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Mar 16, 2011

brian rated it:

i remember the day i stopped watching cartoons: in my living room after school fully absorbed in an episode of thundercats in which a few of the cats were trapped in some kind of superbubble thing -- and it hit me that, being cartoons, the characters could just be erased and re-drawn outside the bubble. or could just fly away. or tunnel their way out. or teleport. or do whatever, really, they wanted... afterall they were lines and color in a world of lines and color. now this applies to any work More...

119 comments like (112 people liked it)

Apr 05, 2011

Adam rated it:

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 More...

53 comments like (148 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2008

Chris rated it:

Huh? Wha.... Oh. Oh, man. Wow.

I 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 More...

20 comments like (122 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Kenghis rated it:

"The book picks up not too far after Genesis left off." And this fictitious chronicle of the Buendia household in the etherial town of Macondo somewhere in Latin America does just that. Rightly hailed as a masterpiece of the 20th century, Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" will remain on the reading list of every pretentious college kid, every under-employed author, every field-worker in Latin America, and indeed should be "required reading for the entire h More...

4 comments like (49 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2009

Choupette rated it:

Un petit bijou de chapitre 2:

... avec la sensation qu'il ne pouvait résister davantage à la révolte sourde et glaciale des ses reins, et à l'air qui lui ballonait le ventre, et à la peur, et au désir déraisonnable de fuir et de rester en même temps, à jamais, dans ce silence exaspéré et cette solitude épouvantable.

This book is strange. I worship it.

People often complain about it: how the magical realism is jarring, how there is not enough character development More...

14 comments like (59 people liked it)

Oct 29, 2011

Mister Jones rated it:

I must be missing something about this one, and whatever it is, I know it's not much.

I didn't enjoy it; I wanted it to be a fulfilling and rewarding read; I want it to be everything that everyone else said it was and then some.

So, I learned that some works aren't worth it--not worth reading, not worth the time, and not worth putting faith in what others may deem "a beautiful book."

Marquez pops characters in and out with different brief activities and More...

5 comments like (22 people liked it)

Sep 11, 2011

Philip rated it:

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 More...

13 comments like (23 people liked it)

Jul 14, 2008

Martine rated it:

I must have missed something. Either that, or some wicked hypnotist has tricked the world (and quite a few of my friends, it would seem) into believing that One Hundred Years of Solitude is a great novel. How did this happen? One Hundred Years of Solitude is not a great novel. In fact, I'm not even sure it qualifies as a novel at all. Rather it reads like a 450-page outline for a novel which accidentally got published instead of the finished product. Oops.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not More...

18 comments like (39 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2012

Shan rated it:

Imagine you work the night shift stocking shelves in a Grocer with seven other misfit insomniacs. It’s a new job in a new town. You are still fairly young; a bit green and romantic (if you were ever those things), though you like to believe you’re not. The store opens at 6. A dark summer’s morning lingers outside. The overhead music has looped. You know this because Don’t Get Me Wrong by the Pretenders is playing for the second time that shift. It’s 5:15 AM. Time to ditch. Once outside you leap More...

2 comments like (13 people liked it)

Nov 14, 2007

Brian rated it:

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a tremendous piece of literature. It's not an easy read. You're not going to turn its pages like you would the latest John Grisham novel, or The DaVinci Code. You have to read each page, soaking up every word, immersing yourself in the imagery. Mr. Marquez says that he tells the story as his grandmother used to tell stories to him: with a brick face. That's useful to remember while reading, because that is certainly the tone the boo More...

2 comments like (50 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2008

Shira rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

3 comments like (25 people liked it)

Jun 16, 2010

Jason rated it:

This book went from 5, to 4, to 3 stars. It went from brilliant & zany, to unique & amusing, to overworked & predictable. Magical realism--the sine qua non of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the archetype, the empyreal novel that pioneered the outburst of this type of South American writing. I would not re-read this novel, but I would recommend it to all who savor the radial expanse of genre in literature. To be considered a comprehensive reader at life's end, you will had to have read magical reali More...

15 comments like (17 people liked it)

Mar 15, 2009

Chandra rated it:

Gabriel Garcia Marquez himself has expressed bemusement over the outrageous success of this seminal work. He said in a conversation with a fellow novelist:

Most critics don't realize that a novel like One Hundred Years of Solitude is a bit of a joke, full of signals to close friends; and so, with some pre-ordained right to pontificate they take on the responsibility of decoding the book and risk making terrible fools of themselves.

Prior to finishing 100 Years I tended More...

6 comments like (23 people liked it)

May 28, 2011

Meg rated it:

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 More...

10 comments like (37 people liked it)

Jun 11, 2008

Laura rated it:

More like A Hundred Years of Torture. I read this partly in a misguided attempt to expand my literary horizons and partly because my uncle was a big fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Then again, he also used to re-read Ulysses for fun, which just goes to show that you should never take book advice from someone whose IQ is more than 30 points higher than your own.

I have patience for a lot of excesses, like verbiage and chocolate, but not for 5000 pages featuring three generations of peop More...

6 comments like (44 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jacey rated it:

This was the first book I'd ever read where the end was as good as the beginning and middle, that's to say -- excellent. A circular story of a family through the generations, through the banana trees, through the political turmoil. Magical realism at it's best.

If it helps, by the time you get half way through the book you shouldn't have to look at the family tree at the front of the book anymore.

