Well Mr Marquez may have a Nobel Prize for his mantelpiece and a pretty good imagination for writing what with the levitating women and babies made of ice cream but he has no imagination at all when he is thinking of his characters names which are like to drive you entirely insane in this novel, will you please look at this. There are five people called Arcadio, ,three ladies called Remedios, two ladies called Amaranta and there’s a Pietro and a Petra which look quite similar, and there are 23 people called Aureliano (17 of them sons of an Aureliano, so this father has as much lack of name imagination as Mr Marquez). It does give a reader brain ache trying to remember who is who and why they are levitating and which one lives to be 530 years old. I think this is a very good novel for people who like to go into trances for hours at a time.

Wow, here I am having finally (!) read a gem of all times: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez; and I´m feeling good :)

I have witnessed the transformational rise and fall of the newly founded village, Macondo, and the Buendía family. Captivated by the magical realism I moved between the past, the present and the future filled with myths and reality at the same time!

I was mentally in a completely different zone when reading this book!

In awe of Ursula´s strength and endurance over one hundred years, I felt the destinies of every character repeating themselves over and over again as they ultimately revolved around solitude.

Every word feels like a pearl in your hands that you try to string together to capture the plot, but you will find yourself collecting the pearls as they spread everywhere, whilst you admire each and every single one´s beauty!

Magical realism at its best and a source of inspiration for many authors around the globe!

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...races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth.

n  n Time is unhinged in this story. Is it even a story or just an examination of what narcotics can do when combined with existing creativity? Inasmuch as The Atlantic describes this book—as stated by Latin American critic Angel Rama—as a cosmopolitan story that could correct the path of the modern novel, I still believe drugs were involved. At the very least, powerful hallucinogens.



This book covers Latin American history from pre-colonial to pre-modern times. According to Ted-Ed, Marquez could have been influenced by his maternal grandparents, whereby his grandfather was a veteran of the Thousand Days War, and his grandmother's omnipresent superstition led to the story's foundation. Their house in Antarctica was where the author got the inspiration for Macondo.

But what is Macondo, really? When I started this book, I went into it aware that it's a masterpiece. Rushdie has called it "the greatest novel of any language in the last fifty years". It begins as a barreling hypnotic narrative. Many stories feel like a song. Intro, hook, chorus, bridge, crescendo, fade to black. There's a recognizable resonance in pacing and stylistic tropes. The introduction, the inciting incident, the adventure, the conflict, the heroes failing, the darkest hour, then audiences bate their breaths for a season renewal. But this book eschews everything you think you know about narrative storytelling. To the point where I was certain it was it's own style. But no, it's just a different style of narration. So different it may be the godfather of magical realism.

In the first line, Aureliano faces a firing squad. Colonel Aureliano Buendia is the first Aureliano in this story (there are several). Jose Arcadio Buendia, the very first Buendia, discovers and settles in Macondo after a failed expedition to find the ocean. Then follows a tale of woe, sorrow, joy, drama, romance, murder, war. Everything possible and improbable under the sun. From suitors precipitated by yellow butterflies to incest babies born with pig tails.

It sometimes felt like an ode to adventure. The worship of a willingness to find parts unknown. n  

That conversation, the biting rancor that he felt against his father, and the imminent possibility of wild love inspired a serene courage in him.

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Anything could inspire love, rebellion, anger. Anything. This is considered the most seminal imagination novel. The book felt like it could describe everything. Love is a feeling that was more relaxing and deep than the happiness, wild but momentary....
Loneliness is After many years of death the yearning for the living was so intense, the need for company so pressing, so terrifying the nearness of that other death which exists within death, that Prudencio Aguilar had ended up loving his worst enemy.

