تستحق فعلا جائزة نوبل للادب

بالرغم من تداخل الاشخاص فى الرواية و اعادة الاسماء فتلك السلالة الطويلة .. يسمى فيها الابناء باسمين اما اورليانو او خوسيه
و تتعدد الاجيال و تمر السنين و يتسم ابناء هذه السلالة بالعزلة

و لكن تلك العزلة تختلف
فلا يجد فيها ملل بلا على عكس فيها حياة

اول السلالة كانت نهايته تحت شجرة الكستناء و اخر السلالة انتهى فى الغابة عن طريق النمل

اتعجب من ماركيز كيف استطاع ان ينهى تلك الرواية بتلك النهاية المثالية
فلم اكن اتوقع ابداً النهاية و لم اتوقع ابداً ان تلك الرقائق التى كتبها ملكيادس كانت تاريخ هذه السلالة !

و كيف بدت نهاية السلالة

حيث يبدأ باحداث كتيرة متداخلة و يعيدها فى النهاية مرة اخرى بلا ترتيب و لا نظام
اتعجب ايضاً
أكان ماركيز يحفظ تلك الاحداث و تلك الشخصيات و تأثيرها ام كان يكتبها !!

من الصعب ان تجد كاتب يبدع بكل ذلك الابداع و تلك الافكار الفياضة و الاحداث المثيرة .. فكأنه يعرف النهاية قبل ان يكتب بداية الرواية

نجد فى الرواية من تعاقب الاجيال ومرور السنين و ما تغير ع البلدة حيث اكتشف الجد الاكبر ماكندو و كيف بدأت تلك البلدة تبدو هادئة فى البداية مريحة للبشر

ثم الحرب و الاحرار و المحافظين و تتوالى الاحداث

و شركة الموز التى احالت البلدة بخرابها و تبديد ثرواتها

حتى تلك الامطار و كأنها توضح غضبها من اهل البلدة لما افسدوا الارض و تلك الحفلات الصاخبة و التبذير للثورات من اجل الترف و فقط الترف

حتى تأتى تلك العاصفة فى النهاية لتبيد الارض مع انتهاء اخر افراد السلالة
فكأن الارض تعود كما كانت و تنطفئ بانتهاء هذه السلالة

...The prose can be confusing at the start
...Repetition of names makes it challenging to keep track of who is who.
...Yet, this is a reading experience like no other ...."mysterious & magical realism" ....comic novel yet exudes a strong undercurrent of sadness, sadness and tragic futility.
...The male characters are passionate sexuality and filled with ambition --
...Most of the female characters have common sense, determination, and passionate eroticism
...Both sexes can't seem to relate to the outside world of the town they are in ...
...The novel does cover 100 years.
...This is a huge Latin American Historical novel -multi-layered epic of the Buendia family. Its rooted in reality -the development of Colombia since its independent from Spain in the 19th century. Its not only a story about this family itself but of evolution of society from 'nothing' to social and family groups --as the town itself is as much the protagonist as the family is. We see the development of religion from fairy tales and magic moving forward into today's more modern world.
...There is ongoing intermingling of the fantastic and the ordinary throughout the story. Its fascinating to observe the magic evolve with the family and the village of Macondo --which they founded after leaving their home in the mountains --searching for the ocean. They failed to find the ocean--but they built their town on the edge of the great swamp.
...The town changes and is transformed by new inventions. "A heavy Man" sold Jose Arcadio Buendia a magnet -then later a telescope. --It was the gypsies who first brought these 'inventions'.
...Obsessions, solitude, love, and war are themes throughout ...
Characters have different ways for masking their pain:
...One girl eats dirt,
...Some characters lock 'themselves' away physically,
...One man loses his mind and is tied to a chestnut tree
...Another man spends years writing on parchments -another man spends years trying to decipher them
.... You really read about 'flying carpets' --

...In 'some' ways this book reminds me of "Midnights Children" by Salmon Rushie. In both books the prose is lyrical that create deep visual imagery --magic -and fantasy.

...The ending of the story --seems to be about 'learning, then moving on'. ....

....A dazzling masterpiece!