1 comment like (17 people liked it)

Sep 24, 2011

Choupette rated it:

I don't know what possessed me to try and read this in French. Actually, that's a lie: it was because I felt like re-reading it and I don't own an English copy. I guess that I thought that since the original language was Spanish, a French translation in theory is worth as much as an English translation. Then I probably said to myself (as I am wont to do) "Well, there's no time like the present to improve one's command of the French language, no matter how tedious, time-consuming and ultimat More...

3 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2012

ميّ أحمد rated it:

حين تفكر بقراءة هذه الرواية يجب أن تضع نصب عينيك أنك لا تقرأ عملا اعتياديا يستلزم جهدا مشابها
عليك أن تترك كل حواسك مع الكتاب
المترجم علماني كان متفهما جدا لطبيعة القارىء العربي وربما صعوبة التواصل مع أسماء بهذا الكم وأجيال بهذا العدد فما كان منه إلا أن وضع خارطة للأجيال الستة التي مروا على قرية ماكوندو من أسرة خوسيه أركاديو بوينديا تسهيلا وحتى لا يقع القارىء في لبس الأسماء وهذا يحسب لعلماني كمترجم له باع في الترجمة بلغة سلسة أصبح يتهافت عليها الجميع

الرواية من الروايات ا More...

6 comments like (9 people liked it)

May 28, 2011

إسراء rated it:

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

الرواية فى قمة الروعة
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
More...

6 comments like (12 people liked it)

Oct 22, 2011

K.D. rated it:

After extremely enjoying the famous works of Hemingway (Old Man and The Sea), Neruda (Love Poems), Coetzee (The Life and Times of Michael K) and Steinbeck (Grapes of Wrath), I told myself I have to read some works of the other Nobel Prize of Literature awardees and I was not disappointed picking ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by this Columbian author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

This work introduced to literature the "magical realism" style in story telling. Fantasy was incorpora More...

6 comments like (9 people liked it)

May 02, 2008

Suzanne rated it:

My father-in-law loves this book so much that he gave me a copy for Christmas two years in a row. My father had already given me a copy years before. Lots of people I respect rave about this book; how it is a classic, a timeless work of genius, a brilliant critique of capitalism, etc. etc. I really want to share their enthusiasm; I want to be a member of the tribe that has read and loved this book, but I am ashamed to admit that I have never been able to finish it.

I have tried to ge More...

5 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Eleanor rated it:

A book that covers the passage of time as if it were a wheel that would spin on into infinity were it not for the wear of the axle, One Hundred Years of Solitude is the story of the rise and fall of the Buendia family and their village Macondo. It tells the tender truths and lies of a family from the life of each member by blood and marriage, the passage of time told by the relationships of members who scarcely realize the depth to which their daily actions resonate back to generations before. More...

1 comment like (13 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2011

Evan rated it:

That's it, enough!
A virtuosic bamboozle, this...
A cold jag with no heart or soul, told from an omniscient distance. He did this and that, and she did this and that, and they did this and that. No inner heart, no longing, no sense of people, of desire, of inner worlds and struggles. Just cold actions. Just a cartoon world full of incident and surface color but little inner feeling. Cold and distant and shallow to me. It was like a guy at the bar droning on and ceasing to be interesti More...

35 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jun 07, 2007

Adam rated it:

Okay, so this is one of those books on various "best book ever" lists, as if that was possible to measure, but for some dumb reason I always fall for it. I bought this for Sarah for a wedding gift (thought I was being funny with the title as an expectation for marriage with me--not likely!) but she has yet to get through it. I've actually tried to read this four times, and even though I was weened on the old testament, I struggled to keep track of all the Arcadios and Aurelianos eno More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Alice rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Natalie rated it:

Maybe I didn't get it. I feel slightly ashamed to give such a beloved classic three stars. But I almost gave it two stars.

To me this book was a long, rambling, chronicle of a family. Aaand... thats pretty much it. The story seemed like it was being made up as it went along, I didn't really care about any of the characters, and I didn't learn or feel anything profound.

It was a few years ago that I read it so it's not fresh in my mind. But sometimes I think time valida More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Tim rated it:

I had a magical AP English teacher my senior year of high school, who had an ethereal, almost magical (sort of a whisper, sort of a song) voice and a flourish and passion for reading. She assigned us Garcia-Marquez' "100 Years Of Solitude," it was one of those (i'll admit and hope it doesn't sound lame or cheesy) life-changing moments.

I can't say what it was at that moment that so moved me, but I attribute this as the book that made me love reading...love words. I hadn't More...

0 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2011

Bassam rated it:

ملكيادس مات و خوززيه الجد مات واورسولا ماتت و خوزيه الصايع مات و العقيد اوريليانو مات وروبيكا ماتت و اوريليانو العاشق مات والحزين مات وتيرزيزا كمان ماتت وارمانتا ماتت واوريليانو التاني مات وخوزيه التاني مات وفيه واحد اتولد ف اخر الرواية اسمه اوريليانو برده مات دي بقت مائه عام م الوفيات اصلا :] More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Sep 20, 2007

Jonyleo rated it:

"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."

It is typical of Gabriel García Márquez that it will be many pages before his narrative circles back to the ice, and many chapters before the hero of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Buendía, stands before the firing squad. In between, he recounts such wonders as an entire town struck with insomnia, a woman who ascends to More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jul 23, 2008

Henry rated it:

Just like 'Love in Time of Cholera', another superb blend of imagination, realism, and honesty.

I finished the book with renewed sense of the nature of love, of loving, of human nature, of being honest.

The writing is far from tedious (for a serious litrary work) , it is evocative, at times it makes you chuckle, at times it creates lump in your throat

A beautiful work.

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

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