One Hundred Years of Solitude
Ratings781
Average rating4.1
Listened as an audiobook. I would have done better reading it ‘cause of all the names. That's just how my brain works. Otherwise, enjoyed it.
ler a gabriel garcía márquez sendo muller é definitivamente unha experiencia....... escribe tan ben e o libro ten partes tan incribles e fantasiosas e emocionantes e d súpeto BAM violacións, prostitución, mulleres que só serven como criadas e etc.
I'm afraid this famous book didn't work well for me. Perhaps if I read it stoned it would resonate with me, but ... I gave up weed decades ago.
Sigh. I suppose I can shelve it over there with Ulysses and Gravity's Rainbow and some other celebrated literary works.
I've read this several times, yet somehow never recorded it in Goodreads. Here it is, and it's amazing every time.
I just couldn't get on with this novel. There is no doubting that the language is beautiful and the confused plot lines and similar names of the different characters are intended to create a sense of other-worldliness but I just found it too convoluted and ultimately, the lack of a sense of direction meant that I just couldn't get enthused about where it was going. I hate to DNF anything but this came close.
This is a very, very hard book to review. I haven't struggled this hard with a book in ages, but reading it was so fk worth it.
The characters from this book will inhabit my brain for a while. Some will inspire hatred (such as the memoryless Colonel Aureliano Buendias), others will help me stay strong in tough moments (such as the iconic Ursula). Idk. I don't want to be alone, solitude sucks, and nobody in this book learns their lesson. Time is a circle, everything has already been prophesied. Beautiful book. Thanks mum for recommending it.
3.5
I loved the writing but overall, the book was really confusing to read. I didn't mind it because I could tell that there was a bigger picture to it and I'd hopefully find out at the end (and I did). The storylines of each individual character was rather straightforward although the relation to each other was a bit too confusing. I also enjoyed the way the book deals with so many different topics and themes; I am really impressed by the way it was all executed.
“If you have to go crazy, please go crazy all by yourself!”Like [b:Dune 44767458 Dune (Dune, #1) Frank Herbert https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1555447414l/44767458.SY75.jpg 3634639] from last year, this book had been on my TBR list for the longest time, because I always felt like it was one of those books I should read, but never made time to actually do so. It probably would've stayed there forever (like Dune, actually) if my book club friends hadn't picked it for the book to read this month and I stopped running out of reasons to tell myself to not read it. I've tackled literary vegetables before (books I don't normally read but should) with mixed results, but mostly the experiences have been positive. This book was not a positive experience for me.This review will be a drop in the bucket of reviews for this book, so I'll keep things brief. The book is a generational look at a family living in the fictitious village/town/city of Macondo, sort of a train wreck into a tire fire that you can't help but not look away from. There's incest. There's pedophilia. There's infidelity. There's bestiality. There's even more incest. Seriously, their family tree is less a branching tree and more like a straight stick. You get to watch Macondo develop from basically this tiny village into something more developed, watch the family revolve around its own debasement, watch the townsfolk essentially forget they exist (willfully, probably), and then have a satisfying conclusion when the family house (where only a single family member remains at this point) gets wiped off its foundation and the book ends. I think even the God they believed in got fed up with the amount of incest in that family.There's positive aspects of the book. The writing style is fantastic, really evocative in places, but a bit inconsistent. We spent an inordinate amount of time on the most minor of events, and then speed through things that I felt like needed more than a casual byline. I really liked Ursula, the matriarch of the family who manages to outlive most of them in her fervent quest to try and bring some order and semblance to the carnage she hath wrought. There's plenty of amusing moments as well, both intentionally and unintentionally. Remedios' death was probably meant to be sad, but imagining her literally flying away with the bedsheets to heaven had me giggling for a while. I'm no stranger to magical realism, I love a good Haruki Murakami book, for instance. I just didn't get the same feeling here as I do from his books. The chapters felt long and tedious, and I felt like there was just too much included for the sake of inclusion that didn't really add to the book at all. We're constantly hit over the head with the themes of history repeating itself and solitude/loneliness (and the color yellow), it just felt very repetitive by the time I got halfway through. So, my low review stands. I can at least cross it off my list of books I should read, but I'd have a hard time recommending it to people. I don't even know the sort of person I could look at and go, "yeah, you look like an incest/One Hundred Years of Solitude kind of person..."