أنا بقرأ الرواية دي من قبل ما ابطل قراءة السنة دي.
و الحقيقة انا عملت أخطاء بشعة في قراءة رواية كبيرة زي دي بالذات اني حاولت ارجع للقراءة اكثر من مرة و قرأت منها اجزاء و سبتها.
أولًا الترجمة بالرغم من شهادة صديقي الأستاذ أحمد ان ترجمات سليمان العطار من أفضل الترجمات لأنه بيترجم بروية و بياخد وقته في الترجمة و بيترجم لوحده علي عكس أغلب ترجمات صالح علماني اللي هي ترجمات مكاتب ترجمة و الجودة بتختلف من جزء لجزء في نفس الكتاب.
الا اني برضه كنت بحاول الاقي اي أخطاء في الترجمة دي بسبب شك بعضهم في ترجمات سليمان العطار و ملقتش أي أخطاء مفيش اي حاجة مش واضحة، مفيش اي جزئية مش واضحة هي بتتكلم عن مين ، في رواية أغلب اللي فيها اسمهم أوريليانو أو خوسيه أركاديو انا كنت عارف في كل مرة من المقصود، مش بس كده ده انا كمان قرأتها يعتبر علي فترتين تقطتعهم فترة قصيرة، و مع ذلك عرفت دايمًا أرجعلها و أندمج في أحداثها و بشكل ما كنت فاكر أغلب الأحداث اللي قرأتها.
ثانيًا الريفيو لو ماركيز كتب الرواية دي بس و مكتبش اي حاجة تانية بعدها فهو يستحق عليها نوبل، دي تاني رواية واقعية سحرية تكتب في التاريخ يعتبر، بل قراءة الرواية دي بتدي رؤية أوضح للواقعية السحرية كمدرسة و ازاي تكتب بنفس الطريقة عن رواية بدرو بارامو لخوان رولفو بكثير، مع اني مش عارف الحقيقة هل لو بدأت بمائة عام من العزلة علي عكس بدايتي ببدرو بارامو كنت هعرف اندمج بها بنفس الشكل؟ لاني اتذكر ان بدرو بارامو كانت صعبة بالنسبة ليا بس يمكن لانها اول تجربة مع هذه المدرسة.
انا مش عارف ماركيز كتب الرواية دي علي مدار كام سنة و راجعها كام مرة، مع اني اعتقد إن أغلب الروائيين لا يراجعوا ما كتبوه بل بيكون معاهم حد بيراجع وراهم الأخطاء الإملائية، فتخيل معايا رواية 470 صفحة من القطع المتوسط، الكاتب متذكر أحداث صغيرة لحد آخر خمس صفحات في الرواية و بيدخلهم في سرده.
هنسيب فكرة ان الرواية مؤسسة للواقعية السحرية و هنسيب قدرة ماركيز في انه يخلي الرواية كلها كيان واحد بانه دايمًا فاكر أدق التفاصيل و كل الشخصيات اللي كتبها في الرواية مع انهم كثير جدًا، و استمراره في استخدامهم لحد آخر صفحة.
القصة 470 صفحة مسلية جدًا، مفيش لحظة ملل حكايات تتبعها حكايات تتبعها حكايات سرد متصل لا ينقطع، وجود الفواصل في الرواية ده رحمة بينا احنا، لكن دي رواية فعلًا مفيش فيها فترات انقطاع خالص، حتي لما بيقفز الأحداث ببعض الأيام لموت أحدهم بيرجع يحكي تاني عن أشخاص تانية لحد ما يوصل لحدث الموت ده و يقولك هما عملوا ايه وقت ما فلان مات.
آخر 300 صفحة تقريبًا من الرواية كانوا كلهم موت، بس في نفس الوقت كان فيهم حياة و كان فيهم استمرارية بس كان واضح دايمًا انها استمرارية في طريقها الي الزوال، اننا في وقت ما هينتهي الرواية بموت كل عائلة أورسولا و خوسيه أركاديو، بس النهاية مع انها كانت بنهاية العائلة الا انها تعتبر نهاية قرية ماكوندو زمان.
