One Hundred Years of Solitude (Oprah's Book Club) (Paperback)

Marquez has a gift that most writers could only hope for. The only other authers who I have read that are in his class are Ondatje and Steinbeck.

Marquez's Nobel-prize winning talent shines best in two specific areas. First, it shows in the style Marquez crafted from the influences of everyone from Cervantes to Faulkner, magical-realism. Marquez credits his grandmother for the storytelling style. Magical realism affords him the luxury to describe a block of ice as a glittering wonder and the appearance of ghosts in the in a nonchalant manner. Though disconcerting at first, the style is both clear and exudes the charm of a child experiencing everything for the first time.

Marquez also dazzles in his ability to probe at the heart of the human element. Colonel Aureliano Buendia, the patriarch of Macondo's son, is seen as a cyclic person, who begins his life sequestered in a workshop making golden fish to sell at market, and after losing 32 consecutive wars, dies in the same shop making the same fish, which he eventually melts down to make more fish. Still other characters, scarred by the death of husbands lock themselves in large mansions, forgotten by everyone. The climax of the epic is the invasion of the small town after a foreigner discovers the quality of the bananas grown there. The banana company comes to Macondo, separating the white settlement with a fence from the natives and mistreating the workers. In the end, however, everyone is forced to leave Macondo except the last remaining Buendia descendents who, embroiled in an incestuous love affair, fail to notice the danger of the storms or the fire ants to are always eating away at their house. It may sound depressing, but what it strikes the reader as most is as the unalterable flow of human history, a bleak cautionary tale. Truly it must be experienced: rich and moving and wonderful. See for yourself. Along with this novel I would like to recommend another, much shorter, lighter, obscure romance -- an Amazon quick-pick -- The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition by Richard Perez.

Marquez's Nobel-prize winning talent shines best in two specific areas. First, it shows in the style Marquez crafted from the influences of everyone from Cervantes to Faulkner, magical-realism. Marquez credits his grandmother for the storytelling style. Magical realism affords him the luxury to describe a block of ice as a glittering wonder and the appearance of ghosts in the in a nonchalant manner. Though disconcerting at first, the style is both clear and exudes the charm of a child experiencing everything for the first time.

Marquez also dazzles in his ability to probe at the heart of the human element. Colonel Aureliano Buendia, the patriarch of Macondo's son, is seen as a cyclic person, who begins his life sequestered in a workshop making golden fish to sell at market, and after losing 32 consecutive wars, dies in the same shop making the same fish, which he eventually melts down to make more fish. Still other characters, scarred by the death of husbands lock themselves in large mansions, forgotten by everyone. The climax of the epic is the invasion of the small town after a foreigner discovers the quality of the bananas grown there. The banana company comes to Macondo, separating the white settlement with a fence from the natives and mistreating the workers. In the end, however, everyone is forced to leave Macondo except the last remaining Buendia descendents who, embroiled in an incestuous love affair, fail to notice the danger of the storms or the fire ants to are always eating away at their house. It may sound depressing, but what it strikes the reader as most is as the unalterable flow of human history, a bleak cautionary tale. Truly it must be experienced: rich and moving and wonderful. See for yourself. Along with this novel I would like to recommend another, much shorter, lighter, obscure romance -- an Amazon quick-pick -- The Losers' Club: Complete Restored Edition by Richard Perez.