
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Reviews

It's difficult to review this one. I didn't super enjoy it but I feel very...indebted to it. Many books I've enjoyed probably owe themselves, in some part, to Marquez's magical realism and multi-generational storytelling, because he does both so famously well. I'm left with a profound appreciation and respect for this book more than a love for it. Sometimes, I read a classic and I'm kind of left having to do some research to understand its masterpiece-ness. Not this one. I get it. In telling the story of Macondo and the Buendias, Marquez attempts to tell the story of civilization (or at least Latin America) and its intersections with technology and ideology and imperialism and attempts to capture the essence of human nature and its intersections with perception and sexuality and storytelling, all while constraining this exploration within space (Macondo) and time (a century). And that's a vast oversimplification of the whole thing. It's wildly ambitious on Marquez's part. Big brain energy. I'm still untangling it all. Note: At some point--relatively early on--I had to consult people who had read this and ask, "How important is it to keep all these names straight?" and "How important is it that I know what's going on?" Answers pretty much boiled down to "Just have a character map handy." That worked.

Masterpiece





















