Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Cem Anos de Solidão

This book is so beautiful, but it must be understood in the context of Latin American history otherwise it might seem really dense beyond its very poetic prose. Which it still can be at times. However, even though he doesn’t necessarily mean to be, García Márquez is often incredibly funny in his writings. He said things like

The decrepit lawyers dressed in black who during other times had besieged Colonel Aureliano Buendía and who now were controlled by the banana company dismissed those demands with decisions that seemed like acts of magic.

and

Fernanda viewed her as an undesirable witness of her shame and lamented the fact that they had abandoned the medieval custom of hanging a messenger who bore bad news.

Let’s take a journey to Macondo, Colombia and visit the Buendía family.

Content Warnings

bootrat's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

I found this book to be a very strange read. At times I loved it, and at times I found it completely indecipherable and very hard going. I lost track of which character was which, which time period we were in, and where we were within the story quite frequently. However I found it really interesting and intriguing.

I think the fact that I listened to the audiobook made it even more confusing, as I couldn't flick back to previous pages when I lost the thread of the story.

Overall I think I enjoyed this book, but it was quite confusing. I may come back to it and try reading a physical copy, as I think it has potential to be a book I really like.

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