كنت بسأل نفسي طول الرواية مين اللي عايش مائة عام من العزلة هل هي العائلة اللي احنا بننتبع سيرتها، ولا القرية بذات نفسها.
و حتي بعد ما وصلوا قضبان القطار للقرية فضلت أسأل نفسي نفس السؤال لأن القرية ببساطة شديدة لم تتغير و فضلت منعزله علي نفسها.
و مش كل الناس غادروا القرية للرجوع لأوطانهم فيه ناس فضلت انها تموت في القرية حتي بعد موت أعمالهم.
الوصف كان خرافي، تخيل لما كاتب يوصف ست جميلة أي حد يشوفها بيفتتن بيها و تحس كانك شايفها و تعجبك كل تفاصيلها و انت كمان تفتتن بيها  بس هي بتموت و بتصعد للسماء في مشهد رائع، ده أكثر موت كنت ساخط عليه في الرواية، انا كنت عايز نحكي عن ريميديوس الجميلة 500 صفحة، الحقيقة لو فاكر بالظبط هي كانت في الصفحة الكام كنت رحت قرأت وصفها تاني.
أوريليانو الثاني بقي كان برنس الرواية الحقيقة واحد غني و بيزيد غني و قاعد ياكل و عايش في ملذات بس ، بس زي كل رجال الرواية لما بيبقي فيه أزمة بيبقوا قدها و ده اللي حصل لما خسر ثروته بسبب السيول قدر يجيب فلوس يأكل بيها بيته و يسفر ولاده يدرسوا.
أمارنتا دي عقربة الرواية مش هنتكلم عنها
الكولونيل أوريليانو بوين ديا بشكل ما كان شايل الرواية برضه لفترة كبيرة بحروبه و الإشاعات اللي بتطلع عنه من كل حته و هروبه من الموت أكثر من مرة.
صوفيا قديسة الرحمة جديرة جدًا باسمها هي كانت قبس من الرحمة في بيت أورسولا بتهتم بالجميع.
فرناندا محبتهاش خالص برضه الحقيقة هي بالنسبة ليا مكنتش شاطرة غير في التزمر و التشدد اللي لا يوجد منه فائدة ترجي.
أمارنتا أورسولا عسل حبيتها جدًا و حبيت علاقتها بأوريليانو جدًا و كنت عارف بلا شك قبل ما يتصلوا ببعض انهم قرايب محرمين بس مكنتش متذكر بالظبط في النقطة دي ايه صلة القرابة
حبيت برضه أوريليانو اللي قبل الأخير جدًا حسيته شبهي جدًا في عزلتي و حبه للكتب.
زعلت جدًا علي أوريليانو الأخير البيبي اللي نمل أكله
خوسيه أركاديو اللي كان المفروض انه بيتعلم في روما و ساب تعليمه اول ما وصل ده ابعدوه عني بدل ما اقتله تاني بشع زي امه
حبيت بيلار تيرنيرا و الأكثر منها حبيت بيترا كوتيس جدًا بالذات لحركة الجدعنه الغبية اللي عملتها في الآخر انها جوعت نفسها عشان تأكل أهل أوريليانو الثاني عشيقها.
و القنبلة بقي الأخيرة انا لسه مقتنع ان ربيكا هي اللي قتلت خوسيه أركاديو جوزها، وصف المشهد و تركه كلغز لم يعد الكاتب له ابدًا مخليني فعلًا مقتنع ان هي اللي قتلته، و هو لغز لاننا مش لاقيين دافع حقيقي، بس خوسيه اركاديو كان معروف بعلاقاته المتعدده بالنساء اللي بطلها لما اتجوز فهل عاد لهذه العلاقات، ولا هل هي قتلته من كثر ما كانت خايفه انه يرجع للعلاقات دي تاني اول ما تضيق بهم الاحوال و الفلوس، اللي مستغربله اكثر ان معرفش الحقيقة قراء قرأوا نفس الجزئية و وصلوا لنفس الاستنتاج و ده غريب جدًا لأن مباشرةًا قبل قتل خوسيه أركاديو بالنار، ماركيز وصف انها كانت ماهرة في التصويب و انها بتعرف تضرب نار.