This book is also expansive and thematic. It covers family drama with the same gravitas, or lack thereof, as war. It doesn't give you room to breathe. When Jose Arcadio of the Big Dick returns from his life as a sailor, he recounts his experience, his exhilaration at the open seas just as easily as he does the casual cannibalism they engaged in to survive. At one point, when Macondo is absorbed into a war between Liberals and fascists conservatives, the people have to decide what's more important-their liberties or forced peace. The war goes on for so long that eventually, the lines blur, and the war is only perpetuated for power grabbing. It evoked memories of how Kenyan freedom fighters were erased from the annals of history and the power taken by tyrants who coopted their movement and hoarded power. Actions of which we're still seeing repercussions. Even MCU action movies give you audience applause breaks. Marquez has no interest in letting you absorb the impact of finding out a Jose Arcadio is fucking his auntie.

The characters were the best part of the first half. Ursula, the matriarch of the Buendia family, is a force to be reckoned with. At first she starts out a doormat to Jose Arcadio the First's whims. Even blithely accepting his attempts to alchemize her inheritance into gold. At the time, all he managed to do was turn it into a black blob. That she didn't let him catch hands is baffling but the story continues. And later, we come to appreciate her innate strength. She's the best female character in this book. Probably even the best character.

There is no scarcity of characters and caricatures. From self-martyrising women who chronically reject good men only to sleep with their relatives, to self-righteous Queens of Sheba wannabes who had a habit of using inane euphemisms to the point of incoherence. Once, Amaranta told Fernanda

n  "I was saying," she told her, "that you're one of those people who mix up their ass and their ashes."n

There is a character so ignorantly beautiful she'd be the lead in all the One Direction songs. There is an Aureliano borne out of wedlock who is raised like a feral beast and ostracised from society until he learns to love the right people in the wrong way. There is a rescued teenager who eats whitewall and dirt when encumbered by fits of hysteria or anxiety.

There is a coin-shaped man who enters an alarming number of eating competitions and descendants who are obsessed with a knowledge that was ultimately meaningless, like all tragedies and success stories come to be.

This story revolves around an indecipherable manuscript whose unraveling is implied to be this twisted yarn of a tale. A cyclic saga that shows you that life is potentially what you make of it until other people jeopardize or enrich it. This story felt like the never-ending train, a fever dream. And at the book's second half, it felt like a long train ride to nowhere.

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"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

And so begins our journey into Macondo, as García Márquez's words walk us through seven generations of the Buendia family, where time has come to a standstill, and the fate of every character seems to be written with an ink of tragedy.

Gabriel García Márquez is a truly gifted storyteller, and his ability to find metaphors, to make fables out of the most mundane events in life with the charm of Scheherazade allows him a rare distinction of being one of the pioneers of magical realism.

n  Themes and Symbolismn

The book has a plot sewn together with metaphors and rhetoric representing the story of Latin America as a whole.

Insomnia plague

Rebeca brings a mysterious insomnia plague to Macondo, causing loss of memory and sleep. The people of Macondo entertained themselves by telling each other the same nonsensical stories in repetition and everything in households having to be labeled, representing a metaphor for the story of Latin America being a repetition of its past and its cure at the hands of the sage represented its return to history, moving out of isolation.

Incest

The Buendias are shown to have a tendency towards incest, while their family always suffers from the fear of punishment in the form of the birth of a monstrous child with a pig's tail.

Gender roles

Throughout the novel, the men instigate chaos while the women strive to maintain order, sometimes in vain. García Márquez calls this a representation of the Latin American machismo.

The Glass City

The glass city is an image that comes to José Arcadio Buendía in a dream. It is the reason for the location of the founding of Macondo, but it is also a symbol of the fate of Macondo.

Colors

Yellow and gold are two significant colors in Macondo's history. In Macondo, gold represents solitude and bad luck. When José Arcadio Buendía discovers the formula for turning metals into gold and shows his son the result of his experiment, he says it looks like dog shit.

"Yellow is lucky but gold isn’t, nor the color gold. I identify gold with shit. I’ve been rejecting shit since I was a child, so a psychoanalyst told me."

