one hundred years of boredom and pure hell.

قرأت هذا الكتاب بالطبعة الصادرة عن دار المدى، ترجمة وتحقيق صالح علماني، وهي ترجمة رائعة بدورها.

لمزيد من التفاصيل الكتاب متوفر في مكتبة النيل والفرات

http://www.neelwafurat.com/itempage.a...

وباختصار، مئة عام من العزلة ثروة أدبية تضاف لرصيد العالم.

مع الشكر.

Mă tem că multă lume a rămas cu impresia că „realismul magic” e invenția lui Gabriel García Márquez. Ce-i drept, ecoul imens al romanului publicat în 1967 a impus sintagma și a făcut să curgă valuri de cerneală pe tema „realismului magic”.

Dar expresia e străveche, a fost folosită mai întîi în legătură cu pictura. Încă din anii 40 ai secolului trecut, în America latină, unii prozatori au amestecat gesturile „magice” (levitația gospodinelor etc.) și evenimentele reale într-un text care nu era nici fantastic, nici realist. Mă gîndesc, în primul rînd, la Miguel Ángel Asturias și Alejo Carpentier. Într-un interviu din 1967 (an în care a primit premiul Nobel), Miguel Ángel Asturias pretindea că el a fost cel dintîi realist magic. Se lăuda degeaba. Ca în majoritatea cazurilor, inventatorii sînt mai mulți. Și toți au convingerea că sînt singuri...

Romanul lui Márquez pornește, se pare, de la un incident din copilăria autorului. Bunicul lui a fost insultat sistematic de un individ și, pierzîndu-și răbdarea, l-a împușcat. Toată lumea din sat i-a dat dreptate, inclusiv familia răposatului. Cu toate acestea, căința l-a constrîns să părăsească satul și a mers în altă parte, unde a întemeiat o așezare. Îi spunea adesea nepotului: „Tu nu știi cît te apasă pe cuget un mort”.

Recitind de curînd Un veac de singurătate, am observat că multe situații se repetă (replici, gesturi, nume proprii etc.). Asta m-a dus cu gîndul la un fragment din Scriptură, care conține deviza - de mai tîrziu - a lui Giordano Bruno: Nihil sub sole novi.

Așa încît romanul lui Gabriel García Márquez poate fi citit și ca o ilustrare narativă, realizată de un scriitor extraordinar, a unui verset ilustru din Ecclesiast, 1: 9: „Ce a fost va mai fi, iar ce s-a făcut se va mai face! Nu este nimic nou sub soare!”. În fond, aceasta e și concluzia prorociței Pilar Ternera, culcată în balansoarul ei de liane: „Un secol de dat în cărţi şi de experienţă o învăţase că istoria familiei nu era decît un angrenaj de repetiţii inevitabile, o roată turnantă care ar fi continuat să se învîrtească în veci, dacă n-ar fi fost uzura progresivă şi iremediabilă a osiei ei” (p.347). Pilar rămîne în familia Buendía, neclintită ca un turn, citind în cărți viitorul, iar dacă este nevoie (cînd Macondo e vizitat de morbul insomniei), trecutul. Prezicerile ei se adeveresc fără greș și oferă locuitorilor din Macondo o realitate mai blîndă...

Inventivitatea metaforică a lui Márquez este cu adevărat prodigioasă.

"It was the last that remained of a past whose annihilation had not taken place because it was still in a process of annihilation, consuming itself from within, ending at every moment but never ending its ending."