Revised 28 March 2012

Huh? Oh. Oh, man. Wow.

I just had the weirdest dream.

There was this little town, right? And everybody had, like, the same two names. And there was this guy who lived under a tree and a lady who ate dirt and some other guy who just made little gold fishes all the time. And sometimes it rained and sometimes it didn’t, and… and there were fire ants everywhere, and some girl got carried off into the sky by her laundry…

Wow. That was messed up.

I need some coffee.

The was roughly how I felt after reading this book. This is really the only time I’ve ever read a book and thought, “You know, this book would be awesome if I were stoned.” And I don’t even know if being stoned works on books that way.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez (which is such a fun name to say) is one of those Writers You Should Read. You know the type – they’re the ones that everyone claims to have read, but no one really has. The ones you put in your online dating profile so that people will think you’re smarter than you really are. You get some kind of intellectual bonus points or something, the kind of highbrow cachet that you just don’t get from reading someone like Stephen King or Clive Barker.

Marquez was one of the first writers to use “magical realism,” a style of fantasy wherein the fantastic and the unbelievable are treated as everyday occurrences. While I’m sure it contributed to the modern genre of urban fantasy – which also mixes the fantastic with the real – magical realism doesn’t really go out of its way to point out the weirdness and the bizarrity. These things just happen. A girl floats off into the sky, a man lives far longer than he should, and these things are mentioned in passing as though they were perfectly normal.

In this case, Colonel Aureliano Buendia has seventeen illegitimate sons, all named Aureliano, by seventeen different women, and they all come to his house on the same day. Remedios the Beauty is a girl so beautiful that men just waste away in front of her, but she doesn’t even notice. The twins Aureliano Segundo and Jose Arcadio Segundo may have, in fact, switched identities when they were children, but no one knows for sure – not even them. In the small town of Macondo, weird things happen all the time, and nobody really notices. Or if they do notice that, for example, the town’s patriarch has been living for the last twenty years tied to a chestnut tree, nobody thinks anything is at all unusual about it.

This, of course, is a great example of Dream Logic – the weird seems normal to a dreamer, and you have no reason to question anything that’s happening around you. Or if you do notice that something is wrong, but no one else seems to be worried about it, then you try to pretend like coming to work dressed only in a pair of spangly stripper briefs and a cowboy hat is perfectly normal.

Another element of dreaminess that pervades this book is that there’s really no story here, at least not in the way that we have come to expect. Reading this book is kind of like a really weird game of The Sims - it’s about a family that keeps getting bigger and bigger, and something happens to everybody. So, the narrator moves around from one character to another, giving them their moment for a little while, and then it moves on to someone else, very smoothly and without much fanfare. There’s very little dialogue, so the story can shift very easily, and it often does.

Each character has their story to tell, but you’re not allowed to linger for very long on any one of them before Garcia shows you what’s happening to someone else. The result is one long, continuous narrative about this large and ultimately doomed family, wherein the Buendia family itself is the main character, and the actual family members are secondary to that.

It was certainly an interesting reading experience, but it took a while to get through. I actually kept falling asleep as I read it, which is unusual for me. But perhaps that’s what Garcia would have wanted to happen. By reading his book, I slipped off into that non-world of dreams and illusions, where the fantastic is commonplace and ice is something your father takes you to discover.

------
“[Arcadio] imposed obligatory military service for men over eighteen, declared to be public property any animals walking the streets after six in the evening, and made men who were overage wear red armbands. He sequestered Father Nicanor in the parish house under pain of execution and prohibited him from saying mass or ringing the bells unless it was for a Liberal victory. In order that no one would doubt the severity of his aims, he ordered a firing squad organized in the square and had it shoot a scarecrow. At first no one took him seriously.”

Español - English

Este es mi mas gran libro favorito de todos los tiempos.

Y no es para menos.

Por este libro pasan acontecimientos narrados en otros libros del mismo escritor, como La triste historia de Cándida Eréndida y su abuela desalmada, Isabel viendo llover en Macondo y Los funerales de la Mama grande.

Narra la historia de siete generaciones de la familia Buendía desde sus inicios y fundación en el pueblo Macondo.

