day Vyasa. If you love books and haven't read this one yet, WHAT ON EARTH HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?!
Rating:
Summary: Could be the best Novel ever written
Review: This book blew my mind. I can be a bit slow and confusing (there are many characters with the same of very similar names) but the writing is of a caliber seldom seen. The story is intense and the people stick with you for years!
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