Maybe this was amazing in its time, but I found it really bizarre. I don't quite understand why it's on the must-reads list.
Favourite book of all time. A masterpiece of magical proportions.
I read some of his previous works, such as Love in the Time of Cholera, before and it left me a bad impression of him. I'm glad that I gave Gabriel García Márquez another chance because One Hundred Years of Solitude is the best book from him thus far. If you're a huge fan or Latin American literature, magical realism, or a family saga, highly recommend this novel.
This book is so strange and unique, but at the same time it was such a drag to read... like honestly, what did I just read lol.
The fact that almost everyone had the same name added to the strangeness of the story, but at the same time, I had to stop multiple times in the book to look back at the family tree and remind myself which Aureliano he was talking about. It was also filled with so much sex, and more than once it happened between family members... which is just gross. It also happened between people with massive age gaps (e.g. old man with teenage girl), which is also gross. And let's not forget about the 17 Aurelianos.
García Márquez's personal style of writing definitely shines through this book, and it's what makes it really interesting to read. The writing is beautiful. But also, why did you have to make each paragraph are so long?! It's not uncommon to find paragraphs that are 2 pages long. Heck, there was an entire sentence that spanned 2 pages!
Overall it was an interesting read, and I probably wouldn't have picked it up if I hadn't found it in the “English books” isle of a bookstore of Mexico City. I've also read 3 García Márquez books in the past month alone, and I think that's enough García Márquez for me lol.
This book is so strange and unique, but at the same time it was such a drag to read... like honestly, what did I just read lol.
The fact that almost everyone had the same name added to the strangeness of the story, but at the same time, I had to stop multiple times in the book to look back at the family tree and remind myself which Aureliano he was talking about. It was also filled with so much sex, and more than once it happened between family members... which is just gross. It also happened between people with massive age gaps (e.g. old man with teenage girl), which is also gross. And let's not forget about the 17 Aurelianos.
García Márquez's personal style of writing definitely shines through this book, and it's what makes it really interesting to read. The writing is beautiful. But also, why did you have to make each paragraph are so long?! It's not uncommon to find paragraphs that are 2 pages long. Heck, there was an entire sentence that spanned 2 pages!
Overall it was an interesting read, and I probably wouldn't have picked it up if I hadn't found it in the “English books” isle of a bookstore of Mexico City. I've also read 3 García Márquez books in the past month alone, and I think that's enough García Márquez for me lol.
après avoir vu la hype autour de ce livre et étant une amoureuse du réalisme magique j'avais vraiment hâte de commencer ma lecture.
ce fut une aventure beaucoup trop confuse, que je me dois donc d'arrêter.
life's too short to force myself to finish books i'm clearly not enjoying reading.
a big let down.
I have no idea how to put into words how I feel about this book. I forced my way to the end hating most of my time spent reading it but yet by the end I found myself completely enamored.
DNF. Made it to page 163. There were things I should like about this book and it was really hyped up, but I just couldn't get myself to care about any of the characters or plot enough to continue. It was super meandering, which I like sometimes, but this was frustrating. Just not for me, I guess!
Luego de tantos años dando la larga para leer esta obra, finalmente me decidí a no dejar pasar ni un momento más, y menos mal lo hice.
Me sorprendió mucho, demasiado, diría yo, y es que desde la primera página me mantuvo ahí en pie, entretenida con cada suceso que ocurría, con cada personaje que se mencionaba, y su intrincada personalidad. Todo fluye de una manera casi natural en la historia, no te dan tiempo a cuestionarte algo, cuando ya te están dando respuesta a tu duda, mientras te generan diez más; y es que son realmente cien años de soledad, ese título definitivamente no está de a gratis puesto ahí.
Pero no de una soledad convencional. El autor nos presenta en cada uno de sus personajes, una manera diferente y especial de experimentar la soledad, desde la más convencional en la cual se pasa apartado de los demás físicamente todo el tiempo, hasta la soledad del amor, del alma, la soledad dentro del egoísmo, la locura... Es impresionante como todo ocurre, como cada uno de los integrantes de la familia protagonista, lleva su vida de una manera poco convencional, dentro de la cotidianeidad, y aún así uno los siente familiares.
No voy a mentir, hubo un momento donde sí que me confundí, y casi me perdí en la trama debido a la cantidad de personajes existentes en esta historia, y la similitud de los nombres entre padres, hijos, hermanos y abuelos, pero logré re-conectar enseguida, y disfrutar de cada capítulo completamente.
