Reviews with content warning for War - Honderd jaar eenzaamheid

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.

One Hundred Years of Solitude put South-American Literature on the map and awarded Gabriel García Márquez the Nobel Prize. It revolves around family, the circularity of time and unavoidable outcomes. And solitude.

Because a century of cards and experience had taught her that the history of the family was a machine with unavoidable repetitions, a turning wheel that would have gone on spilling into eternity were it not for the progressive and irremediable wearing of the axle.

Márquez wrote the story like his grandmother used to: weaving the unreal into reality. This Magical Realism feels very natural and enhances the story. There are ghosts; there are butterflies following a man wherever he goes; there are people who die multiple times. There are mysterious parchments which one day will reveal themselves…

The story is absurd and full of situational comedy that made me laugh out loud. The story follows the Buendiá family over approximately one hundred years through the throws of civil wars and social uproars, incest and jealousy, love and solitude. The family founded the little town of Macondo, a place that is almost a character in itself. It will rise, it might fall. It is confronted with changes from the outside world, like post or railroads.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is an adventure one probably shouldn’t dissect too much — and I could go on….

Often mentioned is the big family tree containing tons of men called Aureliano or Arcadio. It serves a purpose, promise. And it’s doable with taking a few notes on the go.

Content Warnings

katanai's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense 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

2.75

“she became human in her solitude” damn

okay. so many thoughts but also none at all? um. when i went in to this book i definitely wasn’t expecting such dark elements such as pedophilia, incest & rape. author’s writing is so lengthy im unsure of why it took so long to get to the point. a yapper for sure. it was so wordy & not in a way that’s all the way enjoyable although you will get lost in the sauce. at the beginning, all the different ppl but sharing such similar names ground my gears bc i got confused to who was who. i can see why it’s some ppl’s favorite books but also out of all books why this one? i get it but it doesn’t mean i have to like it. in short, a novel that tells of the worst that humans can be as well our stubbornness that leads to solitude in which do we even matter at all? anyway.

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saturn_rage's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

2.25

Okay, so Remedios the Beauty is the only saving grace of this thing. That, and some really interesting ideas, love the concept of reading your past and present as your world ends around you. But, holy shit, we need to stop tolerating shit like this. This is a book about MEN written by a MAN. The women are not characters, they are only things to be fucked, assaulted, or confounded by. Furthermore, there are far too many age-inappropriate relationships here (any, really), and the “excuse” that “it was normal at the time” doesn’t fly. Again, there’s so neat ideas to be found here, but it’s always just bogged down by horrendous shit that the novel and its author seem gleeful to include. This should be better, but that would require a different approach to all of it.

Also, I only found out halfway through this reading that Netflix is adapting the book into a series, so that explains why it was in such high demand.

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maia313's review against another edition

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challenging reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Really enjoyed this book, can see why it won the novel prize for literature. Took me a very long time to get through it and found it challenging at points, definitely helped to refer back to the family tree and found that as you go through the book, the names become easier. Have never read anything in this style before, found it a really interesting read, some beautiful lines.

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alfredesin's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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