- Gabriel García Márquez in The Fragrance of the Guava by Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza

The Banana Massacre

The Banana massacre was a massacre of workers for the United Fruit Company that occurred between December 5 and 6, 1928 in the town of Ciénaga near Santa Marta, Colombia. The strike began on November 12, 1928, when the workers ceased to perform labor if the company did not reach an agreement with them to grant them dignified working conditions. A fictional version of the massacre is depicted in the novel.

The Flood

The story has a biblical period of rain and flood, quite similar to the tale of Noah.

Borges

Some of the themes in the novel are obviously inspired by the works of Jorge Luis Borges. The Garden of Forking Paths, The Library of Babel and many more Borges stories have similar themes of inevitable and inescapable repetition in fictitious realms.

Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

This long phrase is so full of life and humor that although I mentioned Márquez yesterday, I couldn't help but mention it again. First off, to start off the novel with a firing squad on the subject of the sentence, time is thrown into a loop which winds and weaves its way through generations of Buendías throughout the novel. The magic of discovering ice is also one of the fine touches that Márquez is so known for: taking the ordinary and turning into something spectacular. The fact that the character and his father are both mentioned here foreshadows the complex and rambling family tree that the reader will get intimately familiar with (and confused by) throughout the book. I read this one in high school (kind of a jab at the anti-Columbian attitude of Cuban Miami by my forward thinking AP English teacher - the best professor or teacher that I ever had) and have probably re-read it about eight or nine times, each being more enjoyable than the last.

I have since read all of Mario Vargas Llosa's work who is probably the most comparable South American writer of the same period and have to say that I was seduced by his writing quite a bit. One Hundred Years still stands out as a monumental piece of literature, and if you enjoy it, I would suggest trying The War at the End of the World by MVL as well.

"What is your favourite book, mum?"

How many times have my children asked me that, growing up with a mother who spends most of her time reading - to them, alone, for work, for pleasure - or looking for new books in bookstores wherever we happen to be.

"I can't answer that, there are so many books I love, and in different ways!"

"Just name one that comes to mind!"

And I said, without really knowing why, and without thinking:

"One Hundred Years Of Solitude!"

"Why?"

"Because..."

This novel taught me that chaos and order are two sides of the same medal - called family life. It taught me that sadness and love go hand in hand, and that life is easy and complicated at the same time. It taught me that many wishes actually come true, but never in the way we expect, and most often with a catch. It taught me that sun and rain follow each other, even though we might have to wait for four years, eleven months and two days for rain to stop falling sometimes. It taught me that there are as many recipes for love as there are lovers in the world, and that human beings are lazy and energetic, good and bad, young and old, ugly and beautiful, honest and dishonest, happy and sad, all at the same time, - together and lonely.

It taught me that we are forever longing for what we do not have, until we get what we long for. Then we start longing for what we lost when our dreams came true.

This novel opened up the world of absurdities to me, and dragged me in like no other. In each member of the Buendía family, I recognise some relation, or myself, or both. Macondo is the world in miniature, and wherever I go, it follows me like a shadow. It is not rich, peaceful, or beautiful. It is just Macondo. No more, no less.

My favourite book? I don't know. There are so many. But I don't think any other could claim to be more loved than this one.

"نسل های محکوم به صد سال تنهایی، فرصت مجددی در روی زمین نداشتند."

