# One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031 "2013-05-10T22:14:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/21 "2013-05-14T05:17:30Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > I meant to be more clear on this, but I think you should at least read the (above-linked) “Historical Context” section of the wiki, even before finishing the book. Like I said, not only will it give you a good idea of the general Colombian frame of reference (which is kind of difficult for most people/Americans to grasp), but it will also give you an idea of what kind of stuff was going on in Colombia in the few years before Marquez wrote the book in 1967. . . . > > Skip the other section I linked in my previous post, _Symbolism & Metaphors_, if you’re worried about (what some would consider) any/all spoilers. But you should be safe with the just historical stuff - I think it will help you \*get \*what you’re supposed to be _getting_. I did finish the book (I read slowly, but with much relish!) To me, the historical context was fairly irrelevant: I could tell, obviously, from context, that it was a loose historical allegory, and the course and basis of the civil war, and the (hideous!) invasion of the United Fruit Company and Banana Imperialism were also very clear. But these never really meant anything to me: my gripe was the dissociation of the characters, the way they almost never interacted, but merely bumped into each other. There are almost no “meeting of minds” scenes. People talk past each other, and with a very flat affect. (There was a 1966 “[Alice in Wonderland](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060089/?ref_=sr_6)” movie which suffered from flatness of affect. Heck, you can see it in the cover photo at IMDB! The actors didn’t act! Except for Leo McKern, who, I suspect, simply ignored the director and let himself go.) The section on Symbolism and Metaphors was of more interest, but much too brief! I would have liked to have seen a deeper analysis of the “Magical Realism” ideas – the book is replete with “little miracles.” The “Ash Wednesday” ash-smears that don’t come out; the woman who ascended bodily to heaven; various others. To me, these “miracles” only served to further distance the novel from the reader. The reader cannot trust his intuitions. Maybe events will unfold one way – or maybe a magical rift will open up, and “reality” falls by the wayside. It’s as if the author had a mad (or child-like) co-author, who, every so often, piped up, “Hey! I got it! How about an incorruptible corpse!” or “Why not have so-and-so ascend bodily to heaven!” These effects detract from an engaging story about people in a frontier town in a land troubled by civil wars. They turn the “history” into a pantomime shadow-show. No, ultimately, this just isn’t the kind of story that guys like me know how to enjoy! (Does it help to note that I’ve enjoyed reading Aristophanes? Him, I comprehend!) ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/22 "2013-05-14T06:34:47Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I hated it. And I feel no guilt whatsoever about not liking it. I refuse to agree with the idea that just because everyone else thinks something is great, it’s necessarily great for me, and this isn’t even a book that everyone thinks it’s great. > > I have a busy, full life. I’ll spend it reading stuff I like, thank you very much. Plus, it hasn’t entered The Western Canon (English language). Yet. So liking it is optional. Mark Twain is another matter. You must like Mark Twain. Or else. (Kidding, obviously: adults can read what they wish.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/23 "2013-05-14T12:20:59Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I hated it. And I feel no guilt whatsoever about not liking it. I refuse to agree with the idea that just because everyone else thinks something is great, it’s necessarily great for me, and this isn’t even a book that everyone thinks it’s great. > > I have a busy, full life. I’ll spend it reading stuff I like, thank you very much. Seems like an oddly defensive response. Are people shoving classics down your throat and expecting you to like them or something? It should be self-evident that not every book, no matter how great, is for everyone. As to me, I couldn’t quite get into _Hundred Years of Solitude_. I mean, I’ve several times gotten through one third of the book, and really enjoyed it (I like magical realism), but I’d then put the book down for a few weeks and when I returned to it, could not keep the characters straight. I just remember the genealogy in that book being particularly dense and easy to lose track of if you left the book aside. So I’ve given up several times. One of the days I’ll get through it. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/24 "2013-05-14T13:41:36Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Seems like an oddly defensive response. Are people shoving classics down your throat and expecting you to like them or something? It should be self-evident that not every book, no matter how great, is for everyone. Sometimes. 🙂 Not so much shoving them down my throat but basically telling me I am not well-read until I have read X. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/25 "2013-05-14T13:47:50Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’d then put the book down for a few weeks and when I returned to it, could not keep the characters straight. Yeah, somehow in about 100 years that family only managed to use about 5 names. That said, I still enjoyed the book. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/26 "2013-05-14T15:19:27Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Sometimes. 🙂 Not so much shoving them down my throat but basically telling me I am not well-read until I have read X. I was an English major and I gave up on playing that game. 