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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Reading and finishing ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a challenge and a chore. I found myself falling asleep at times, at others I wanted to chuck the book. But as I found myself reading more and more of this classic book, I wanted to finish it and wanted to be able to give an honest critique about one of the most important novels written in the 20th century.

Why was this book a chore to read? Because Marquez chose to write this novel in the rambling style imitating his grandmother, who would tell him stories when he was a child. There are paragraphs that go on forever, and in fact, there is one sentence that went on for two pages. When I got past that 2-page sentence, I almost laughed out loud. Wow!

Next thought comes to mind - was this book worth reading? Yes! The problem with this book is that one cannot just read the first 100 pages and decide "this is awful". Without getting to the end, one will not have the true satisfaction of what the book encompasses, will not understand what the book was about. When I got to that last page, I put the book down and realized I had just finished an epic novel by an author that obviously deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature. The book was indeed pure genius.

To sum it up, ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE is an epic story in the birth, life and death of the small fictional town of Macondo in a South American country. It parallels several generations of Buendias. One of many themes that passed through the family was the fear of one of the descendants would be born with the tail of a pig. Incest is one of the themes that runs rampant throughout the book, one of the many funny elements that kept me reading. (Not to give it away, there is one child that is born with a tail. I'll leave it to the reader to find out!).

Another theme I saw that was obvious by the time I ended the book was reality versus magic realism. While the earlier portions of the history of Macondo was rooted in magic brought to the town by the Gypsies, as one reads further into the story, one encounters realities of war, life and death, and other happenings that this town held as important. A major turning point was the start of the Banana Company and the arrival of the white man. And in turn the people of the town had to deal with unions, and workers benefits. What was so shocking was the cover up of an event that came about from a strike. The fact that the townspeople could believe in the lies the Banana company would say to cover up this event was shocking, yes the townspeople easily believed in flying magic carpets and other mystical happenings. It is true that people will believe what they want to believe, and not necessarily what is the truth.

The members of the Buendias family were all larger than life. The Jose Arcadios and the Aureliano's were the two main male characters, each generation being named for someone in the previous one. Remedios and Amaranta were the common female names, all of them in their own right standing out as someone that was special and unique. Ursula and Jose Arcadios Buendias were the matriarch and patriarch of the family. Ghosts abound; magic is an every day occurrence. The novel is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's most famous novel and helped give credit to the genre known as Magic Realism (other good examples are HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS by Isabelle Allende and THE SECOND DEATH OF UNICA AVEYANO by Ernesto Mestre-Reed).

This reader gives ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE a five star rating. It is not recommend to those who will not have the patience to read a rambling style of narrative. It is difficult, and often times frustrating. As seen by the many negative reviews on Amazon, mostly by Post-Oprah publication readers, please note that this book is not for everyone. But for those who can appreciate fine world literature, this if for you.

If I read One Hundred Years of Solitude at any other time in my life, I would've hated it. Before I was diagnosed with breast cancer, my taste for books were more of the romantic, happy-ending, leave-them-feeling-good selection. I stayed away from the gritty, brutally realistic types of books, like this one. But now, I don't shy away from books that lead you to an inevitability of sadness and hopelessness, and this book is certainly that.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is a story about the Buendia family, one of the founding families of the Macondo village. It opens with Jose Arcadio Buendia, the head of the Buendia family. He leads a group of people from their village in search of the sea. Unable to find it, they decide on an area to settle in and begin building their village, Macondo. From here, the author weaves the story and history of the Buendia Family. There are recurring themes, like curses, within the Buendia family: An unnatural attraction between certain male members of the family toward the female members; the boys who are named Jose Arcadio tend to be lazy, calculating, and shady; and boys named Aureliano are thinkers, intellectuals, rebels; and the women are strong, shrewd and very few of them marry. I'm sure there are other recurring themes that I've missed.

The parallelism between the rise, prosperity, and fall of the Buendia family and Macondo is very striking. I'm not sure, however, what you can take from this story, assuming, of course, that there is something to learn from it. The writing, however, is beautiful, moving, and poignant, drawing you in to the storyline and coaxing you to empathize with its characters. The author's ability to blend realism with the supernatural is convincing.

I recommend this book but with reservations. I think it will all have to depend on the type of reader you are. If you tend to avoid books with storylines that are heavy and coarse, especially when they end in a "everyone-dies-tragically-in-the-end" type ending, then this is another book to avoid.

Far from being a novel yet a bible in the context of human history, this book tells much to all man kind. Once you finish the book, you would realize you're always alone even if you're living in a metropolis.

The book is a story of a family who has lived in Macondo for about hundred years. The family started with mischief, which prevailed the fate of the family. But the family and Macondo vanished from the Earth when a baby was born with a pig tail.

Bible tells about God's love towards human being; the book tells about the life of people who were deserted from God. Bible says about the Judgement of man kind; the book says about the suffering of deserted people. Bible is the promise of the uncertain salavation and Second Advent of Christ; the book is the story about the fate of deserted people who should suffer solitude even after dying.

If you couldn't help but feel lonely, this book tells you why.