Customer Reviews

Gabriel Garcï¿1/2a Mï¿1/2rquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude: A Casebook (Casebooks in Criticism)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book cannot fail to be of use to anyone trying to gain a fuller understanding of García Márquez's ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. Although not useless to advanced readers, the collection is explicitly targeted at readers approaching the text for the first time. I imagine they had this in mind as a college text to accompany the novel.

Anthologies are almost always uneven, with some essays justifying the cost of the book, and others that seem to either muddy the water or just waste one's time. This collection is no exception. Several of the essays are superb. In general, as the editor acknowledges in the Introduction, the clearest, most helpful essays are those by scholars working in Great Britain. The least helpful are those scholars--either American or Latin American--in the grips of literary theory. One of the essays is so densely written that nearly the entire piece consists of buzz words from cultural studies and comparative literature. I can't imagine many college level readers having the background to penetrate such an essay, while many advanced scholars will recognize that such an essay covers up lack of content by an excess of lingo.

Nonetheless, by picking and choosing, one will gain a great deal of help in reading García Márquez's great novel. There is a good deal of helpful biographical and historical information, as well as a number of excellent critical pieces analyzing various aspects of the book. I found the essays in the first two thirds of the book to be more helpful than those in the last third, with some exceptions in each section.

And yes, the font is small, but I didn't have the trouble reading the book that the first reviewer had.

This is my favorite book. I have read it so many times I have lost the count, and each time I feel and live it and I can't put it down. It's the brightest jewel in the Latin American literature. This is a jealous book, it's not for the people who "act" as if they were reading, while thinking of something else. It demands your full attention. If you have trouble following a complex story line, I recomend you to read it while keeping a pencil and paper handy so you can draw the Buendia's family tree. It will help you to follow the story. That's what I told my mom to do and it worked out right. If you are feeling adventurous and want to read a story full of life, passion, death, and love, this is the book for you. I have never ever found another book so human inspite of being magical. I invite you to read it, if you really follow this book, you won't regret the hours you spent immersed in it.

Excellent material but the print is too small to read without strain even with glasses.