José Arcadio Buendía y Ursula Iguarán son dos primos que se casan, pero que tienen el temor por el mito que decía que sus hijos podrían nacer con colas de cerdo. Al final tienen tres hijos: José Arcadio, Aureliano y Amaranta. Nombres que se repetirán en las siete generaciones, lo que lo hace muy confuso, pero interesante.

En esta familia todos los integrantes parecen estar destinados a la soledad.

---

This is my biggest favorite book of all time.

And is not for less.

Through this book happen events narrated in other books of the same writer, like the Sad story of Candida Eréndida and its soulless grandmother, Isabel seeing raining in Macondo and The funerals of the great Mama.

It narrates the history of seven generations of the family Buendía from its beginnings and foundation in the town Macondo.

Jose Arcadio Buendía and Ursula Iguarán are two cousins who marry, but who have the fear of the myth that said that their children could be born with pig tails. In the end they have three children: Jose Arcadio, Aureliano and Amaranta. Names that will be repeated in the seven generations, which makes it very confusing, but interesting.

In this family all members seem to be destined for solitude.

For a long time I could not find words to write anything on One Hundred Years of Solitude, for Marquez mesmerised me into a silence I didn't know how to break. But I have been commenting here and there on Goodreads and now it is good time, finally, to gather my thoughts in one piece. But this somewhat longer review is more a labour of love than a coherent attempt to review his opus.

Marquez resets the history of universe such that the old reality ceases to exist and a new parallel world is born in which things do not conform to obsolete, worn-out laws. Everything in this world is to be discovered anew, even the most primary building block of life: water. Macondo is the first human settlement of Time Immemorial set up by the founding fathers of the Buendia family. It is a place where white and polished stones are like ‘prehistoric eggs’; an infant world, clean and pure, where ‘many things lack names.’ And it is natural that here, in the farther reaches of marshland prone to cataclysmic events, the mythscape of One Hundred Years of Solitude should come into existence.

The tone of this epic and picaresque story is set ab initio. Take a gander at this:

n  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.n

It is not long before fateful human activity mars the innocent beauty of creation. The more they discover the more they are sucked into the inescapable cycle of life. The primordial myth that moulds and shapes their destinies does not let them advance in their efforts to defeat the infernal solitude of existence, whatever they might do, however they might try. History gets back at them again and again and every generation is but a repeat of the past. It is to emphasise the cyclical nature of time, in my opinion, that names of principal characters are repeated in every generation, sometimes to the confusion of the reader, easily rectified by going back to the family tree provided in the start of the book.

An external, portentous, disastrous, evil-like power guides and transforms the lives of people in the hamlet of Macondo. The sense of foreboding pervades the whole story: the rain continuing for many days and inundating the streets, the unceasing storm before the arrival in town of a heraldic character, and the fearful episode when townspeople begin to suffer a terrible memory loss, so that to remember the names and functions of things they write it down on labels and tie those labels to objects like chairs and tables. It tells us that we cannot hope for a future if our past is erased from the slates of our collective consciousness. Past may be a burden but it is also a great guiding force without which there's no future.

The only way to retain your sanity is to remember your history and cling to it, or prepare to go insane. When one Jose Arcadio Buendia loses the memory of things, he goes mad:

n  Jose Arcadio Buendia conversed with Prudencio Aguilar until the dawn. A few hours later, worn out by the vigil, he went into Aureliano’s workshop and asked him: “What day is today?” Aureliano told him that it was Tuesday. “I was thinking the same thing,” Jose Arcadio Buendia said, “but suddenly I realized that it’s still Monday, like yesterday. Look at the sky, look at the walls, look at the begonias. Today is Monday too.” On the next day, Wednesday, Jose Arcadio Buendia went back to the workshop. “This is a disaster,” he said. “Look at the air, listen to the buzzing of the sun, the same as yesterday and the day before. Today is Monday too.” That night Pietro Crespi found him on the porch, weeping for…his mother and father. On Thursday he appeared in the workshop again with the painful look of plowed ground. “The time machine has broken,” he almost sobbed,…he spent six months examining things, trying to find a difference from their appearance on the previous day in the hope of discovering in them some change that would reveal the passage of time.n

