Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - Cien años de soledad

I read this book for my college reading class and although it was interesting in some parts it was very much confusing. I wanted to love the book but it was exhausting and really hard to keep track of the characters because of the men having the same name constantly.
Some parts were political and I’m not really into that so I just zoned out which sucks because it’s an important plot. There’s some weird incest stuff involved. The book is just crazy to say the least.

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kallsypage's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

Whew, what a journey. It was my first time reading this classic. I enjoyed most of it and I appreciate its literacy genius although it can be a bit difficult to read due to some of the content (see content warnings below). It can also be challenging to follow at times.

There are multiple characters with the same name and the story does tend to bounce around so it can be difficult to figure out which of the characters are being referenced until you either keep reading for more context or think back on your own mental/physical notes. This was obviously an intentional choice by the author perfect for literary analysis. It also helps to look up a family tree which I referenced a number of times while reading.

A few literary analyses I read often referred that the cycle of deaths in this family as an allegory for the cycle of violence in Latin American history due to colonialism and desire for power. This is something I can see vividly in Gabriel García Márquez’s depictions, especially with the Banana Massacre in 1928.

Overall it is a heavily character driven story with intriguing depictions and finely walks the line between reality and the supernatural (magical realism at its best). It’s disparaging, depressing, surprising, frustrating, bizarre, hopeful, and at times all of these all at once. I’m definitely not done dissecting all of the underlying messages.

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lovetlr's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

So much incest? And having every generation with the same names was really hard to follow on audiobook

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jimmy_ready2read's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I understand that this is a critically acclaimed classic, and I do agree that the writing style is unique. It’s more that I think it was a little too heavy on the metaphors and nonsense for me personally. I wouldn’t ward people off from reading a classic but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it

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