After reading the 'Harry Potter' books which literally blew my mind away, I thought that nothing, no fictional creation, could top that magical world of witchcraft and wizardry, the mighty world that Rowling created... but , BOY WAS I WRONG!!
'One Hundred Years of Solitude' is one of the true wonders of modern literature.
Just as the mighty José Arcadio Buendía was fascinated by the tricks and inventions of the gypsies, so was I with the magical language of Gabriel García Márquez.
Now, having finished this extraordinary book, and sitting here to write a review that will do justice to this book, that will succeed to reveal even a fraction of my overflowing love for the wonderful, mysterious and incredibly alive town 'Macondo' and the race that was condemned to one hundred years of solitude, I find myself being eluded by the right words to say what I want to say about this book, just like the feelings of nostalgia eluded the colonel.
I find myself surrounded by the incredible images, memories, voices, and feelings of Macondo, like the yellow butterflies of Mauricio Babilonia. My heart is filled to the brim with the complete and uncompromised history of a race that began with the legendary José Arcadio Buendía and his mighty better half Úrsula Iguaran, which continued in an extraordinary flow of solitude, lucidity, clairvoyance, nostalgia, and an overwhelming repitition of the impeccable fate, which continued with the colonel who fought 32 civil wars, with his brother who had been around the world sixty-five times, their irrepeatable epic saga of a century of solitude... and for the first time in my life I came to appreciate and understand a term I have heard over and over again and wondered about- Magical Realism! I just experienced it!
With amazing wit and lucidity, incredibly intricate and alive details, and an unmatched imagination, Márquez is the dream come true author in my opinion.
To sum up my thoughts about this book- MAGIC! 450 pages of pure magic.
If you haven't read it, I recommend with my whole heart that you read it as soon as possible.

“There is always something left to love.”

The multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founded the town of Macondo, a fictitious town in the country of Colombia.

I have been hesitant about writing this review as I will never be able to do this book justice - it is simply that incredible. So, please bear with my fangirling and inability to put into words how truly magical, beautiful, breathtaking and heartbreaking One Hundred Years of Solitude is.

The movement of the story over one hundred years is mesmerising. New characters are constantly being introduced as the family expands, which can be overwhelming at times, but if you have a family tree and give the book the undivided attention it deserves, the pay off is worth it. This is not one to be picked up on a whim, you need to be in the mood to peel back the layers of the Buendía family.

And a multitude of layers there are! Crazy things are constantly happening - civil wars, uprisings, hauntings, a little familial incest... This is truly a book to reread and revisit many times, as there are such a vast amount of details and events that it is impossible to remember them all.

The writing itself is unbelievable. If I was one to highlight sections of books that I loved, this entire book would be bright pink (my fave highlighter shade)! This novel reminded me in many ways of East of Eden, another all-time favourite, in the sense that history constantly repeats itself - families are sometimes doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over.

Yet I would not freely recommend it to everyone. You’ll either love it... or want to bang your head off a wall. I can’t predict which camp anyone would fall into, all I can say is give it a chance if it sounds like a book you’d enjoy!

Thanks for the amazing buddy read @cemetery.of.forgotten.books - I am now obsessed. 5 stars.

n  n    “It's enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.”n  n

Someone asked me about the most beautiful book i have ever read. I thought for a long time. Was it Lord of the Rings? Pride and Prejudice? Wuthering Heights?

But then I remembered this aforementioned quote. And I was surprised that it took me so long to answer the question. Because this book is most easily the most beautiful book i have ever read.

When I was 15 years old i bought this book and started reading it.
Still after one week i had only completed the first chapter.
Still i didn't give up hope.
Every six months i read it again, read the first chapter, forgot the name of every character, then started reading it again.

This went on for two years. Until the previous month while I was cleaning my bookshelves I came across this book again. And I started reading it. And this time i finally understood it. This time I saw the brilliance of Gabriel García Márquez.

The brilliance of Márquez trickles like water throughout the whole book returning again and again to illuminate the Buendías and human nature. The concepts are time, fate, humor and magic. It is in these concepts that the great playfulness and great power of the novel live. This novel does not explain reality as as experienced by one observer but rather the reality experienced by different people from different backgrounds.

The story of the Buendia family does flow in a forward narration right from the time of Jose Arcadio Buendia up until the last story of Aureliano Babilonia, but every now and then it flits across time, not just as a flashback but even fast forward. Even before you are acquainted with the characters, Marquez gives you a hint of their future, in some cases even their death, such as in the case of the firing squad that Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to face, Rebeca’s life-long isolation, Ursula’s survival for all seven generations and Amaranta’s spinsterhood.

Every single thing symbolizes something. The Gypsies, the Little Gold Fishes, the Railroad, the Golden Chamber Pot and you are left asking yourself about how, just how could a man explain all of this in mere 417 pages.