The town is threatened when the change taking place in the outside world begins to spill over into Macondo. Here we have a metaphor for the struggle of Maruqez’s native country and continent which is passing through internecine wars on its way toward externally imposed modernity. Divisions that hitherto did not exist come to define the inhabitants of Macondo and of towns farther afield. One of the Buendias, Colonel Aureliano, takes up a piece of metalwork as new and strange as a gun to mount a revolt and bring the promised glory to his land. New lines are drawn. New alliances are made. Old friends become enemies and enemies, partners. Colonel Aureliano Buendia, when he is about to kill him, tells General Moncada:

n  Remember, old friend, I'm not shooting you. It's the revolution that's shooting you.n

The scene above captures the mechanistic element of their revolutionary war; the one below bares the meaninglessness of the conflict, so pertinent to the 20th century militarisation of the whole continent and its endless armed strife led by colonels and generals of all hues and shades.

n  Tell me something, old friend: why are you fighting?"
What other reason could there be?" Colonel Gerineldo Marquez answered. "For the great Liberal party."
You're lucky because you know why," he answered. "As far as I'm concerned, I've come to realize only just now that I'm fighting because of pride."
That's bad," Colonel Gerineldo Marquez said.
Colonel Aureliano Buendia was amused at his alarm. "Naturally," he said. "But in any case, it's better than not knowing why you're fighting." He looked him in the eyes and added with a smile:
Or fighting, like you, for something that doesn't have any meaning for anyone.”n

Although I tried to avoid getting into this discussion, but a review of this work is not possible without throwing in the inevitable buzzword – magical realism. Although the book gets high praise from most readers, it is to be expected that some readers would take a disliking to the basic ingredients from which Marquez draws his style and narrative devices. I want to address in particular one argument from the naysayer camp that pops up again and again: it is not realistic; it can’t happen; this is not how things work. So I ask (and try to answer): what is it with our obsession with “realism” that makes some of us reject the conceptual framework of this novel?

Aristotle in Poetics argues that a convincing impossibility in mimesis is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility. The stress is not on what can physically happen but on mimetic persuasion. This is why some novels that follow every bit of convention, every bit of realistic element in them turn out to be unbelievable stories with unbelievable characters. You want to forget them as soon as you finish the book – and toss it aside. But on the other hand Greek tragedies populated with cosmic characters pulling suprahuman feats continue to enthrall generations of readers. How realistic are those stories? It is the writer’s task to convince us that this could have happened in a world he has created and set the rules for. In that Marquez is more than successful, and this is the basis of the enduring appeal of this work.

The distinction fell into place for me when I replaced ‘realism’ with ‘truth.’ Kafka’s haunting stories are so far from the 19th century convention of realism we have come to accept as the basis of novel-writing. His The Metamorphosis is not a representation of likely human activity (how could a human transform overnight into a large insect?) but it is nonetheless a harrowingly truthful story that advances existential dilemmas and makes a statement on human relationships, familial in particular. We say this is how it would feel like to be an outcast from one’s family. Or consider Hamsun’s Hunger in which a starving man puts his finger in his mouth and starts eating himself. In the ‘real’ world Kafka’s, Hamsun’s and Marquez’s characters cannot exist but the effect of their existence on us is as truthful and real as the dilemmas of any great realistic character ever created.

Marquez, like a god, has written the First Testament of Latin America, synthesising myth and magic to reveal the truth of the human condition, and called it One Hundred Years of Solitude.


February 2015

Uno de los mejores libros que se hayan escrito en latinoamerica

Comencé a leer este libro habiendo conocido otras obras de García Marquez y con la certeza de ser uno de los mejores libros jamás escritos, y por ser la obra nobel del autor colombiano. Anteriormente había aplazado la lectura debido a que me perdía entre los personajes de la familia Buendia y es que la forma en que está narrada se presta para perderse fácilmente, el autor no se detiene a explicar el sentido lógico de los acontecimientos y cuenta los 100 años de desarrollo de la novela como si la familia en si fuese el personaje principal, por ese motivo nos podemos fácilmente confundir entre tantos "José Arcadios" y "Aurelianos", sin embargo hay algunos personajes que sirven de estabilizador en la historia, tal es el Caso de Ursula y de Petra cotes que son quienes de vez en cuando dan señas de donde carajos en el tiempo nos encontramos.

