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A review by booksbythewindow
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
For full review: https://booksbythewindow.wordpress.com/2019/10/02/one-hundred-years-of-solitude/
Summary: One Hundred Years of Solitude follows the generations of the Buendía family who were involved in the establishment of the isolated town of Macondo where they now live. A family full of poor mental and physical health, largely as a result of incest, the reader is taken through both family dramas and external dramas as the Buendías are faced with tragedies again and again. Although there are multiple characters moving in and out of the focus of the narrative, it is the matriarch Úrsula who is the constant throughout the narrative, the only Buendía to remain in the family home.
Overall Thoughts: I picked this classic novel up in a second-hand bookshop earlier this year as it is always recommended as a great book in a genre that I do not have much experience reading. Whilst I am glad that I finally know what this novel is all about, I found myself struggling through the majority of the book and overall, I did not enjoy it. I found much of the narrative to be just beyond my capacity to cope with the weird and disturbing, and often was found reading it with a frown on my face as I tried to figure out what was going on. I can see that there are multiple layers to understanding Márquez’s writing, especially as the themes of isolation and repetition come through, and I think it would maybe have been an interesting book to study as I am sure there is are many aspects of the narrative that I did not pick up on. However, as a novel to read in my free time, I found the narrative much too confusing.
Summary: One Hundred Years of Solitude follows the generations of the Buendía family who were involved in the establishment of the isolated town of Macondo where they now live. A family full of poor mental and physical health, largely as a result of incest, the reader is taken through both family dramas and external dramas as the Buendías are faced with tragedies again and again. Although there are multiple characters moving in and out of the focus of the narrative, it is the matriarch Úrsula who is the constant throughout the narrative, the only Buendía to remain in the family home.
Overall Thoughts: I picked this classic novel up in a second-hand bookshop earlier this year as it is always recommended as a great book in a genre that I do not have much experience reading. Whilst I am glad that I finally know what this novel is all about, I found myself struggling through the majority of the book and overall, I did not enjoy it. I found much of the narrative to be just beyond my capacity to cope with the weird and disturbing, and often was found reading it with a frown on my face as I tried to figure out what was going on. I can see that there are multiple layers to understanding Márquez’s writing, especially as the themes of isolation and repetition come through, and I think it would maybe have been an interesting book to study as I am sure there is are many aspects of the narrative that I did not pick up on. However, as a novel to read in my free time, I found the narrative much too confusing.