Product Description
One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, and alive with unforgettable men and women -- brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul -- this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.
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 Marquez at its best!
For those of you who have read Marquez before this book will not dissapoint you, in fact I think its one of Marquez best.
For those of you who havent, this is a great way to start.
This is the story of the Buendia family and how things happen through the years. It is full of memorable passages that will make you think that what happens to the family and the town can be related to different passages in world history.
Dont worry if after the first couple of pages you are confused by the many names and vatriations of each. The characters and their story are so unique that the similarity in names will have little importance.
I think Marquez tells a good and enjoyable story that can be enjoyed by everyone at anytime and you will find that after the first few pages it will be hard to put it down.
Granted that I read this book in Spanish so I think it might feel a little different reading it in English and maybe some events will seem strange if you are not familiarized with the way families behave in Latin countries.
Totally worth it though.
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 Too Boring to Continue ( abysinth )
I only made it to 195 pages. The book is just boring. A lot of sound and fury signifying very little. There are marriages; there are deaths; there are love affairs; there are suicides; there are battles... so a lot does happen. BUT-- I don't care about the characters. If you don't care about the characters, then all their quirky faults seem abstract and dull. Like dusty butterflies in a catalog, their various lives are chronicled. It's a dry description of their adventures and I'm left with a "so what?" Maybe his dryness passes for sophistication, but this book left me cold.
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Makes Life Worth Living ( jeff0816 )
In Woody Allen's masterpiece Manhattan, he asks himself "why is life worth living." He proceeds to give a variety of concrete answers such as Willie Mays, Swedish movies and Cezanne's apples and pears. For me, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude is a reason for living. It is my favorite book of all time.
The writing is beautifully lyrical. This is especially amazing since I have only read English translations. It is one of the most vividly imaginative stories I have ever read. I've read it in high school, college, in my twenties and in my thirties. As I have matured and my knowledge of other cultures has deepened, so has my appreciation for this great work of art.
When I read a book I enjoy, I usually think I might like to read it again someday, maybe. I know for a fact I will read 100 Years of Solitude again and probably several times depending on how long I live. At turns hilarious, tragic, poetic and ribald, 100 Years is a profoundly human and sympathetic understanding of the loneliness and isolation of the individual, families and entire civilizations.
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More than a love story, this is a work of art ( the_goddess_to_be )
This is my second favorite book of all time (the first is One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien Años de Soledad Spanish Version) by the same author). It tells the story of lovesick Florentino, who has waited for the love of his life, Fermina, for 50 years. Fermina was married to Dr. Juvenal Urbino and therefore unavailable. Their love story began through letters. But then Fermina rejects Florentino because she feels their relationship was naive. She is forced to marry Dr. Urbino by her father. When Dr. Urbino dies, Florentino comes back into Fermina's life and tells her he has waited for her all these years. Then, their correspondence continues and their love grows again.
Garcia Marquez has written an amazing love story that employs elements of magical realism. This only make the story better and even more amazing. This love story is as no other, and only Garcia Marquez could have written such an amzing book. The characters are so well written that they come alive in the pages of this book.
I read the book in Spanish and I reccommend that if you understand Spanish, to read this book in its original language. Although the English translation is good, I feel the Garcia Marquez touch, the "it" that makes this story what it is may get lost in the translation.
This is a book that everyone should read and I cannot reccommend it enough.
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 Thank God for that Family Tree
This is another book I admired more than enjoyed. The term "magic realism" has been coined to describe it, but what Garcia Marquez does, is akin to what Kafka and Joyce have done, but in a style less concise than the former, and less abstract than the latter. He tells the fantastic tale of Macondo and the Buendia family in the most sober of styles, offering up surrealism as part family portrait and part Latin American history.
The repetition of names serves as a device to hermetically seal off the Buendias from the rest of society, thus ensuring their solitude. It can be overwhelming at times, and I frequently had to refer to the family tree to get my bearings. Each member of the clan has unique strengths or attributes, as well as fatal flaws, that isolate them from others. The Buendias seem to be in constant struggle, either with themselves, with the rules of society, or with the natural world in the form of ants, scorpions, and torrential rains that last for almost 5 years. The alchemic quest, the transmutation of the dross into the sublime, seems to be a running theme.
Garcia Marquez is very adept at descriptive imagery, but it seems overused at points. I never felt empathy with any character. There is a lack of pathos in this novel. Outrageous humor is in my opinion, one of the chief qualities of this novel, and probably it's greatest strength, more so to me than the surrealism and obvious symbolism.
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