One Hundred Years of Solitude

I've never been a huge fan of “magical realism.” In fact, I've kind of disliked the label, often thinking of it as shorthand for “fantasy written by non-anglos.” I am, however, willing to admit when I'm wrong. And this is certainly one of those cases, as this work goes far beyond the conventions of fantasy. Marquez sets up a unique narrative, the story of a family and a town, in which miraculous and strange events are treated as everyday occurrences, and names seem to be reused in each generation. The effect of all this isn't one of confusion or arbitrariness. Instead, the novel reads like a very complex fable or myth.

Yet Marquez incorporates into this myth very real events, such as a bloody and pointless civil war, the reign of the fruit companies, and the murder of striking workers. In doing so, he's creating what could be taken as the foundation myth for Colombia (and by extension Latin America). That's certainly a tall order, but Marquez is up to the task. His prose, which with its twists in time and space are reminiscent of a more lyrical Faulkner, is integral to the fabulous sense of the tale.

It's probably fair to say that this is one of the great Latin American novels of the 20th century. It innovated many elements that would be borrowed later by other writers. Yet these elements, which make up magic realism, are so well integrated into the novel that one doesn't get that sense of cliche that often happens with reading influentual works.