One Hundred Years of Solitude - WTF? (No spoilers, please.)

I first heard about this book perhaps seven years ago from a mountain climber who said it had changed his life. So I leafed though a copy at the bookstore and spotted this line:

Did I get some bad acid, or is this what’s called “magical realism”? :confused:

Can you give me a good reason to read this book?

Or, should I put it in the same category as Moby Dick – “classics” that should be avoided?

Long, boring, and pointless, says I. I had to read it in one of my English classes. Ugh, what a horrible book.

Its actually a pretty addictive page turner once you get about 75 or so pages into it. Basically a fairy tale focused on the trials of tribulations of the people in some strange town. Very unpredictable, elaborately imaginative settings and characters that seem very “real”, something most writers can never do convincingly.

What pissed me off was that numerous characters have the same exact names, but hey, it keeps you on your toes.

Marquez takes all the beliefs and fables of the people in the village and writes about them them as if they are literal truth. The village is isolated and it’s set in the past; I forget when it starts, but it takes place ofer 100 years. But anyway he just writes down their superstitions as they would. For that quote, they think of the ship as mysterious and “enchanted” because of the time period and the isolation.

I can’t tell you wether you’ll like it or not, because it’s a strange and I can see why some won’t like it.
The names did bother me a bit too, but I’m really bad with names.

Thanks, slackersavant, with that in mind I will give it a try!

I can’t vouch for the former, but the latter is definitely the case. Garcia Marquez isn’t my favorite of that school, but if you want to start out more gently (i.e. in smaller chunks and with less confusing character names), try Jorge Luis Borges’ short stories, or Isabel Allende (the source of my username), or Alejo Carpentier.

It’s been something like 20 years since I’ve read any magic realism, but if memory serves I think Eva Luna is right on the money. Allende is a little easier to handle than Marquez, and is a good introduction to the genre.

I read it several years ago and liked it a lot. I definetely reccomend it, very captivating and interesting story, beautifully told. Also good, in the same genre, is Bulgakovs “The Master and Margarita”. Might be more to your liking, set in Moscow instead of South America, and an easier read.

I absolutely loved reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, but then I’m weird.

I fell in love with the book from the second phrase of the first sentence. I don’t think there is a better opening line in literature.

I didn’t find anything about the book difficult. Yes, it’s episodic, and the names can be confusing (the geneology in the front helps), but it’s filled with memorable characters and fascinating situations. It’s truly a great book, and a pleasure to read (one of the few books in the past ten years that I thought was worth rereading – and I’ll probably reread it again in a few years).

Incredible! I had put the line “For extra credit, tell me why I should read The Master and Margarita” in my original post, then edited it out.

Cien años de soledad is literally my favorite book ever - it’s utterly beautiful, fascinating, it has interesting characters (both my English and Spanish editions had family trees to help you sort out “José Arcadio” and “José Arcadio Buendía” and so forth. Stick with it, but expect it to get stranger (I don’t think the Spanish galleon is anywhere near as strange as the yellow flowers falling from the sky, or the rivulet of blood that carefully avoids furniture and rugs).

It enchanted me from its first sentence: “Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el Coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo.” (“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”)

I’ll second the recommendation of Borges and Allende (her first book, The House of the Spririts (“La Casa de los espíritus”), is another favorite of mine.) But I think Cien años’ reputation is very much deserved; it’s one of the most celebrated pieces of magic realist literature, and indeed modern literature in general, for a very good reason. Stick with it.

Alejo Carpentier’s Viaje a la semilla, which is probably translated as “Return to the origin” or something like that, is a great introduction to magical realism.

One hundred years of solitude is a great book, but if you need introduction to García, try a shorter book, like Crónica de una muerta anunciada (Chronic of an announced death?) or El coronel no tiene quien le escriba.

The town’s called Macondo, and the title refers to the one hundred years certain documents remain forgotten in a room.

Allende’s good, but she cannot deny Garcías influences on her novels, especially the first one.

I’d recommend starting out with the author’s short stories rather than jumping right into Solitude.

I personally don’t consider Borges to be a magic-realism author, but I suppose opinions vary. However, I do vastly prefer Borges to Marquez. Start with Ficciones.

Also, James P. Blaylock tends to do a sort of cheery California version of magic realism.

It’s generally translated as Chronicle of a Death Foretold. I like Garcia Marquez. Especially One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold. I haven’t read Borges or Allende yet.

And just to add my €0.02.
I think you need to read the magic realists as writers trying to put a painting in words. Most of what I’ve read tend not to have the normal formula of a plotdriven book, with a distinct start, middle and end. It’s more like tableaus arranged in a seemingly haphazard order, conveying emotion and atmosphere. I find that I have to be in the right mood to appreciate a description, half a page long, about how dust particles dance in a stream of sunlight, seeping through the drawn curtains on a hot afternoon in July.
So it takes me a while to get through a book, as I put it down and let it sink in. The journey’s well worth it, though.

BTW, Love in the time of cholera is an easier read, if you want to get into GGM.