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aurjolras's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Incest
Moderate: Pedophilia
kj_1429's review against another edition
3.0
Moderate: Incest, Rape, and Pedophilia
kazamaria's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Eating disorder, Suicide attempt, Violence, War, and Suicide
Minor: Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Child death, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, and Homophobia
emglange's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Pedophilia and Incest
storyorc's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Generous helpings of surreal phenomena keep things unpredictable and enchanting despite the page length, imbuing even daily occurrences like fighting ants or embroidering with a gravity that echoes through generations. The distant, light-hearted style of narration and delightful turns of phrase are the honey that makes the medicine go down.
The overall impression, however, is realistic enough to provoke existential dread. The Buendías do not collapse in a linear tale of corruption and lethargy. Treasures buried by one member may come in clutch for a descendant, a son might coast by on the prestige of his family name, and people are happy more often than wretched - or, if not happy, then at least getting on with their lives.
Just when you are relaxing into a moment of joy or peace in the story, the narrator tosses in a remark about how this person is doomed or this course of action will bring ruin. Sometimes, it is misleading, but not consistently enough to discount. The ground is always shifting. The sense of hands closing around a character's neck often makes this book quite the page-turner, even when the neck belongs to a very (VERY) flawed person. In uncanny mimicry of actual family, the story cultivates empathy and even loyalty for awful characters simply by showing, from birth and before, why and how they came to be.
There's also something very uncomfortable yet relatable about how this huge, sprawling family who live and die on top of each other in this house perpetually stumble into self-absorption and fail to understand one another. They get close, then drift or fall short again, then try again. Very human.
Life in Macondo is relentless and defies not only narrative catharsis but even cause and effect. The Buendía family history is one that refuses to be reduced to a simple warning against modernity or selfishness to read and pat yourself on the back and then forget. It sticks in the throat.
Graphic: Colonisation, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, and War
Minor: Animal cruelty
lovetlr's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Incest, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: War
moka_b's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: War, Incest, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Animal cruelty
bayrayj's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Genocide, Incest, and War
Moderate: Religious bigotry and Sexual content
Minor: Pedophilia
lulucent's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Incest and Pedophilia
ashieee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.0
Moderate: Incest and Pedophilia