There are so many themes that i feel like i could write books upon books on the sheer brilliance of this book. This book has taught me so many things. . .It taught me about sadness, longing, obsession, loneliness, war and so many things.

Take a single sentence from this book and read it. I promise you this, you will never read anything like it. The man has used adjectives, described the places, the characters, the feelings, everything in such a way that this book becomes the definition of "Perfect".

I know most people consider it an incoherent mess of thoughts and i can see where that might come from but for me this book is the epitome of unique. This book requires all your brainpower because every sentence is loaded with information.You expect a novel to have a generous sprinkling of dialogues between people but this novel looks more like an academic reading.

But believe me when i say this it is all worth it.

n  Favorite Quotesn
The whole book actually.

n  n    “There is always something left to love.”n  n

n  n    “Then he made one last effort to search in his heart for the place where his affection had rotted away, and he could not find it.”n  n

n  n    “He really had been through death, but he had returned because he could not bear the solitude.”n  n

n  n    “Cease, cows, life is short.”n  n

n  n    “Lost in the solitude of his immense power, he began to lose direction.”n  n

n  n    “Things have a life of their own," the gypsy proclaimed with a harsh accent. "It's simply a matter of waking up their souls.”n  n

n  n    “He pleaded so much that he lost his voice. His bones began to fill with words.”
n  n

n  n    “She had that rare virtue of never existing completely except for that opportune moment”n  n

n  n    “because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth”n  n

n  Artworkn
I stole found this artwork here.





You ask what else is so special about this?

Well i have read books. Rated them 5 stars. Fawned over them. But still sometimes at night, in the quiet, while listening to the grasshoppers play their song, my mind goes back to Macondo. To the day i first entered that village and whether I liked it or not, chose it or not, my fate had been written, just like the Buendias, that they were to be born and die in solitude- and not just the Buendia family but even the village of Macondo.



P.S: I know what you are thinking.
P.P.S: Yes I can write sensible reviews.

قبل أن أقول رأيي في الكتاب... أقول لمن نصحني به: سامحك الله على هذ النصحية.. أضعت مالي ووقتي فيما لا يفيد....
ثم أتعجب من أولئك الذين أعجبهم الكتاب بحيث وضعوا له خمس نجمات... بل وإن منهم من يقول إن الكتاب غير حياته... لا أدري هل كان هذا الكتاب الوحيد الذي قرأوه في حياتهم؟ هل غابت عنهم عيون الأدب؟ لا أدري ماذا حل بالذوق الأدبي للقراء العرب...
ومن ثم أقول للمترجم... هداك الله.. ضيعت وقتك وأوقاتنا في غير فائدة.. المصيبة أنه يعلق على ترجمته للكتاب فيقول إن هذه الرواية من أجمل ما قرأ!
لا أدري ما هو سر ولع كتاب أمريكا اللاتينية بالغجر والكيمياء وتحويل المعادن إلى ذهب وحجر الفلاسفة (آه من حجر الفلاسفة) والعرب ...
عندما قرأت "الخيميائي" لباولو كويلو صدمت صدمة عنيفة به لكنني أكملته إلى آخره... وهذا الكتاب يشبهه إلى حد كبير جدا...
يتنقل بك الكاتب بين الأحداث كما يتنقل الطائر وهو ينقر الحب عن الأرض....
المفروض أن تشدك الرواية لقراءتها لكنني لم أستطع أن أتجاوز الصفحة 49 من الكتاب...إذ تخيلت نفسي وأنا أقرأه كمن يمشي حافيا على الحصى في ساعة القيظ...
يكاد يكون لجميع الرجال في الرواية الاسم ذاته وهو "خوزيه أركاديو" بحيث يضطر الكاتب إلى التفرقة بينهم بترقيمهم : خوزيه الأول والحفيد والابن والجد وهكذا...
بالمختصر المفيد.. الكتاب سيء جدا بكل المعايير ..ولا أنصح به أجدا خصوصا من يمتلك ذوقا رفيعا في الأدب ومن ينتقي ما يقرأه بعناية...
تشتت وضياع... إباحية...وعلاقات محرمة (سفاح) بين الأقارب... ومضيعة كبيرة للوقت...
الحياة قصيرة لتضيعها في قراءة كتاب سيء كهذا.....

