One Hundred Years of Solitude in Overdue Podcast

Oct 26, 2014 R rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-reads

I finally finished, and I have no one but myself to blame. In all truthfulness, I surprised that it took me this long to finish because it just doesn't seem like a long book compared to what I have read. However, this is certainly a new type of genre for me and I have to say that I'm impressed by the magical realism displayed throughout the entire novel.

In Marquez's story, he gives the fictional story of a town called Macondo which is founded by a family by the name of the Buendia. The story the I finally finished, and I have no one but myself to blame. In all truthfulness, I surprised that it took me this long to finish because it just doesn't seem like a long book compared to what I have read. However, this is certainly a new type of genre for me and I have to say that I'm impressed by the magical realism displayed throughout the entire novel.

In Marquez's story, he gives the fictional story of a town called Macondo which is founded by a family by the name of the Buendia. The story then progresses throughout the generations of the Buendias and the history of Macondo as a metaphor for the history and political upheaval of Columbia as we know it. It's a fascinating story that took me an amazingly long time to get through but I have to say that I'm glad I read it after all.

I suppose my real and only problem with the one was that I would get confused and caught up in the mutiple Jose Arcadio Buendias and the multiple Aurelianos; after the seventeen Aurelianos born from Colonel Jose Arcadio (I think?) I kind of gave up and let the novel progress as slowly as possible in an attempt to jumpstart my memory. Yet I quite liked how the names which the same, especially towards the end. Admittedly, because of the grand cast of characters, I became confused with who they were, their life story and even their familial relations to the other characters in the novel. For sure I was only able to discern the women in the family; Ursula, Amaranta, Rebeca, Remedios the Beauty, and Fernanda. Of course there are more, but because their name were the least to repeat, I found them easier to recall.

This one is endlessly fascinating with tons of nooks and crannies of interesting facts and wondrous anecdotes here and there. I especially like how Marquez was able to weave this town from one with a glorious, utopic beginning, to one that was blown away by the wind in the end of the last Buendia's days. It can be a confusing read, but for sure I'd highly recommend anyone to give it a try. ...more

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