صد سال تنهایی؛
حکایت مردم غریب ماکوندو بود، مردمی که به رهبری خوزه آرکادیو بوئندیا شهری که توش زندگی می‌کردند رو ترک گفتند تا ماکوندو رو پیدا کنند. ماکوندو؛ سرزمین تنهایان.
تمامی شخصیت‌های این کتاب صدسال تنها بودند، تمام شخصیت‌ها صدسال زندگی کردند و در تنهایی مردند. تمام شخصیت‌ها وقتی می‌تونستن از دورهم بودن لذت ببرند از هم دور شدن و در آخر هم تنها ماندند.
این شخصیت‌ها هرکدوم یه جور خاصی تنها بودند؛
خوزه آرکادیو بوئندیا دربین اختراعاتش تنها بود، اورسلا بین نگرانی‌هاش وخوزه آرکادیو و سرهنگ آئورلیانو و هفده فرزندش هم تنهاترین آدم‌های ماکوندو بودند.
در نظر من به نثر درآوردن زندگانی هفت نسل خانواده ی بوئندیا این کتاب رو به یه شاهکار تبدیل کرد. چون حتی تصور این هفت نسل و تمام شخصیت‌ها کار ساده‌ای نبود.
بسیار لذت بردم

n  مئة عام من الحياةn

n  مئة عام من الشخوصn

n  مئة عام من المصائرn

هناك الملايين من الكلمات التي كان يمكن لماركيز أن يضعها بعد حرف الجر من كي يعبّر عن روايته هذه، الملايين من الكلمات ليست بالطبع العزلة من بينها فما قرأته في هذه الرواية/الملحمة لا يتوافق أبدًا مع تعريفي للعزلة الذي يمتلئ بالعديد من المشاعر السيئة ليس اسوأها فقط البُغض والملل.

الرواية تتبع مصير عائلة من بدايتها -وبطريقة ما بدايتها تلك تبدو وكأنها بداية الخليقة- إلى فناءها بنهاية بالسلالة، وما يبدو أنه شديد الواقعية يخلطه ماركيز بجرعة خيالية شديدة التركيز يتماهى معها ما هو ممكن حدوثه حقًا على أرض الواقع وما يبدو وكأنه فانتازيا أو رواية تحكي حيوات لأشخاص ليسوا أرضيين بالمرة!

ولا يتوقف جنونه عند هذا الحد، بل يعرض تلك المصائر مهما كانت صادمة، مريعة، مفاجئة، وغير قابلة للتصديق في جملة قصيرة تبدو وكأنها ومضة؛ بريق خاطف يمرّ لكنه مع ذلك يتركك مشدوهًا غير قادر على الاستيعاب، طريقة ماركيز تلك في تكثيف الأحداث بشدة جعلتني أشعر أثناء القراءة وكأنني ألهث خلفه/خلف سطوره ولم أكن أتوقف إلا مضطرة حتى وجدت أنني سأنهيها على كبر حجمها في أيام معدودة.

الأكثر غرابة هو أنه على الرغم من شخصيات الرواية الخمسة عشر، والتي تتكرر لها الأسماء عينها من جيل إلى جيل إلا أنني لما أشعر ولو للحظة واحدة بالتيه بينهم فكل شخصية كانت كيان قائم بذاته، قصة منفردة حتى وإن تشابهت في نقاط ما مع سابقتها من الجيل السابق لكنها تظل محتفظة بتفردها وبمصيرها الخاص.

سبق وقرأت لماركيز قصة موت معلن، حينها شعرت بالسخف من أسلوب كتاباته الخاص وعلى الرغم أنه قد مرت أعوام على تلك القراءة إلا أنني كنت أشعر بعدم الرغبة مطلقًا في تجديد التجربة مرة أخرى مع ماركيز؛ الآن أشعر وكأنه صديق، وربما بعد قراءة موفقة أخرى له أستطيع أن أعتبره أحدى كُتابي المفضلين.

لكن بالتأكيد ستظل مئة عام من العزلة أحدى كُتبي المفضلة


تمّت

(399 From 1001 Books) - Cien Años de Soledad = One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez

One Hundred Years of Solitude is a landmark 1967 novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez that tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the town of Macondo, a fictitious town in the country of Colombia.