Según lo entiendo el libro está estructurado en un compendio de cuentos cortos narrados sin escrúpulos uno tras de otro en torno al argumento principal, una terrible soledad que parece estar destinada en la estirpe de la familia en un ambiente donde los eventos mágicos y surrealistas ocurren cotidianamente, los personajes ven esto como algo corriente dentro de sus vidas.

Y es que, es inevitable sentirse identificado con la narrativa y el ambiente de Macondo, es Folklore latinoamericano en su máxima expresión, me sucedía que recordaba cuentos de mi niñez que se relacionaban con lo que estaba leyendo como la llegada del circo y sus gitanos, las leyendas acerca de tierras lejanas, la forma como ven a los muertos y adivinan el futuro, un realismo mágico que te enamora desde la primera pagina.

Lo malo: Te mareas, su contenido es muy denso, lees 100 paginas y parece que hubieses leído por lo menos 300, el hecho que el autor de tantas vueltas en torno a la familia, hace que sientas que estas dando vueltas en un mismo eje central, no hay ningún objetivo final que alcanzar, simplemente son cuentos y mas cuentos.

Rescato algunas citas que me gustaron:

Tan pronto como José Arcadio cerró la puerta del dormitorio, el estampido de un pistoletazo retumbó en la casa. Un hilo de sangre salió por debajo de la puerta, atravesó la sala, salió a la calle, siguió en un curso directo por los andenes desparejos, descendió escalinatas y subió pretiles, pasó de largo por la Calle de los Turcos, dobló una esquina a la derecha y otra a la izquierda, volteó en ángulo recto frente a la casa de los Buendía, pasó por debajo de la puerta cerrada, atravesó la sala de visitas pegado a las paredes para no manchar los tapices, siguió por la otra sala, eludió en una curva amplia la mesa del comedor, avanzó por el corredor de las begonias y pasó sin ser visto por debajo de la silla de Amaranta que daba una lección de aritmética a Aureliano José, y se metió por el granero y apareció en la cocina donde Úrsula se disponía a partir treinta y seis huevos para el pan. —¡Ave María Purísima! —gritó Úrsula

Taciturno, silencioso, insensible al nuevo soplo de vitalidad que estremecía la casa, el coronel Aureliano Buendía apenas si comprendió que el secreto de una buena vejez no es otra cosa que un pacto honrado con la soledad....

En cierta ocasión en que el padre Nicanor llevó al castaño un tablero y una caja de fichas para invitarlo a jugar a las damas, José Arcadio Buendía no aceptó, según dijo, porque nunca pudo entender el sentido de una contienda entre dos adversarios que estaban de acuerdo en los principios

Lectura indispensable, uno de esos libros de lectura obligatoria, una obra maestra que merece la pena darle su oportunidad y saber de ella.

I imagine these people looking and saying, "Yes, but what does it mean?" As literary critics everywhere cringe or roll over in their clichéd graves I approach this text and review the same way. One Hundred Years of Solitude... beautiful, intriguing... but what does it mean? And does it have to mean anything?

Oscar Wilde: "All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril." And what about those who skip across the surface, like a stone? Able only to make so many hops before sinking, blinded by the mud, disoriented by the current to the bottom? What are we?

This was (is) a beautiful book. Like Guernica. Like Dali.

  

It's religious, and political, and sexual. ... and confusing. And as long as I haven't over-used it already - beautiful.

It's the literary Big Fish and I'm sure people will and have debated what it means, and authorial intent and it won the Nobel Prize for crying out loud, but maybe it's to display on a prominent house wall and be debated.

It's easy to get a handle on the broad and general themes - history is cyclical - not progressive, progress is a myth (and "progress" is evil), go after love, be careful not to let memories or nostalgia bow you down, seek knowledge, the world is mysterious and doesn't always make sense, don't be intimidated of anybody - especially of your past self or selves.

Beyond that it's just conjecture.