Y cómo no, si creo que lo que más me impresionó de toda la historia fue la forma en que Gabo se dedicó a construir y desconstruir en todo el proceso lo que él mismo iba creando, sin perder la complejidad que le agregó a cada aspecto y personaje dentro de su maravilloso mundo, logrando incluso que cada mínimo detalle y personaje, fuera memorable. Uno no cierra el libro y olvida a Jose Arcadio Buendía, Aureliano, Fernanda, Amaranta, Remedios, y mucho menos a Úrsula, es que creo que incluso el último miembro de la estirpe Buendía, quedará grabado para siempre en tu memoria.
No había entendido hasta el momento en que leí este libro, por qué lo recomendaban tanto, incluso personas que no son muy dadas al género que maneja el autor, y sin duda alguna ahora pude comprobar que tiene más que merecida su fama y renombre, y que la pluma de García Marquez está hecha para nunca ser olvidada.
“time was not passing...it was turning in a circle...” ― Gabriel García Márquez
It was certainly an experience to read this family saga, but it wasn't easy. Garcia Marquez packs tons of occurrences into one paragraph, so blink and you might miss something. It's not a book for skimmers or for anyone looking for a quick read. It's challenging.
The book goes through multiple generations of characters with the same or similar names: Jose Arcacio, Auraliano, Remedios, etc. Some of the characters are very long-lived and it's hard to tell at times which character is featured in a particular event in a story. Since “passing of time” is one of the themes of the book, I'm guessing this was as intended. You become disoriented as to where you are in the family history. (There was a handy family tree in the front of my copy though!)
The other unique thing is the plot; it's not one long through-line, but rather a lot of mini stories spread throughout the book. I especially enjoyed the tale of Remedios the Beauty and her ascension into the sky and the sad love story of Renata Remedios and Mauricio. If there is a overarching story, it is the fall of the town and the demise of the Buendia family, which are intertwined. They succumb to fate, which is another theme.
I'm guessing a thorough knowledge of Latin American history would enhance reading the book. This is something I don't have but I still found it engaging. Garcia Marquez passes through events so quickly and you don't get a chance to become emotionally involved with anyone very deeply. Good to have read it but, it was certainly not the most accessible book.
"La casa se llenó de amor. Aureliano lo expresó en versos que no tenían principio ni fin. Los escribía en los ásperos pergaminos que le regalaba Melquíades, en las paredes del baño, en la piel de sus brazos, y en todos aparecía Remedios transfigurada: Remedios en el aire soporífero de las dos de la tarde, Remedios en la callada respiración de las rosas, Remedios en la clepsidra secreta de las polillas, Remedios en el vapor del pan al amanecer, Remedios en todas partes y Remedios para siempre."
I read this book for a miniature book club, and that is the only reason I continued past the first two chapters — and while there was a run of chapters and characters in the second half of the book that I really enjoyed, and therefore I'm glad that I read it, overall it is just not my style.
For the pros it definitely makes for a great in-depth discussion piece, sometimes the flowery language serves the story well, and there are certain characters (mainly Remedios the Beauty and Meme) that are genuinely intriguing and entertaining.
The cons however include the fact that the pacing is extremely choppy and bizarre — to the point of being introduced to a character in one paragraph, they get married at the end of the paragraph, and then half a page later they're dead. You really never get a chance to spend much time with each character, and they generally don't act like human beings in any sense of the word (a “highlight” of this bizzare behavior that sticks out to me was when one of the characters is eating dirt, throws up green liquid and leeches, sees her brother laying in a hammock and is overcome with the need to have sex with him, and then they break off her previous engagement to marry each other in the next paragraph).
As a person who likes to connect with characters, the format and style of this narrative felt so remote and unengaging most of the time unfortunately, and even though the process led to great discussion with my reading partner I think it is a major issue for the book that I would never have continued reading it on my own.
The story is of course epic and full of nuances. I was impressed of how dense it is. Definitely there are no wasted pages or long stretches in which nothing happens. Things move fast through history, family ties, social issues and magic spirituality. I'm not sure I can add much to what has already been said about this incredible book.
I felt ambitious and listened to the audiobook in Spanish. That was a great exercise for my Spanish Language study, but maybe I missed out a little bit because my Spanish is not that good yet. On the other end, maybe I would have missed out something else by listening to/reading a translation...