Characters: Úrsula Iguarán, Remedios Moscote, Remedios, la bella, Fernanda del Carpio, Aureliano Buendía, José Arcadio Buendía, Amaranta Buendía, Amaranta Úrsula Buendía, Aureliano Babilonia, José Arcadio Segundo, Aureliano Segundo, Aureliano José, Pilar Ternera, Rebeca Buendía, Santa Sofía de la Piedad, Arcadio Buendía, José Arcadio Buendía, hijo, Meme Buendía, Petra Cotes, Pietro Crespi, Melquiades.

صد سال تنهایی - گابریل گارسیا مارکز انتشارات امیرکبیر، ترجمه بهمن فرزانه؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه آوریل سال 1978میلادی بار دیگر در سال 1980میلادی

عنوان یک: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: بهمن فرزانه؛ انتشارات امیرکبیر در سال 1353، در 363ص، اما همین ترجمه بهمن فرزانه بارها توسط انتشاراتیهای متفاوت چاپ شده؛ انتشاراتی دادار، 1380 در 360ص، شابک 9647294352؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان کلمبیایی - سده 20م

عنوان دو: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: محمدرضا راهور، نشر تهران، آبگون، چاپ نخست 1379، در 496ص، شابک 9649166831؛ همین ترجمه را انتشارات شیرین در سال 1382، با شابک 9645564937؛ و انتشارات آربابان در سال 1380، با شابک 9647196040؛ منتشر کرده اند

عنوان سه: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: محسن محیط، نشر تهران، محیط، چاپ نخست 1374، در 479ص، شابک 9646246125؛ چاپ پنجم 1378؛

عنوان چهار: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: کیومرث پارسای، نشر تهران، آربابان، چاپ نخست 1382، در 560ص، شابک 9647196229؛ چاپ بیست و سوم 1393؛

عنوان پنج: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: حبیب گوهری راد، نشر تهران، رادمهر، چاپ نخست 1388، در 420ص، شابک 9789648673678؛ و انتشارات جمهوری در سال 1388 در 420ص و شابک 9789646974961؛

عنوان شش: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: مژگان فامیلی، نشر تهران، لیدا، چاپ نخست 1391، در 552ص، شابک 9786006538549؛

عنوان هفت: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: رضا دادویی، نشر تهران، آدورا، چاپ نخست 1391، در 416ص، شابک 9786009307197؛

عنوان هشت: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: محمدرضا سحابی، نشر تهران، انتشارات مصدق، چاپ نخست 1393، در 416ص، شابک 9786009442119؛

عنوان نه: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: زهره روشنفکر، نشر تهران، مجید، چاپ نخست 1388، در 456ص، شابک 9789644531064؛

عنوان ده: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: محمدصادق سبط شیخ، نشر تهران، تلاش، چاپ نخست 1390، در 540ص، شابک 9786005791426؛

عنوان یازده: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: ناصر جوادخانی، نشر تبریز، یاران، چاپ نخست 1390، در 400ص، شابک 9789642340828؛

عنوان دوازده: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: مریم فیروزبخت، نشر تهران، حکایتی دیگر، چاپ نخست 1388، در 518ص، شابک 9789642756124؛ چاپ چهارم 1392؛

عنوان سیزده: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: اسماعیل قهرمانی پور(شمس خوی)، نشر تهران، روزگار، چاپ نخست 1389، در 415ص، شابک 9789643741822؛

عنوان چهارده: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: عبدالرسول اکبری، نشر تهران، شبگون، چاپ نخست 1393، در 584ص، شابک 9786009454518؛

عنوان پانزده: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: بهاره خدادادی، نشر: تهران، نسل آفتاب، چاپ نخست 1389، در 4644ص، شابک 9786005847192؛

عنوان شانزده: صد سال تنهایی؛ اثر: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: آوینا ترنم، نشر تهران، ماهابه، در سال 1393، در 477ص، شابک 9786005205596؛ و توسط نشر هنر پارینه، در سال 1390، در 584ص، شابک 9786005981032؛

