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One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez

Start date: September 1, 2021

Finish date: September 30, 2021

Discussion: Group Reads

Why we're reading this: September 2021 Completist Selection
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What Members Thought

Mar 31, 2011 Jenbebookish rated it it was amazing

Shelves: loves-of-my-life

This is one of my all time favorite books. And yet it seems to me as if it's another book that's as equally hard to describe as, say, Gravity's Rainbow or anything by Ayn Rand. It's impossible for me to describe the world that they live in. Is it supposed to be current, is it old times, is it futuristic? It's none of those things, it's a world within itself. And hey, maybe that's what makes these authors so uniquely talented. At least fiction writers anyway. It's always seemed to me that people This is one of my all time favorite books. And yet it seems to me as if it's another book that's as equally hard to describe as, say, Gravity's Rainbow or anything by Ayn Rand. It's impossible for me to describe the world that they live in. Is it supposed to be current, is it old times, is it futuristic? It's none of those things, it's a world within itself. And hey, maybe that's what makes these authors so uniquely talented. At least fiction writers anyway. It's always seemed to me that people like Marquez and Tolkien and Rand... Steinbeck, Atwood, Herbert. The people that create a world that is totally their own, that has never before existed outside of their minds, those are the people with the real genius. Those are the people with the abnormally vivid imaginations, with the unique talent!

And that's how I feel about Marquez. 100 Years of Solitude is nothing like the title would lead you to believe. In fact, it sounds boring right? It sounds like an endless amount of emptiness. But in reality, it's jammed packed with dozens of colorful characters and equally colorful scenery. There's a slight tint of fantasy to the whole book...some kooky things happen, but that's part of the beauty of the whole book! I'd suggest this book to almost anyone! while I don't necessarily believe it's the type of book that's for everyone, some might find it a little too odd or whimsical... you never know who's gonna dig this. It's really out of this world!

One thing I would suggest to every person who plans to read this book is keep really careful track of who's who. Every single person in the book shares the Buendia name, plus there's about a dozen Aurelianos and so forth. Why he chose to have everyone share the same name so that it's extra confusing trying to differentiate between characters, I'm not quite sure, but it really is confusing so what I did is wrote a little family tree on the first page of the book. I know, I know, what a book defacing ninny I am! But I'm serious! I read this twice, the first time not taking the time to keep track of each unique name and person, and when I finished I felt dissatisfied like I hadn't totally understood the book. Actually, I had no feelings for the book whatsoever, and I had already attributed my distaste to the author's lack of skill, when I decided to make another go of it, this time keeping careful track. And what do you know!? I loved it after that. Such a hugely drastic change that I can't stress it enough.... WRITE IT DOWN! KEEP TRACK OF WHICH BUENDIA IS WHICH! Trust me. You will thank me and it could hugely alter your reading experience! ...more

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Mar 17, 2012 Mmars rated it really liked it

I was browsing Half Price Books once and another shopper approached me in the fiction section and said "Excuse me. I'd like to read some fiction. I always read nonfiction. what would you suggest?" I'd say this was a woman around 50 years of age. My brain started flipping through a roll-a-dex that didn't exist. "Hmmmm.... How about 100 Years of Solitude?" Now that I see this on a number of avid reader's lists of best books I feel a bit vindicated for my next thought which was "She'll probably nev ...more

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Jan 12, 2016 Lane Willson rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

This started out as glorious melodic tale that mutated into a rendition of "99 bottles of beer on the wall" that I prayed would end on bottle 42. ...more

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