One Hundred Years of Solitude

Mystical? Lyrical? Hugely imaginative? Absolutely. Also dense, tedious, and occasionally deliberately confusing (giving several generations the same names seems like taunting). I was torn between three stars and four, but opted for the lower rating for the simple reason that I didn't care a whit about any of the many, many people who dropped dead within its pages. Most of these died in a half sentence at the end of a mind-numbingly long paragraph, as if their passing was less important than some of the seemingly gratuitous detail we got about anything involving a number. Perhaps that was a commentary on the transience of life -- or something -- but it seems a pretty obvious point to make repeatedly. I suppose I shouldn't have expected a lot of levity or even love in a book about a century of solitude. But I was surprised by the contrast between the poetry of the language and the pathos of the lives it describes.

This was my second reading of One Hundred Years of Solitude. It was well worth it. The only reason I gave it four stars rather than five is that the edition I purchased (Penguin) had no proper table of contents, no page numbers and no clear divisions between the chapters in the text. I hope this oversight will be corrected by the publishers or Amazon in an update in due course.

Considered a classic, to me this was something of a bore. Not that it lacks violence. We having firing squads and mass exections, along with mistical gypsies and more.The novel traces the history of a village in Colombia and the family that started the place. We get the beginning and the end, with so many characters I felt I needed a scorecard. But I must be wrong. Praise from others has been lavish. I liked "Nobody Writes to the Colonel" and "Love in the Time of Colora" much better.

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.

A lot of interesting ideas, lost in endless sentences and page-long paragraphs, which change both topics and protagonists multiple times before reaching at least one single period. The fact, that everyone has the same name doesn't help much in clearing up the confusion. Once you get used to that, it's quite enjoyable. Not sure if worth joining the cult of fandom though