چاپ نخست این اثر در سال 1967میلادی، در «آرژانتین»، با تیراژ هشتهزار نسخه، منتشر شد؛ تمام نسخه‌ های چاپ نخست «صد سال تنهایی» به زبان اسپانیایی، در همان هفته ی نخست، کاملاً به فروش رفت؛ در چهار دهه، و سالهایی که از نخستین چاپ این کتاب، بگذشته، بیش از سی میلیون نسخه از آن، در سراسر جهان، به فروش رفته، و به بیش از سی زبان، ترجمه شده است؛ جایزه «نوبل ادبیات» سال 1982میلادی به «گابریل گارسیا مارکز» برای آفرینش همین اثر تعلق گرفت

هشدار و اخطار برای کسانیکه میخواهند داستان را گرم گرم بخوانند؛ ...؛ لطفا ادامه این نوشتار یا سطرهای پایانی آنرا نخوانید؛

داستان، به شرح زندگی شش نسل، از خانواده ی «بوئندیا»، پرداخته؛ که نسل نخست، آن‌ها در دهکده‌ ای به نام «ماکوندو»، ساکن می‌شوند؛ ناپدید شدن، و مرگ بعضی از شخصیت‌های داستان، به جادویی شدن روایت‌ها، می‌افزاید؛ صعود «رمدیوس» به آسمان، درست مقابل چشم دیگران؛ کشته شدن همه ی پسران سرهنگ «آئورلیانو بوئندیا»، که از زنانی در جبهه جنگ، به وجود آمده‌ اند، توسط افراد ناشناس، از طریق هدف گلوله قرار دادن پیشانی آنها، که علامت صلیب داشته؛ و طعمه ی مورچه‌ ها شدن «آئورلیانو»، نوزاد تازه به دنیا آمده ی «آمارانتا اورسولا»، از این موارد است

به باور بسیاری، نویسنده، در این کتاب است، که سبک «رئالیسم جادویی» را، ابداع کرده است؛ داستانی که در آن، همه ی فضاها و شخصیت‌ها، واقعی، و حتی گاهی، حقیقی هستند، اما ماجرای داستان، مطابق «روابط علّت و معلولی شناخته شده ی دنیای ما»، پیش نمی‌روند؛ سرهنگ «آئورلیانو بوئندیا»، پسر دوم «اورسولا»، و «خوزه آرکادیو» است؛ نخستین فرزندی است، که در «ماکوندو»، به دنیا می‌آید؛ این شخصیت، فاقد هرگونه احساس عشق، نفرت، ترس، تنهایی، و امید است؛ وی از کودکی، تحت تأثیر برادر بزرگتر خود، «خوزه آرکادیو بوئندیا»، قرار دارد، و در اوج داستان، توسط برادرش، که در نقطه ی مقابل دیدگاه سیاسی وی است، و به نوعی نماینده ی دشمنان او نیز، به شمار می‌آید، از اعدام، نجات پیدا می‌کند؛ وی بارها و بارها، از مرگ می‌گریزد؛ نه جوخه ی اعدام، و نه زخم و سم، و نه خودکشی، نمی‌توانند، وی را بکشند؛ وی به نوعی نماد شخصیت کسانی است، که باید زنده بمانند، و عذاب بکشند، تا پلی بین سنت و مدرنیته، در شهر خیالی «ماکوندو» باشند؛ وی در طول جنگ‌های داخلی، در تمام جبهه‌ های جنگ، با زنان بیشماری همبستر شده، و هفده پسر، که همه، نام کوچک وی، و نام خانوادگی مادرانشان را، دارند، از او بوجود آمده‌ اند؛ تو گویی، در تمام مسیر پیشروی در جبهه، تخم جنگ را نیز، پراکنده است؛ اما همه ی این هفده پسر، که یک کشیش روی پیشانی آن‌ها، علامت صلیب را، با خاکستر حک کرده، به سرعت کشته می‌شوند؛ در نهایت، سرهنگ، در اوج تنهایی، و فراموش شدگی، می‌میرد

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 20/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