So I know that I'm supposed to like this book because it is a classic and by the same author who wrote Love in the Time of Cholera. Unfortunately, I just think it is unbelievably boring with a jagged plot that seems interminable. Sure, the language is interesting and the first line is the stuff of University English courses. Sometimes I think books get tagged with the "classic" label because some academics read them and didn't understand and so they hailed these books as genius. These same academics then make a sport of looking down their noses at readers who don't like these books for the very same reasons. (If this all sounds too specific, yes I had this conversation with a professor of mine).

I know that other people love this book and more power to them, I've tried to read it all the way through three different times and never made it past 250 pages before I get so bored keeping up with all the births, deaths, magical events and mythical legends. I'll put it this way, I don't like this book for the same reason that I never took up smoking. If I have to force myself to like it, what's the point. When I start coughing and hacking on the first cigarette, that is my body telling me this isn't good for me and I should quit right there. When I start nodding off on the second page of One Hundred Years of Solitude that is my mind trying to tell me I should find a better way to pass my time.

n  "Then he made one last effort to search in his heart for the place where his affection had rotted away, and he could not find it."n
― Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

This dazzling tale of the Buendía family spans generations. It is a rich account of people carving out a life for themselves in Macondo, a town founded by the patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía.

"At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs. The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point."

José Arcadio Buendía is a corker! He is so hell-bent on making a wondrous discovery that he fritters away the family money on inventions purchased from a wandering troop of gypsies who miraculously show up in Macondo on occasion. Thankfully, his levelheaded wife (and first cousin), Úrsula Iguarán, works herself to the bone to make sure the family won’t starve to death. During this fantastical journey, wars were fought, fortunes won and lost, and hearts wholly decimated, leaving the jilted lovers dead in a flower bed. It must be said that the Buendia family’s foolish choices are an endless source of drama and entertainment.

"Look at the mess we've got ourselves into," Colonel Aureliano Buendia said at that time, "just because we invited a gringo to eat some bananas."

I’ve read Márquez before and loved his work, but this was a whole other animal! He expertly blurs the line between magic and realism so smoothly that it feels as if he was creating cinematic electricity! The horror is tempered by a big dose of whimsy that had me laughing through my tears. The writing is agonizingly beautiful, and each character exquisitely drawn.

In a lifetime of reading, there are only a few extraordinary novels that touch the very fabric of a person’s being—For me, One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of those. I was transported into Márquez’s dreamlike creation, and for the past few days had forgotten the real world and lived entirely in his. My only regret is that it all had to come to an end.

So, if you are looking for an epic novel to steal your breath away, look no further!

Thank you, Kevin Ansbro. Your outstanding review pointed the way to this magnificent read!

He naufragado en un mar de páginas entre Arcadios y Aurelianos sin saber muy bien quién era quién, a mi hija casi le cambio el nombre por Alba Amaranta y hasta he perdonado la vida a las malditas hormigas que invaden mi baño.
Pero qué maravilla.

Nada de lo que escriba va a estar a la altura de este gran libro (bueno, de este y de ninguno), lleno de párrafos descomunales de prácticamente tres páginas, la prosa de Márquez te atrapa, te sumerge en un siglo de soledad que parece una superstición sobre la familia Buendía. Desde el primer José Arcadio hasta el último Aureliano, te cuenta las andanzas de toda una generación. Y cuando llegas a la última página te sientes como un Buendía más, completamente sola. Sola, pero satisfecha por haber disfrutado de una magnífica historia.

