Customer Reviews

CliffsNotes on Garcia Marquez'100 Years of Solitude

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To read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's masterwork is to confront one's demons and one's devices in a monumentally singular reading experience. What does that mean? I have no idea, but I thought it sounded good when I wrote it.
Seriously though, you could do worse than to read this book. Although, it is overrated, and at times, you will think it is pretentiously boring. Still, there were enough good stretches of narrative beauty to overtake the sometimes tiresome ponderousness of the story.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of those few novels that is magical, beautiful and can capture the very kernel of mind to wake you up from the reality of Latin American world. The writer questions the propriety of the superstructure of the governance of mankind and the whole lot of theories and principles which are supposed to deliver the mankind from the drudgeries and miseries but which do not.To read this novel is to experience darkness and the failure of mankind.

This was really the best book I ever read. The non-standard use of time and space concepts is amazing. I read it in two languages (both translated) and I started to study Spanish just to read this book in original. Everytime I read this book it gives me a completely different view.

In 10,000 years, when most of the world's literature is lost and forgotten, this book will still be read. Like "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Les Miserables", I will read it again and again until my eyesite fails. Then my childen will read it aloud to me. Then I can die.

Turn off the television and forget the stupid movies. You've had enough TV for a lifetime. This book will take you where you want to go...an escape in fascinating literature, only to come home to reality and beauty and the unique bizarreness of life--in touch with the human race! From the very first page--profound reading. Marquez is truly a literary genius. I positively loved this book.

This is a well written book that grabs you in the beginning and is even better in the end. The plot is masterfully interwoven and keeps you reading. The only downfall is that it is difficult to relate to any of the characters because of the magic realism. This made the reading a little slow in a few parts, but on the whole it was a great book. The family is stuck in a town isolated from the rest of civilization. It is interesting to see the progression of Macondo and the affect it has the the citizens there. It is ironic that even though the the characters are part of a huge family, they are all lonely. The end of the book is the best part that puts the whole story into perspective.

The best book about South America, the way of living there, the state of terrorism people are living in, the -everyday- civil war. The full history of a nation; all these, given with a super-inspired form of a (mythic?) family biography. I guess people of "Macondo" are all people of Colombia, all people of South America and, finally, all the people of the world, whenever a man cannot be free to live on his own will. Thank you, Gabriel. I believe I am a better person now.

The best book about South America, the way of living there, the state of terrorism people are living in, the -everyday- civil war. The full history of a nation; all these, given with a super-inspired form of a (mythic?) family biography. I guess people of "Macondo" are all people of Colombia, all people of South America and, finally, all the people of the world, whenever a man cannot be free to live on his own will. Thank you, Gabriel. I believe I am a better person now.

The novel is enchanting, but the translation to English has two mistakes... First: It omited the explanation on the banana plantation. The walking through the banana plantation was a supernatural walk because when a person was close to another person, they had to shout at each other to be able to hear; on the other hand, if they were standing about one hundred yards from each other, one of the persons could whispered anything and the other person could hear what he/she said as if that person was next to him/her. For that reason everybody wanted to take a walk through the plantation. Second: The Spanish version said that Aureliano Segundo looked for a woman (Fernanda)that "he would not make happy", not a woman that "would not make him happy".

I was attracted to this book pretty late by the title. There was nothing small about this book. I think this is definitely the greatest magic-realism genre book and possibly the best novel to come out of south America. The book is a waterfall of heart-wrenching emotions. I felt evolved after reading it. Great book.