صد سال تنهایی شاهکارِ افتضاحِ قرن: روی رینگ با گابو


تنها راه لذت بردن از این کتاب: مشتِ سوپر ماریو
اگه کلی وقت‌تان بیهوده صرف این رمان شده، مشت‌ها را گره کرده و به سبک ماریو وارگاس یوسا نشانه بگیرید و بادمجانی بکارید زیر چشم گابو


برنده نوبل قصه گویی بی‌روح: سنیور گابو
تواز مادربزرگت قصه گفتن رو یاد گرفتی!!! باورکردنی نیست!!! مادربزرگا داستان‌های بد را هم خوب تعریف می‌کردن. اما تو یه داستان خوب رو به گا دادی آقای گابو


تنها راه علاج: همان مشت‌ها
گابو رو باید همیشه تو رینگ نگه می‌داشتن...شاید از ترسِ ناک اوت شدن هم شده کمی بهتر قصه می‌گفت...شاید دیگر از کسل شدگی و خواب رفتن عضلات مغزمان حین خواندن رمانش رنج نمی‌بردیم


لباس جدید پادشاه

زبان سرخ سر سبز بر باد می‌دهد...می‌دانم...اما نترسید...گابو پادشاه نیست که سرتان را به جلاد بسپارد...کمی اروپا زندگی کرده...معنای آزادی بیان رو می‌فهمد...احساس‌تان را بیان کنید...حتی اگر همه مسخره‌تان کنند و بگویند مگه کوری نمی‌بینی پادشاه لباس به تن دارد!!! حتی اگر بزرگترین شاهکارهای تاریخ یعنی مرگ قسطی و سفر به انتهای شب را بخوانی...میدانم خداسلین است...اما فحش‌بارانش کنید اگر دوستش ندارید

زنده باد کاتالونیا: مرگ بر دیکتاتور فرانکو


صد سال تنهايی...كتابي است كه در همان روز های اول چاپ در دنيا سر و صدای زيادی كرد...خيلي زود نسخه هايش تمام شد...پشت سر هم تجديد چاپ شد...چند سال قبل پادشاه اسپانیا، با هزینه خود(یا پول ملت) آن را تجدید چاپ کرد...کاش میشد جلوی چنین کارهای مضحکی رو گرفت...پادشاه و چهره‌ی روشنفکرانه گرفتن خیلی مسخره اس

من ندیم توام نه ندیم بادمجان: شوخی با گابو

گابو جان هرچقدر که از کتابت خوشم نیومد از تو خوشم میاد...حالا که ریغ رحمتو سرکشیدی...و مرده‌ها عزیزتر میشن... به سراغ کتابت خواهم رفت...و بدون شوخی اگه اینبار خوشم بیاد...قول میدم روی رینگ بذارم چند مشت بکوبی زیر چشمام

ارادتمند تو آگر. سلام منو به سلین برسون

‘It's enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.’

Few memories of reading a book can match the sweetness of the warm spring day while at university when I sat in the grass down by a river and began Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s masterful One Hundred Years of Solitude. The novel gripped me immediately and I followed the myth-like tales of the Buendía family and the fictional town of Macondo across multiple generations until the sunlight had vanished, the sound of the river adding an idyllic rhythm to my reading that made me keenly aware of the passage of time the idea of one thing flowing into the next. This novel truly is a tour de force earning its canonization not only as a crucial work of Latin American literature but as an internationally renowned novel of great beauty and insight. The amalgamation of stories all colliding within the novel form a complex web of critical analysis of history that functions as commentary on colonialism, political struggles of war and life under dictatorship, as well as interpersonal issues of family, legacy and love or the lack of it, making this a dense yet delightful novel that will forever reside within the hearts and minds of its readers.

