One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)

3.5

What I liked:
• The writing style with no breaks and ridiculously long sentences and only a vague connection between sentences. There's this rhythm to the sentences that demands you to read them at a fast pace despite the denseness of the story. And it seems like it was written haphazardly but it's also obvious that the words were selected very carefully. It's nice.
• The themes of solitude and shared solitude, the passing of time and the inevitably of death and the futility of memory amid it all.
• The social themes of failed wars and colonialism, the futility of memory but in the scale of society. I was enraged reading the banana company chapters but damn if it ain't accurate. Realistic and brutal.

What I didn't like:
• I wish there was less of such a casual attitude towards sexual assault, it really ruined some of the moments for me. For example the first scene between Aureliano and Amaranta Úrsula definitely had rapey vibes but we're supposed to ignore that because it was genuine love. Like bruh. I just think it could have been done better.
• Colonel Aureliano's pedophilia was very unnecessary. Nothing at all would have changed if he didn't marry a kid. ( )

Mögnuð saga eftir kólumbíska nóbelsverðlaunahafann Gabriel García Márques. Margverðlaunuð og sögð meðal áhrifamestu sögum Suður-Ameríku.
Höfundurinn lýsir hér sjö kynslóðum fjölskyldu sem stofnar bæ í ónefndu ríki í S.-Ameríku. Persónurnar eru dulúðugar og markaðar sterkum persónulýsingum og lýsingarnar af gjörðum þeirra, umhverfi og atburðum tengjast sögu Kólumbíu og fleiri ríkja í álfunni. Þarna má sjá svo eitthvað sé nefnt tengingu járnbrautalesta við afskekkt byggðarlög, fjöldamorð hersins á verkalýðnum, harðstjórn erlendra ávaxtafyrirtækja er lögðu undir sig svæðið og stöðugum uppreisnum. Einkennandi þema er þó súrrealísk einangrunin og tímaleysið þar sem kynslóðir fjölskyldunnar snúast um sjálfa sig og sjá lítið annað en sig, jafn ólíkar og þær eru og er dásamlega lýst af Márquez sem nýtir sér stílbrögð töfraraunsæisins af tærri snilld. Þetta er bók sem ég er reiðubúinn að lesa nokkrum sinnum aftur við tækifæri. ( )

I really did not like this any more the second time around than I did the first. I guess I'm just not a fan of magical realism. My teen book club chose to read it and I warned them that it is a difficult book. Knowing their preferences I'm fairly certain no one will like it, if they finished reading it. But that is a whole other story with my teen book club.

The first time I read it was in college for a Latin American History class which was a long time ago. I struggled with the metaphor of Macondo representing Latin American countries and their history with colonialism and their relationship to the rest of the world especially the United States. I still struggled with all of that this time. I found the bouncing around in time disorienting as well. For example, the book starts with Colonel Aureliano Buendia facing the firing squad then it moves back in time to Jose Arcadio Buendia and the founding of Macondo. It made it difficult to keep track of the story. ( )

Okay, this was a gift that I was skeptical about because at the time I wasn't into magic realism. But this book reads like the Bible. I was hooked! And I've become a fan. ( )

Este es el tercer libro de Márquez que leo y esperaba que me gustara tanto como los dos anteriores, pero no fue el caso. Para mí este libro fue aburrido y asqueroso y no me gustó ni me preocupé por ningún personaje excepto Úrsula. La familia Buendía no congenió mucho conmigo.
Goodreads no me deja poner medias estrellas, porque si no sería un 2.5, al menos lo terminé. ( )