Book Thirty-Two of the Book-a-Week QuestOne Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel García Márquez (1967)
Two folks at work raved about this one, so I figured why not give it a shot. It started out rather promisingly. The story of the Buendía family living in the town of Macondo, 100YoS details seemingly every single family member's struggles and strifes over the course of multiple generations. During the first 200 pages, I was totally with the book and enjoying it.
Then, the next 200 pages were more of the same old stuff, seemingly repeated in generation after generation. Sons and daughters were given the same names as their mothers or fathers or grandparents, and, admittedly, I became confused pretty easily. I'm not so sure it's a good thing when your book has to have a family tree at the beginning of it in order to assist the reader in figuring out which family member is which. While it's true that the last ten pages or so were kind of cool and added a nice twist to the tale, it wasn't enough to save it for me.
I will say that I truly enjoyed the way Márquez descriptively writes...for the first 200 pages at least. Everything was vividly described which is usually something that bothers me to no end (I'm not a fan of super-descriptive details), but Márquez was certainly adept at keeping me interested.
Unfortunately, this book single-handedly set me back on my Book-a-Week Quest by a couple weeks...time to read the fluff to catch up!
Then, the next 200 pages were more of the same old stuff, seemingly repeated in generation after generation. Sons and daughters were given the same names as their mothers or fathers or grandparents, and, admittedly, I became confused pretty easily. I'm not so sure it's a good thing when your book has to have a family tree at the beginning of it in order to assist the reader in figuring out which family member is which. While it's true that the last ten pages or so were kind of cool and added a nice twist to the tale, it wasn't enough to save it for me.
I will say that I truly enjoyed the way Márquez descriptively writes...for the first 200 pages at least. Everything was vividly described which is usually something that bothers me to no end (I'm not a fan of super-descriptive details), but Márquez was certainly adept at keeping me interested.
Unfortunately, this book single-handedly set me back on my Book-a-Week Quest by a couple weeks...time to read the fluff to catch up!
The whole cyclical thing is one of the main themes of the book!
ReplyDeleteIf you want a shorter, less thematically rich book written by him, I'd suggest Love in the Time of Cholera.
Also, if you want to read a few non-fiction books, I can hook you up.
Oh, believe me, I get the whole cyclical thing...I just didn't care for it a bit (after the halfway point). I just wanted it to be done.
ReplyDeleteI've gotta read some quick stuff here now, but I may take you up on the non-fiction in a few weeks.
This was an Oprah pick and I've gotta tell you, she's batting about .800 with me on lousy books. Or at least overrated books. I admit I have not read 100YoS but I also admit that I haven't because she picked it. For God's sake, why hasn't she just picked The Catcher in the Rye too?!?!
ReplyDeleteI'm always good for some suggestions and have probably 1000 books. The 'perks' or curse of working at Borders, I guess. If you're ever stuck maybe you can read one of the books I've often BEGGED Thomas to read and he never does!
I've never read Catcher in the Rye...although it's one of those that will never live up to the hype were I to read it.
ReplyDeleteOne of these days when I pick Thomas up, I'll need to take a look through your bookshelves...I'm still a few weeks behind, though...still need to read the fluff...