Customer Reviews

One Hundred Years of Solitude LP

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This novel is the best ever, no novel i have read caused me feel like i'm in a dream, so strong so penetrative, it keeps you wonder how a man can write such marvelious piece of art.

So recommended.

This book was written in Spanish and was translated into English by Gregory Rabassa, and I felt he tried to stick as closely to the Spanish language as possible.

The sleeve of this book summarises the story of "the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family". True, the writing is sometimes amusing and witty that I burst out laughing while reading it, like the feasting dual between Camila, 'the Elephant', and Aureliano Seguando. I also like how the author describe Ursula, the Matriah of the family, goes about as lucid as ever, even after she became blind, as she discovered every member of her family repeated the same path, same action and the same words at the same hour. It's only when they deviated from the meticulous routine did they run the risk of losing something. Quote: "The search for lost things is hindered by routine habits and that is why it is so difficult to find them." How true!

Some sub story on the different members of the 6 generation family is just so incredulous. Remedio the beauty not only captivated men and eventually killed them, but her secnt lingered on wherever she had been. Then there is the fluttering yellow butterflies to signal the appearence of Mauricio Babilonia, and Fernanda, whoes father sent her children gifts of saint statues every Christmas, and whoes last gift is of himself in a coffin.

The book starts with the marriage of two cousins, Ursula and Jose Arcadio Buendia, who close boodline marriage was a constant source of worry, for it was believed that the offspring may be born with a pig's tail. Cleverly, it ended with the birth of a son with a pig's tail, the result of an affair between 2 cousins six generations later.

The book was difficult to read because the names of the offspring were repeated as they were named after their fathers. So in the book, there were 19 Aurelianos and 3 Arcadios in 2 generations. Luckily there was a family tree diagramm for readers to constantly refer to in case they got lost. The use of pronouns 'he' and 'she' even after 2 subjects was discussed also lead to some confusion, as i had to figure out which subject the author was referrring to.

It is a clever book and only a genius of a writer could clearly articulate the different characters that make up this 6 generation family and the detailed relationship between each one.

This story really does take a geniune effort to read. With that it is a fantastic journey that will toy with your emotions in both positive and negative ways. A little confusing at times, but with steady reading it all comes together. Wonderful piece of literature!

Gabriel Garcia Marquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude is an incredibly wild, voluminous adventure, and it is chock-full of fantastical events that are so many in number that they make the reader dizzy just trying to keep up. While the book may, at some times, have been confusing for various reasons (such as the exhorbitant amount of characters with the same name), I found myself working past the bewilderment to understand the story; therefore, it was with effort that I enjoyed this book. And enjoy it I did. Although I don't guarantee you'll value you it as I did, I do assure you that it has much worth indeed.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read ( and I have read thousands).
Marquez is a giant. His skill is like that of a mythical creature, like a Phoenix combined with a hundred great authors.
The pure fact that this book was written by one man is amazing. I don't want to say anything about the story. If you care about great literature, do not let life pass by without reading Marquez' masterpiece.