One Hundred Years of Solitude
Ratings781
Average rating4.1
Well written, except for writing the the full 3 names of every character every time their mentioned. The book tells the story of a city and its main inhabitants, from the time it was founded. It reads as a diary of the city, mentioning mildly interesting events of everyday life, mixing some fantasy with it, as in impossible events. Examples: everyone in town loosing their memories, flying carpet.
There is no plot or content, so this is a big no for me.
Read 2:23/14:04 17%
I don't know how to rate this.
My Colombia Book Around the World
The plot was...weird. BUT, the writing was strong. And beautiful. This author inspired Isabel Allende—who is perfect. The themes explored of fate and the family you're born into and generational dysfunction is also interesting. His very quick delve into race and ethnicity and how that also may determine your life course at the end also is an interesting statement to explore and I enjoyed that theme. I guess I just didn't really like the method he chose to explore these important themes.... but then again I don't think I'm supposed to :).
I'm giving the book three stars because the writing is beautiful, and that's the only reason I could finish reading it. In terms of the plot, it's just not my cup of tea. I found it very dull and I was losing interest every 5 minutes. Truly a struggle to read. I can see why others would like it. But I place the novel up there with The Great Gatsby: beautifully written, but no substantial plot that could hold my interest. I was just bored the entire time.
So, whether you enjoy this book will come down to if you like the writing and if the plot is interesting to you. I only enjoyed the writing, but I wanted to read the novel before Netflix makes it a film. But now I'm even debating if the film would interest me since the writing is taken away.
Either way, I think everyone should at least try reading it since it is a classic and the writing is worth reading, at least for a few chapters.
The analogies the author makes are somewhat strange when you first read them, but totally spot on.
Vamos só focar no facto de eu não saber o que dizer acerca desta maravilhosa obra! Estou destroçada de tão feliz, por saber ler e ter a oportunidade de explorar livros como este... Ler é uma relíquia, nunca se esquecam de agradecer por isso!
Not my cup of tea. Why... For starter, it's a well known fact that I ain't good with names and only god knows how many names this novel includes. I hardly could repeat after the names, let alone remember or distinguish whether the characters are male or female. There were different characters with same name which make it way more confusing for me... Yea yea I took a look at family tree... couldn't read the names either :D
Aside naming which is quite important element within this novel, I find the pace of story pretty fast, I fell behind several times, could get sync back for a while and fall behind again and again. The very advance literature of the book was another factor to make it harder to comprehend. The story was so fast by the time I was about to grasp the idea what is going on it took me to whole new world.
No Thank you!!! I'm not going to try this again...
“A person doesn't die when he should but when he can”
“It was a characteristic of men to deny hunger once their appetites were satisfied.”
“The world must be all fucked up”, he said then, “when men travel first class and literature goes as freight.”
“Watch out for your heart. You're rotting alive.”
“Incredible things are happening in the world. Right there across the river, there are all kinds of magical instruments while we keep on living like donkeys”
“There is always something left to love.”
Okay, this is one of the best fictional works I've ever read. It's on par with the greatest literary fiction works of all time! It's not a book, it's a journey into the beautiful and isolated town of Macondo and the lives of Buendia family. Every page, every word, every chapter, every character is enticing and mystical! Its vividly mesmerizing writing style combined with a magical story, makes it a genuine literary masterpiece. The way Gabriel Garcia Marquez creates his characters and blends them into his wonderful world, it's just exquisite! The book introduced me to a totally new genre of magical realism. Where the boundaries between what's real and what's magical are blurred. This is what makes this book fascinating. And what can I say about the characters of this novel! Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a genius of fiction! When I finished the book, the existential crisis and the void left by it felt like a hundred years of solitude!
To end this review here, I'd say that if you haven't read Gabriel Garcia Marquez, you haven't read real fiction yet! A must read masterpiece from the magical artist of literary fiction!
O que eu amo: a narrativa com frases intrincadase ainda assim repletas de cor e significado, caminhando com vc. O que eu não amo: os mesmos dois nomes pelo livro se encontrando o tempo todo, pq meu cérebro não teve condições de acompanhar que Aureliano e que Arcadio era aquele.
The book can be a bit hard to follow with the characters having similar names. overall it was a decent story, but I can see both the love and the hate for this book. I personally think its worth a read.
