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Loading... One Hundred Years of Solitude (original 1967; edition 1998)by Gabriel García Márquez (Author)
Work InformationOne Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967)
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I started reading this book more than 25 years ago and just could not get into. In fact, I still had the bookmark in it where I abandoned in that last attempt. I set out to read it again and struggled at the beginning. The only reason I persevered was because I chose this book for our book club. Part of what I found most difficult was the numerous characters with the same or similar names, and given that the story is not told in linear time, it was easy to confuse them. But as I got deeper into the story, I became more invested and found that I was enjoying it. It is the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, the patriarch of which, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the (fictional) town of Macondo, a rural Colombian village closer to the coast of the Caribbean than the Pacific. The village is visited by gypsies who bring the discoveries of the world beyond with them as they pass through periodically, exciting the imagination (and obsessions) of José Arcadio, whose wife, Úrsula Iguarán, puts up with his foolishness. Interestingly, the female figures in the book are the ones who more often than not show wisdom and sanity (although not all of them) and live the longest. I don't know if there is meant to be symbolism in the fantastical events, but over time I got used to the strange moments. I also struggled relating to or even caring about the characters, and yet the story still held my interest. While I read the first quarter of the book over a period of about three weeks - in part because I did not have a lot of free time, but also in part because I was struggling with it - I read the last nearly 300 pages in one day. Through his masterful storytelling, Gabriel García Márquez captured some key elements of Colombian history in the 20th century - how it affected the people in the more primitive and remote areas from guerilla warfare to the arrival of the railway, movies, telephones, cars, American (US) exploitation of natural resources (in this case, bananas), clashes between Liberals and Conservatives, the exploitation of plantation workers, who eventual go on strike and are later massacred - depending on whose version of history gets told and whose gets wiped out. Finally finished Cien Anos de Soledad. I read the English version translated by Gregory Rabassa. Some last lines of this novel has a melancholy effects on me. “Before reaching the final line, however, he had already understood that he would never leave that room, for it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments, and that everything written on them was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth.” So their life was a curse, so their magical town was a curse, so there was nothing but a condemned life in Buendias family and their mad house was condemned too. The last line really has a dramatic effect on me, ‘races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth.’ Like, I realized it then that after all, we’re all humans and we’re all condemned with our desolation, our solitude, and in the end, we’re nothing but a race that walk rights into our fear. The saddest part of Cien Anos de Soledad, I think, is the fact that time is cicling. Jose Arcadio Buendia killed Prudencio Agullar due to his lament joke about Jose Arcadio Buendia’s marriage. Meanwhile, Jose Arcadio Buendia still didn’t have a child because of Ursula Iguaran’s fear. His wife was scared with incest, with the certain truth of future about their marriage. Fear is an energy and it was transformed into rage which killed Prudencio Agullar. Yet the energy was still there, since the dead Prudencio Agullar was comically haunting Jose Arcadio Buendia. It then led them to ran away, finding Macondo. The irony of it was Jose Arcadio Buendia thought Macondo as Eden, yet it was only a sad and devastating sanctuary for him. He was cursed and his family was cursed since the day he killed Prudencio Agullar, and Ursula Iguaran was cursed and her family was cursed since the day she consummated her marriage. The fear and guilt they had had lasted them into the family with seven generations, yet life in fear was nothing and there’s no love in their life. The one who dare to loved was finally died alone, drowned in their solitudeness and desolation, yet the rest lived long enough with a solitude air between them. Belongs to Publisher SeriesIs contained inStrange Pilgrims | Love in the Time of Cholera | One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez Leaf Storm | The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor | No One Writes to the Colonel | In Evil Hour | One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude | No One Writes to the Colonel | The Autumn of the Patriarch by Габриэль Гарсия Маркес Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter | Dora, Doralina | One Hundred Years of Solitude | One Day of Life by Manlio Argueta Сто лет одиночества / Полковнику никто не пишет / Хорхе Луис Борхес / Рассказы / Хулио Кортасар / Рассказы by Gabriel García Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude | Love in the Time of Cholera | One Day After Saturday by Габриэль Гарсиа Маркес One Hundred Years of Solitude | Love in the Time of Cholera | Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude | Strange Pilgrims | Love in the Time of Cholera | The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garsia Markes Gabriel Garcia Marquez Collection: Love in the Time of Cholera, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, of Love and Other Demons, the Story of a Shipwrecked Sai by Gabriel García Márquez One Hundred Years of Solitude | Love in the Time of Cholera | Chronicle of a Death Foretold | Collected Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Combinatiepakket Gabriel Garcia Marquez : honderd jaar eenzaamheid en Het Columbia van Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Marcel Bayer Has the adaptationIs replied to inHas as a reference guide/companionHas as a studyHas as a commentary on the textIs a student's study guide toHas as a student's study guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
The rise and fall, birth and death, of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)863.64Literature Spanish and Portuguese Spanish fiction 20th Century 1945-2000LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. Penguin Australia3 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia. Editions: 014118499X, 014103243X, 0141045639 |
It is a flawless representation of the human experience. I will read it again in English and again in Spanish and treasure this work for all of its profound insights. ( )