The story begins with Jose Arcadio Buendia -the patriarch - and the founding of Macondo. It follows the lineage of his descendants - many living mythically long lives and bringing in enchanted aspects. The dead live, return from the future, invent and disappear - but not in a machine of the gods way - it's more dream-like.

The lineage frustrated me. In order to illustrate his point on the circular view of history, there were 4 Joses, 22 Aurelianos, 5 Arcadios, a couple Ursulas and Remedioses to boot. And Pilar Ternera found herself grandmother or great grandmother to far too many kids. Even with the family tree in the front of the book, it was difficult to tell which Arcadio or Jose or Aureliano was which - especially given the fact that so many of the characters lived past 100. (Or even past 145.)

The book was intriguing. I loved the tidbits that came back into play throughout the book - the ash on the heads of the Aurelianos, Melquiades stopping by for a chat - that's what made it for me.

Like I said, I don't think this was a book to "get." But if you do "get it," don't cliff note it to me. I like it the way it is in my mind.

Ah!

Has it really happened?

Is it really a novel?

It's one of those books which leave you with somewhat these kind of thoughts; it's a book which moves with every word. The novel deals with so many themes that it really hard to associate it with a few.

However, one thing is for sure that the novel leaves you spellbound with an 'almost out of the world experience'; and you want to experience it just one more time every time you experience it !!!

It is the only book that I consider essential, even if you only begin it. Legend says that within it, you can see the solitude in which you live.

It is the pinnacle of magic realism, but I believe in it more than in any "Bible".

I guarantee that 95% of you will hate this book, and at least 70% of you will hate it enough to not finish it, but I loved it. Guess I was just in the mood for it. Here's how it breaks down:

AMAZING THINGS: I can literally feel new wrinkles spreading across the surface of my brain when I read this guy. He's so wicked smart that there's no chance he's completely sane. His adjectives and descriptions are 100% PERFECT, and yet entirely nonsensical. After reading three chapters, it starts making sense... and that's when you realize you're probably crazy, too. And you are. We all are.

The magical realism style of the book is DELICIOUS. Sure, it's an epic tragedy following a long line of familial insanity, but that doesn't stop the people from eating dirt, coming back from the dead, spreading a plague of contagious insomnia, or enjoying a nice thunderstorm of yellow flowers. It's all presented in such a natural light that you think, "Of course. Of course he grows aquatic plants in his false teeth. Now why wouldn't he?"

This guy is the epitome of unique. Give me a single sentence, ANY SENTENCE the man has ever written, and I will recognize it. Nobody writes like him. (Also, his sentences average about 1,438 words each, so pretty much it's either him or Faulkner)

REASONS WHY MOST OF YOU WILL HATE THIS BOOK: I have to engage every ounce of my mental ability just to understand what the *@ is going on! Most people who read for relaxation and entertainment will want to send Marquez hate mail.

Also, there are approximately 20 main characters and about 4 names that they all share. I realize that's probably realistic in Hispanic cultures of the era, but SERIOUSLY, by the time you get to the sixth character named Aureliano, you'll have to draw yourself a diagram. Not even the classic Russians suffer from as much name-confusion as this guy.

On an uber-disturbing note, Marquez has once again (as he did in Love in the Time of Cholera) written a grown man having sex with a girl as young as 9... which is pretty much #1 on my list of "Things That Make You Go EWW!!!" He makes Lolita look like Polyanna on the virtue chart! (Note to authors: You give ONE of your characters a unique, but disgusting characteristic and it's good writing. Give it to more than one, and we start thinking we're reading your psychological profile, ya creep!)

If you feel like pushing your brain to its max, read it. The man did win the Nobel after all, it's amazing. But get ready to work harder to understand something than you ever have before in your life. And may God be with you.

FAVORITE QUOTES: (coincidentally also the shortest ones in the book)

She had the rare virtue of never existing completely except at the opportune moment.

He soon acquired the forlorn look that one sees in vegetarians.

Children inherit their parents' madness.

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

The air was so damp that fish could have come in through the doors and swum out the windows.

He was unable to bear in his soul the crushing weight of so much past.

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

A person doesn't die when he should but when he can.

De los mejores libros que he leído en mi vida.