Jose Arcadio Buendia decides one day in his small rather impoverished town, set in South America (Colombia, in the early 1800's ) that he wants to leave, say goodbye forever to the relatives, a killing makes him feel uncomfortable there, taking his pregnant wife Ursula his first cousin, and explore the mysterious lands beyond the unknown horizon with his followers and friends over the treacherous mountains through the dense , noisy jungles full of wild animals and sickness...months pass, they have not yet seen the sea their ultimate goal. Lost with little food left surrounded by a vast
non- accessible repugnant swamp, the tired leader finds a suitable place by a calm river, after dreaming about a city of mirrors. Buendia builds a little village in this hot tropical region, he believes is encircled by water , of only twenty adobe homes, though all are happy to stop and rest. So remote that no one knows they exist, no map shows Macondo, the strange name Jose calls it. This will be a better life for all an utopian place , his people will prosper the first born will appropriately be a Buendia, the son of Jose and Ursula named after the founder of the town Jose Arcadio himself, soon another son Aureliano and daughter Amaranta seven generations will live here, the last six to be their birthplace . Macondo slowly grows, ragged gypsies somehow discover this most isolated town led by the quite bright Melquiades, bringing modern inventions from the outside world and some that never were of this Earth...flying carpets right out of an Arabian Nights fable, more magic turning things into different shapes and objects, in their annual welcomed visit , the local children become unfazed by such weird events. Still the gypsy Melquiades is not or does not seem quite human, more of a ghost from who knows where? Time passes and the unconventional Buendia family thrives (they have a propensity to fall in love, with their own kin) , nevertheless trouble breaks out between the Conservative and Liberal Parties in the nation. Resulting in many years of savage civil wars, the endless conflicts destroy the land eventually the army is headed by Col. Aureliano Buendia on the liberal side, son of the unstable Jose, a ruthless soldier who kills his conservative enemies as well as liberals who get in his way, yet will not name himself a general. The numerous Buendia family continues to get richer, Ursula is the rock so Macondo flourishes, many villagers live over a hundred years, trains come , electricity, phonograph records, radio, movies even baffling automobiles are spotted. The banana plantations too established nearby with their bloody workers strikes , the foreign owners arrive importing odd fashions and customs. The old decrepit Buendia house the largest in town becomes haunted by dead relatives . Still children are always being born (including Remedios Buendia, the most beautiful woman on Earth, she causes four men to die unable to get her love) most are " illegitimate" though, the kids not knowing who their real parents are. And slowly the outside begins to discover this town for better or worse, but will it last? A tremendous novel , one of a kind book that maybe doesn't show reality, however does tell us people are complicated and unpredictable.

أنا أؤمن في الإنسان و في قدراته العقلية و الإبداعية و أن العبقرية ليس لها سقف أو حدود, و لكن ..

أستطيع أن أعقد لكم الأيمان على أحد شيئين..


إما أن "ماركيز" ليس من البشر, بل هو ممسوس . يتلقى المساعدة _في كتاباته_ من ملك الجان شخصيا,, أو ربما كان يتلقاها من الجدات/الجنيات القديمات اللاوتي شهدن خلق الكون و يحفظن عن ظهر قلب ما سيؤول إليه حال الخليقة منذ أن أخرج الله البشر من ظهور آبائهم و أشهدهم على أنفسهم و أطلقهم في الأرض ليستعيدوا ذاكرة فقدوها.


أو أنه إنسـان مثلنا, يملك ما نملك و لا يزيد عنا يدا أو قدم بل فقط لديه من طول البال ما يسمح له بكتابة رواية عادية متسلسلة الأحداث غير متشابهة الأسماء أو متشابكة المواقف فيما يقرب من 500 صفحة , ثم يعـود و يحضر دفاتراً جديدة و يبدأ في نقل الأحداث _ التي كتبها سلفاً_ بصورة متداخلة حيث أنه على علمٍ بالنهايات و بتوالي الأحداث و ما ستؤول إليه النهايات.


نعم.. لابد أنه فعل ذلك.. فلا يعقل أن إنساناً مثلنا يستطيع أن يكتب بهذه العبقرية رواية متداخلة كل هذا التداخل و تتكون من 500 صفحة و تقع أحداثها في مئة عام و لا يوجد في شجرة العائلة إلا اسمين اثنين , أورليانو و خوسيه أركاديو


أما "صالح علماني" ,, فلابد أنه هو الآخر ممسوس و إلا فكيف تُفسرون قدرته على ترجمة هذا الجنون؟

اللعنــة على العبقرية التي ستسبب لنا _نحن القراء_ فقد العقول