🙂 I think some people here read more novels in a year than I have in a lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/27 "2013-05-14T15:37:49Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Seems like an oddly defensive response. Are people shoving classics down your throat and expecting you to like them or something? It should be self-evident that not every book, no matter how great, is for everyone. Not so much here in this particular thread, but the “Oh, you didn’t care for Such and Such Classic? Oh, well carry on reading The Adventures of Dick and Jane” crowd is alive and well. Dude, whatever. It really _should_ be self-evident that no matter how great something is and no matter what a fan of great things you are, you just might find some of those great things to be meh. But you know how people are. But anyway, yup. This is on my list of “Critically Acclaimed…? Bwuh?” books. It took me three attempts to get through it, I put it down and read about 15 books in between trying to finish, with the total time between first picking it up and putting it down for good being something like 8 months. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/28 "2013-05-14T16:00:03Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > But these never really meant anything to me: my gripe was the dissociation of the characters, the way they almost never interacted, but merely bumped into each other. There are almost no “meeting of minds” scenes. People talk past each other, and with a very flat affect. True, but that was fine with me. Maybe it depends on what expectations one has from literature. Too much dialogue can bore me. > [@](#): > > It’s as if the author had a mad (or child-like) co-author, who, every so often, piped up, “Hey! I got it! How about an incorruptible corpse!” or “Why not have so-and-so ascend bodily to heaven!” Yeah, maybe. I wondered, and still wonder, if dreams were the inspiration for many of the events. But I like that. The almost-but-not-quite believable aspect, and the mundane boredom with which the characters react, fascinate me. People going into a house and everyone forgets about them for years. Flying carpets that are a nuisance when the gypsies are in town. A disease that makes everybody forget what things are called and how they work.\*\* RealityChuck\*\* mentioned the first line - which is great - but also in the first couple of paragraphs is a line about how there weren’t many words yet, and so it was often necessary to indicate things by pointing - I \*love \*all that. Literature, schmiterature. It wowed me. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/29 "2013-05-14T16:27:54Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I don’t want people to say, “Why don’t you just go back and re-read the Sherlock Holmes stories, if you can’t function in the world of real literature.” What’s wrong with Sherlock Holmes? Those stories are immensely entertaining, which is pretty much what they were intended to be. Personally, I don’t have time to grind through books that I don’t find entertaining or interesting, and a lot of “real literature” falls into that category. Same goes for film- I’d rather watch a summer blockbuster than waste 2 hours on some pretentious crap because it’s “art”. Read what you like- whatever entertains you, makes you happy, or interests you. If you don’t enjoy reading something, don’t bother, unless it’s for a class or something. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/30 "2013-05-14T19:17:25Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Not so much here in this particular thread, but the “Oh, you didn’t care for Such and Such Classic? Oh, well carry on reading The Adventures of Dick and Jane” crowd is alive and well. Dude, whatever. It really _should_ be self-evident that no matter how great something is and no matter what a fan of great things you are, you just might find some of those great things to be meh. But you know how people are. Yeah, I guess this is what gets me. It seems I must live in some alternate reality, am completely oblivious, or just have friends who aren’t pretentious assholes, as I just can’t relate to this kind of attitude, whether it be about literature, food, music, etc. Sure, I encountered it in high school, but that’s about it. The Dope is about the only place I ever encounter this attitude among adults, and it’s just as often, if not moreso, in the “anti-hipster” sense, especially when it comes to discussing stuff like modern art. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/31 "2013-05-14T21:55:14Z")
> [@bup](#): > > True, but that was fine with me. Maybe it depends on what expectations one has from literature. Too much dialogue can bore me. I vote with Alice in Wonderland: “‘. . . What is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversations?’” Certainly, dialogue proportion is one of those sliders on the big “graphic equalizer” of literature. I have, indeed, seen too much – but Marquez definitely had too little… > [@](#): > > Yeah, maybe. I wondered, and still wonder, if dreams were the inspiration for many of the events. > > But I like that. The almost-but-not-quite believable aspect, and the mundane boredom with which the characters react, fascinate me. . . . I hadn’t thought about it, but you’re right: there’s a lot of “dreamlike” quality to this book. The way events continue to repeat themselves, or the way people die, but don’t go away. (It’s been over 30 years, and I still have dreams about my mother, just as if she were still with us.) Likewise, the way things get forgotten, just as dreams fade. > [@](#): > > I \*love \*all that. Literature, schmiterature. It wowed me. Grin! There, at least, I agree wholeheartedly. There are some writers I utterly adore, but whom others have very little use for. I’m a Brecht fan, for instance, and, while there are a lot of us, there are also probably ten times as many who have tried him and spat him out from their mouths. > [@bump](#): > > What’s wrong with Sherlock Holmes? Those stories are immensely entertaining, which is pretty much what they were intended to be. . . . I love 'em, to be sure! But they depend on concepts such as narrative, logical connection, dramatic arc, continuity of point-of-view – you know, stuff that the pretenderati have told us are obsolete relicts of literary imperialism. (Mostly joking, of course, but I actually have read such opinions!) ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/32 "2013-05-14T21:58:20Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, I guess this is what gets me. It seems I must live in some alternate reality, am completely oblivious, or just have friends who aren’t pretentious assholes, as I just can’t relate to this kind of attitude, whether it be about literature, food, music, etc. Sure, I encountered it in high school, but that’s about it. The Dope is about the only place I ever encounter this attitude among adults, and it’s just as often, if not moreso, in the “anti-hipster” sense, especially when it comes to discussing stuff like modern art. Ditto. I almost never hear this out of people away from the keyboard outside of a few stray assholes, but I hear (read?) this _all the time_ on this message board. So I guess I should have said “But you know how Dopers are.” (No offense, Dopers.) ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/33 "2013-05-14T23:56:31Z")
