One of the world’s most famous novels, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, blends the natural with the supernatural in on one of the most magical reading experiences on earth.
‘Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice’
… father took him to discover ice’
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s great masterpiece is the story of seven generations of the Buendia family and of Macondo, the town they have built. Though little more than a settlement surrounded by mountains, Macondo has its wars and disasters, even its wonders and its miracles. A microcosm of Columbian life, its secrets lie hidden, encoded in a book, and only Aureliano Buendia can fathom its mysteries and reveal its shrouded destiny. Blending political reality with magic realism, fantasy and comic invention, One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most daringly original works of the twentieth century.
‘Dazzling’ The New York Times
As one of the pioneers of magic realism and perhaps the most prominent voice of Latin American literature, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has received international recognition for his novels, works of non-fiction and collections of short stories. Those published in translation by Penguin include Autumn of the Patriarch, Bon Voyage Mr.President, Collected Stories, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, The General in his Labyrinth, Innocent Erendira and Other Stories, In the Evil Hour, Leaf Storm, Living to Tell the Tale, Love in the Time of Cholera, Memories of My Melancholy Whores, News of a Kidnapping, No-one Writes to the Colonel, Of Love and Other Demons, The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor and Strange Pilgrims.
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This is on my top ten list. It is a book without agenda, yet when you finish you feel you have entered another world, and left it a different person.
The book taught me the power of a story well told.
100 Years is a classic work of world literature post World War II. It is the seminal work of magical realism, referenced by writers and critics alike throughout the world. It is worth reading if for no other reason because of this, much like Joyce’s Ulysses is required reading (even if you despise Stephen Dedalus). If you wish to understand the America that exists between the Rio Grand and Antarctica 100 Years of Solitude is a very good place to start. Plus it’s funny.
While it too two tries for me to get into the book; it has become one of my all-time favorites. The characters are well drawn and their honest humanity made for an enriching read. Beautiful.
From a realistic point of view,the book is totally the opposite,is the total ‘tour de force’ into the magical cultural world of our ancestors,where the incredible coexist with historical facts and a very particular way of experience the reality.
One of the best books I’ve ever read.
A truly epic venture from Mr. Marquez.
Each page is a story unto itself.
Brilliant work – to say the very least.
A masterpiece!
I love the surreal elements of this story. I have never forgotten his description of the rain.
I am pretty sure I read this one near the beginning of the summer. This is the story of a fictional town called Macondo. It is the history of a family named Buendia. All the characters have names that are similar. The founder of the town is Jose Arcadio Buendia. It covers the lives of his children and his grandchildren. Jose and his wife are first cousins, and they leave their village to search for a new home. The town stays pretty secluded, but is often visited by gypsies. Over time, Jose Buendia goes insane, starts speaking only Latin, and is tied to a chestnut tree for many years until he dies. Generations of Buendias eventually leave the town into a near abandoned state. There are only two people left in the town, and they enter into a relationship – not knowing that they are aunt and nephew. The wife dies in child birth and the child is devoured by ants (what?!?!) leaving Aurelino – the nephew – as the last living Buendia relative. Aurelino finds a manuscript that was left by the gypsies years before that tells of all the Buendia misfortunes. While reading it, the town of Macondo is wiped off the face of the earth by a hurricane.
This book will make your head spin. While I enjoyed the book, I had to keep referring to the family tree at the beginning to keep all the names straight. There are a lot of Arcadios and Ursulas and Joses that you start to forget whom is married to whom. The book is written in a magical realism style and will have you chuckling and shaking your head all at once. It was WEIRD. And silly. And just fun.
I think I will recommend it. It is an acquired taste – that is for sure. You just never knew where the story was going!
Thoughtful
Very difficult to follow and not very inspiring
Mundo paralelo, fantástico y cotidiano
Still reading in small doses.
grasping and entertaining. be attentive while reading character names. must read.
Read it and grow
one of my favorite books
The massacre of the bananeros in Macondo is a fictional version of a real massacre that took place on December 6, 1928 in the town of Ciénaga near Santa Marta, Colombia on behest of the United Fruit Company and under pressure of the US government who threatened to send in the Marine Corps to protect the interests of the United Fruit Company.
Just like in the novel, the mention of the massacre was for a long time suppressed by the official history writing and even well into the sixties of the twentieth century, it caused Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who was at that time also working as a journalist, problems to obtain a visa to travel to the US.
One crazy book and I enjoyed every page.
Not many books get placed on my shelf or my pinterest board. This one was a no brainer. I still re read parts.
One word – amazing.