About 20 years after I purchased this book in used bookstore, i finally read it. The typeface was small, which made it even harder to read with the lack of paragraph breaks and long, long sentence crammed with Marquez's story and visions. My rabbit in college had eaten the binding and the edges of the pages, so it was even more tattered than one would imagine it ought to be.
But I read it. Got through it, although at times, it was a struggle with the intermixing thoughts and change of narrators and clauses and run-on sentences breaking the convention of other books I've read.
There were often times I gave up, honestly, and often times I was not sufficiently alert to grasp, enjoy or even understand what was going on. But the last few pages, I read on a train, going home, and the rhythm, endless and unrelenting, like the rhythym of the train, brought me home. There are few writers I would trust to take me through these rough jungles of sentences to bring me where I want to be, but Marquez is one of them. In the end, despite my doubts and worries, I was completely mesmerized and filled up.

I remember every single thing about this book. ( )

With little punctutation, few chapters, and no paragraphs and its switching of narrators without warning this book was not an easy read. But it is well worth the effort. I've tried to read Love in the Time of Cholera several times without success, this book I read in a few days and enjoyed thoroughly. I haven't read another writer similiar to Marquez. He's beautfilly descriptive, surrealistic language is a pleasure to read. ( )

LECTURA NECESARIA PARA SECUNDARIA

Set in an unspecified Caribbean country, this is the story of a nation dominated by a dictator who has just died after a very long reign. Its main themes are deception and illusion.

I had a hard time with this book simply because of the format, no paragraphs and sentences that are literally pages long. I also struggled with the constant switch of narrators and perspectives. Even though I found this book to be oppressive and confusing I did find the Patriarch to be a fascinating character, fascinating, horrifying and tragic in many ways. ( )