What a behemoth of a novel! It's so densely packed with events and characters, most of whom share the same names, that it's simply not possible to hold everything in your memory. This was overwhelming at first, but when I stopped trying to remember all the detail and let the story happen without questioning it, it was a fantastic, crazy ride. The detail doesn't even matter as the real story is the much bigger picture - though the detail is the colour that gives this book its final monumental impact. Given the relentless assault of information, I expected to burn out and lose interest, but it continued to be absorbing (and scandalous), right up to the intense and powerful ending. Brilliant stuff.
Cease, cows, life is short!
J'attendais peut-être trop de ce roman salué unanimement par la critique et par les critiques ici. J'ai bien aimé le début de cette fresque familiale, mais j'ai fini par me lasser de ces personnages qui se ressemblent tous et dont les vies elle-mêmes se ressemblent beaucoup. J'ai terminé un peu déçu, tout en reconnaissant la qualité du style et l'ambition de l'oeuvre.
Esta es la segunda ocasión que leo Cien años de soledad y debo decir que es y nunca dejara de ser una novela fantástica.
This book, this classic is utterly boring. Boring to the bone, really. However at some point you get the feeling this book has the whole world in it.Everything that has been written before. It has elements of Nietsche (With Modern times, railways and such, God dies), It has elements of absurdism (Life has no meaning), it has biblical miracles, the whole history South America, it tackles ideologies and the fact that revolutions tend to eat themselves and that history is cyclical rather than a progression. And So Much more than that
This was not a conventional reading experience at all. The pace was so rapid and the characters so weird that you it was not possible to develop much of a relationship with the characters. This was something that I found unbearable last night thus giving it only 3 stars. If I would reat this again, this would most likely get 5++ stars from me.
More like 100 years of reading, am I right? While I loved this book, it struck me as far too dense, and as a result, my reading sessions were very short to avoid overstimulation. I read this on the suggestion of everyone whose tastes I have come to appreciate; most of them described it as their favorite book, and while it was good, I wouldn't nominate it as mine. I can see why it's a classic, and I'm happy I read it, but I doubt it will see a second reading.
Для меня слишком сложно: много непонятных имен. В сюжете много событий. При этом не сказать, что очень захватывает. Честно пытался осилить. Но не мое это, похоже. Не хочу время на это тратить.
Try to read it quickly since everyone has the same name. This isn't too difficult since it's a very good book.
I thought I'd tackle this well-loved book but I'm giving up 100 pages in. Supposedly it's the story of the Buendia family in the fictional town of Macondo. There are about 37 people in this family, most of whom are either named José Arcadio, Aureliano, or Remedios. There's a family tree in the beginning but it's impossible to tell the characters apart (except for Ursula, the matriarch). After a few days of reading, I realized several things: 1) I have no idea what these characters are motivated by, 2) there doesn't seem to be a plot, 3) perhaps I'm missing something, 4) what the hell is with naming, like, seven characters the same name!? and 5) I'm bored. Also, I'm not the only one who feels this way about this book. So: wasn't enjoying it, so I quit. I can do that.
GGM isn't for everyone or anytime. I've been fortunate to read him at times when I've been able to savour the richness, the weird liquidness of his prose. Cien Años delighted me again. It took me a month, and it may take me longer next time, but that's the thing: there will be a next time. This isn't a book you're done with; it's a story you sort of relish.
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.
Lo lessi al secondo tentativo tutto di un fiato in una settimana, praticamente non facevo altro, un libro che sa rapirti, con le sue storie surreali ma cosi “vive”. Da avere e da leggere tutto in una volta altrimenti con tutti quei personaggi si rischia di perdere il filo! :-)
Questo libro, che vorrebbe passare per tale, non lo è. Questo è un dizionario della vita, un enciclopedia dell'essere, un trattato sull'amore, sulla vita, sul tutto. Qui potete trovare dei personaggi favolosi, delle storie ricche e piene, vi si avvicineranno piano, piano e cominceranno a sussurrarvi la loro vita, la vita della famiglia Buendia e la città di Macondo, passerete cent'anni con loro, ridendo, piangendo, consolandoli per la loro triste fine. Vi si dipingerà davanti agli occhi una storia come mai ne avrete lette, perchè sentirete già il primo brivido alle parole “mi ricordo quando mio padre mi fece conoscere il ghiaccio...”.
Favorite book ever, read it for a comparative literature class in college and have reread it many times since
