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A fantastic story where reality meets fiction in seven generations of the Buendias family set in the Americas during a time of discovery and Spanish colonisation, the fight between liberalism and conservatism and the era of industrialisation. These amongst other dominant themes of love, survival, death, and solitude make for an epic novel.
The fictional story begins in Macondo, a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water, a utopia that knows little of death and hardship. The fate of Macondo feels both doomed and predetermined from the outset as a small society tries to survive the external influences of a wider America. Through 100 years Mocondo changes and so does the members of the Buendias family with two great characters as head of the family Jose Arcadio and Ursula - well the matriarch. The custodian of the family's honour, for over 100 years, through civil war, political turbulence, and industrialisation. Eventually Macondo becomes exposed to the outside world and the government of newly independent Colombia.
Marquez tells this complex story of a multi generation family, who leave and return, love and despise, rise and fall, and whose characters evolve and grow throughout the book as the author unspools a knotty texture of 100 years of family. The plot development is superb but too many to summarise as the book weaves sub plots and themes continuously through this marathon of a story. The book also brings the real and surreal, with a hint of magic as Marquez draws the reader into the ordinary and extraordinary events and peoples lives in a way that keeps you captivated and immersed to the end.
So, what’s not to love about “One Hundred Years of Solitude” - The book sometimes feels long, and not an easy read which is made even more challenging because all the characters seem to go by the same few names. I sat with the family tree, abbreviated the names or provided alternatives to keep on top of seven generations. The ending of the book should be at the front and events don't happen in sequence.
Apart from that, I loved Marquez's literary classic and would highly recommend. It may have polarised opinion for a variety of reasons but for me, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is a superb piece of literature and worthy to find itself in the 20th Century classic Hall of Fame and in the list of books everyone should read in their lifetime.
Some of my favourite quotes from the book
“The secret of a good old age is simply an honourable pact with solitude.”
“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.”
“There is always something left to love.”
The fictional story begins in Macondo, a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water, a utopia that knows little of death and hardship. The fate of Macondo feels both doomed and predetermined from the outset as a small society tries to survive the external influences of a wider America. Through 100 years Mocondo changes and so does the members of the Buendias family with two great characters as head of the family Jose Arcadio and Ursula - well the matriarch. The custodian of the family's honour, for over 100 years, through civil war, political turbulence, and industrialisation. Eventually Macondo becomes exposed to the outside world and the government of newly independent Colombia.
Marquez tells this complex story of a multi generation family, who leave and return, love and despise, rise and fall, and whose characters evolve and grow throughout the book as the author unspools a knotty texture of 100 years of family. The plot development is superb but too many to summarise as the book weaves sub plots and themes continuously through this marathon of a story. The book also brings the real and surreal, with a hint of magic as Marquez draws the reader into the ordinary and extraordinary events and peoples lives in a way that keeps you captivated and immersed to the end.
So, what’s not to love about “One Hundred Years of Solitude” - The book sometimes feels long, and not an easy read which is made even more challenging because all the characters seem to go by the same few names. I sat with the family tree, abbreviated the names or provided alternatives to keep on top of seven generations. The ending of the book should be at the front and events don't happen in sequence.
Apart from that, I loved Marquez's literary classic and would highly recommend. It may have polarised opinion for a variety of reasons but for me, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is a superb piece of literature and worthy to find itself in the 20th Century classic Hall of Fame and in the list of books everyone should read in their lifetime.
Some of my favourite quotes from the book
“The secret of a good old age is simply an honourable pact with solitude.”
“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.”
“There is always something left to love.”