I didn’t get or like it either. This book and Life of Pi are the two books whose popularity puzzle me the most. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/34 "2013-05-15T20:52:59Z")
> [@treis](#): > > I didn’t get or like it either. This book and Life of Pi are the two books whose popularity puzzle me the most. Did you perceive Life of Pi at all the way I did? I _loved_ the first two parts – and hated it from the point where he encountered the magical island. But the opening section – kid growing up in Pondicherry and exploring religious diversity – was brilliant! I enjoyed it hugely, and also admired it in the abstract. To me, it was the betrayal of the ending that frosted me. I felt as if the author were taunting me. Marquez, while definitely not my cuppa, never struck me as being unfair. He has a story, and he has his way of telling it. He doesn’t cheat the reader; he doesn’t wait until the very end and then ring in some magical mystery woo. The surrealism is there from the beginning. I respect that kind of integrity. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/35 "2013-05-15T20:58:36Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Marquez, while definitely not my cuppa, never struck me as being unfair. He has a story, and he has his way of telling it. He doesn’t cheat the reader; he doesn’t wait until the very end and then ring in some magical mystery woo. The surrealism is there from the beginning. I respect that kind of integrity. I have to say I really appreciate the fact that, while this type of literature is not what entices you, you can at least note things that can make others admire the work you dislike. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/36 "2013-05-15T22:01:15Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > I preferred _Love In The Time Of Cholera_ myself, but like others I read it in my 20s and haven’t revisited it. It may in fact be age-related. I always thought that should’ve been called _Love in the Time of Don’t Bothera_. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/37 "2013-05-15T22:09:03Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > I have to say I really appreciate the fact that, while this type of literature is not what entices you, you can at least note things that can make others admire the work you dislike. Li’l ol’ devil’s advocate! That’s me! For instance, I admired the way Marquez kept track of the complexity of his plot. He is often presaging future events, or recollecting past events, and he keeps them straight. The book was very well organized. The language, too, seemed very strong, fluid, poetic. Obviously, I’m hugely handicapped by reading it in translation. Oh, and one thing made me laugh! Late in the book, a wife is berating her husband for being no good, lazy, etc. And damn if Marquez doesn’t recap her raging in a two-page single sentence! It just goes on and on and on! Hundreds of words! It imitates the wearying, unyielding, monotonous character of a really well-executed henpecking session! We are definitely not talking about [The Eye of Argon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_of_Argon) here! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/38 "2013-05-16T00:24:18Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Oh, and one thing made me laugh! Late in the book, a wife is berating her husband for being no good, lazy, etc. And damn if Marquez doesn’t recap her raging in a two-page single sentence! It just goes on and on and on! Hundreds of words! It imitates the wearying, unyielding, monotonous character of a really well-executed henpecking session! That was actually my favorite part. About a few lines into it was when I noticed that I mentally hadn’t “taken a breath” then it cracked me up. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/39 "2013-05-16T02:06:32Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Ditto. I almost never hear this out of people away from the keyboard outside of a few stray assholes, but I hear (read?) this _all the time_ on this message board. So I guess I should have said “But you know how Dopers are.” (No offense, Dopers.) I gotta say, I can only think of a couple of people who do this, and one is banned (I think, he might have just stopped posting) while the other rarely posts. What I see a lot more of is reverse-hipsterism, where posters assume anyone who likes some obscure difficult thing doesn’t really like it but only reads, listens to, sees or eats that thing to be pretentious and show off. It annoys me a lot more than general hipsterism, if only because it’s so more prevalent here. That said, cant say much about OHYoS. I tried to read it as a teenager, but I was way too young. Might give it another shot someday. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031/40 "2013-05-16T12:41:37Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Oh, and one thing made me laugh! Late in the book, a wife is berating her husband for being no good, lazy, etc. And damn if Marquez doesn’t recap her raging in a two-page single sentence! It just goes on and on and on! Hundreds of words! The entire book _Autumn of the Patriarch_ is like that. Except it’s not funny. It’s more like the effect of a Tennessee Williams play - everything is just so tiring and you want to give in to inertia. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-by-gabriel-garcia-marquez/658031.md?page=1)