One Hundred Years of Solitude was written in the span of just 18 months but will linger on in immortality as an important work of 20th century literature. It has sold over 50 million copies in over 25 languages (translated into english by the incredible Gregory Rabassa, the former WWII cryptologist was handpicked by Marquez for the task and reportedly said that Rabassa’s translation was better than his original in Spanish) and continues to charm readers everywhere. It is a cornerstone of modern Latin American Literature that has made Marquez a household name along with Jorge Luis Borges, from whom Marquez drew much inspiration (particularly from the story The Garden of Forking Paths which you can read here and inspired the cyclical ending of the novel).

Harold Bloom wrote of One Hundred Years of Solitude that ‘It is all story, where everything conceivable and inconceivable is happening at once.’ And indeed it does feel as if the whole of life is bursting forth from the book, which is a family epic that spans from the 1820’s through the 1920’s. Marquez combines his mythmaking with historical events, using magical realism as a political action of uncovering the meaning hiding in plain sight of historical reality. Carlos Fuentes writes in The Great Latin American Novel that Marquez’s storytelling serves ‘as an act of knowledge, as a negation of the false documents of the civil state which, until very recently papered over our reality.’ While Marquez says in a 1988 interview ‘there's not a single line in my novels which is not based on reality,’ it seems to affirm Fuente’s analysis and point to the reality in storytelling being a method to unlock a reality in life previously unobservable.

In this manner of magical realism, Marquez can move from tales of extraordinarily large men, women floating away into the sky, or absurdly long rain storms to actual historical events, such as the Banana Massacre when the United Fruit Company (now known as Chiquita) called in the army to massacre striking workers at the request of the US. Through this work and it’s investigations into US military intervention, dictatorships and revolutionaries, Marquez wrests the official narrative of history from the colonialist lenses that would prescribe a narrative to the Latin American countries they sought to exploit and gives history its own mythological life to function more freely. This also opens the novel up to multiple ways of reading it, where any of the numerous themes could be emphasized.

‘The secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude.’

As one would expect, solitude is a major theme working through the novel, with Buendía's own sense of solitude enlarged in the isolation of Macondo, which is falling apart by the end of the book. The weight of feeling ones country collapsing to external forces is strongly imposed as the novel careens towards conclusion, and as new technologies arrive and different societies begin to integrate, those of the old guard feel more and more isolated from the world. None of this moves in a straightforward manner, however, and the ending reveals history to be a cyclical process, one of constant creation and undoing. ‘...time was not passing...it was turning in a circle…’

One Hundred Years of Solitude is truly worth the read and holds a very special place in my heart. It is such a fascinating and fantastic blend of magical realism and historical insight that was a major work in world literature. One to read and read again.

5/5

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Buendía family tree (source)

I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this book, and how much I adore the writing of Colombian author, Gabriel García Márquez.
His style, el realismo mágico (magical realism), transcends the frugal prose that mildews the pages of so many joyless books.
Salman Rushdie was, and still is, heavily influenced by Márquez. He described him as "The greatest of us all."
Louis de Bernières was similarly inspired by the great man.

I first read this book more than twenty years ago, and it has remained part of my authorial psyche ever since.
As with Rushdie's work, you can literally point a pin at any sentence in this book to reveal an imaginative genius that most of us could never aspire to. A newcomer to Márquez's work might be alarmed to see barely a paragraph break to each page. Don't worry, deep breath, you'll get used to it.

I reread this fantastically demented, wonderfully brilliant book last week, only for my wife to shoot me quizzical looks as I had a Harry Met Salvatora bookgasm while pouting at his dazzling prose, purring at his human imagery and ohhhh, licking my lips at his sumptuous outlandishness. Trigger warning: Those who are easily offended should give it a swerve; magical events do rub shoulders with some very disturbing realities.

There is one line on the book's back cover, penned by The Times newspaper, that sums up this masterpiece perfectly:
"Sweeping, chaotic brilliance, often more poetry than prose ... one vast and musical saga."

So there you have it, a book so momentous that I will revisit it a few more times in my lifetime before I eventually pop my clogs.