One Hundred Years of Solitude

PerFiction_ist Rating:

10 out of 10

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Gabriel García Márquez's ground-breaking masterpiece follows the Buendía family over one hundred years, and seven generations, in Macondo, the town of which they are the founders.

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I would describe myself as a bibliophage, someone who devours books. I like consuming books in big gulps, as quickly as possible. So it's a rare thing for me to come across a book that begs to be read slowly, to be savoured, and yet that is exactly what I experienced with One Hundred Years of Solitude. From the first page I was captivated and enamoured, but the further I read the more I wanted to slow down because I didn't want it to end. From the language to the characters and the deep human truths casually revealed, it is clear why Márquez was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.

The story is non-linear, jumping back and forth in time in a way that is somehow completely natural and logical. Themes of time and the repetitive nature of history are often explored, perhaps best summed up in this excerpt:

"'That's how it goes,' Úrsula said, 'but not so much.'

When she said it she realized that she was giving the same reply that Colonel Aureliano Buendía had given in his death cell, and once again she shuddered with the evidence that time was not passing, as she had just admitted, but that it was turning in a circle."

Frequent point-of-view shifts give you a broad perspective of events as well as motives and behaviours which may seem mystifying or peculiar at first. The book takes an intriguing look at the solitude of the human mind and the inner world of individuals. It illustrates the solitude and isolation of madness, regret, and hatred, but also that of family life and love. In fact, it contains examples of almost every possible type of loneliness and isolation experienced by humans.

"She lost her mind over him. She could not sleep and she lost her appetite and sank so deeply into solitude that...she worked out an intricate web of false dates to throw Fernanda off the track, lost sight of her girl friends, leaped over conventions to be with [him]."

"Both looked back then...and they lamented that it had cost them so much of their lives to find the paradise of shared solitude."

"That drawing together of two solitary people of the same blood was far from friendship, but it did allow them both to bear up better under the unfathomable solitude that seperated and united them at the same time."

One of the interesting attributes of One Hundred Years of Solitude is the use of magic realism, where odd, fantastical, or dreamlike tales are narrated so naturally, that they become real and commonplace. A levitating priest or the rain that lasted for four years eleven months and two days is described with as much seriousness and reality as the political strife experienced by the citizens of Macondo and Columbia as a whole. Márquez uses magical realism to comment on the nature of Latin American politics characterized by the absurd, denial, and infinite repetitions of tragedy and unnecessary violence. Many aspects of the book were inspired by the author's own childhood and experiences and cover a large part of Columbian history, where myths and superstitions co-exist with modernity.

In the interest of being practical, I must warn you that this is one of those books which has an illustrated genealogy at the beginning. I sometimes find these daunting and slightly confusing, especially when family names are constantly passed on, as is especially true in the case of the Buendía family. However, in my experience, keeping the lineage and the characters straight was not as difficult as I was expecting. A quick look back at the genealogy now and then was all it took. I also felt that I should mention that the book contains moderate levels of violence, but it is never grotesquely graphic in any aspect.

In conclusion, this book instilled a sense of wonder in me from start to finish. I now understand why the New York Times describes it as 'Required reading for the entire human race.' It made me think a lot about humanity's fleeting collective memory and how our family histories so quickly become mysteries shrouded in uncertainty or are completely forgotten as time passes. From the grandeur and misfortunes of the Buendía's, their hereditary vice for making something only to unmake it, to the inhabitants of Macondo weighed down by memories, this book has left an unexpected, yet tangible, impact on my life. In my personal opinion, you can't go wrong with One Hundred Years of Solitude. There's something for everyone, especially if you like sweeping family sagas, and even though there is a sombreness that permeates the story, I think it is one of the best books ever written.

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First published as Cien Años de Soledad 1967

Translated from the Spanish by Gregory Rabassa

ISBN: 978-0-241-96858-1