A review by bbrassfield
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

4.0

If this novel were a painting, it might look like something out of Bosch. One hundred years of Solitude is such an interesting book in that the construction reads to me as largely plotless vast tapestry of splendid impossible characters. The final chapter proceeds along more traditional lines and I found myself troubling over which sections I preferred? Honestly, unsure. The book reminds me in parts of both the Decameron and of Joyce's Ulysses. What Ulysses accomplishes over the course of a day in Dublin, I think Marquez writes over the course of a century in the incredible town of Macondo. There are many memorable scenes and I read this novel straight through in an effort to take in the entirely of the incredible canvas of life love and longing that the writer has created. Some characters are more memorable than others but if I had to point to a favorite it might be Remedios the beautiful (her name made me think of Reeking Lizavetta) who as a child paints figures on the wall with an instrument she dips in her own excrement. Of course, there are many beautiful passages where the magical and unbelievable coexist and I found myself earmarking many passages. Taken on the whole, the entire text reads like a long poem that this reader could imagine being written entirely without punctuation, like the last chapter of Ulysses. Early on the mind might struggle to take in all of the names and faces. It's best to treat the prose like a great rushing river where you dive in and let it carry you along. The ride is worth the occasional frustration. Like other great books that transcend time and space, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a book that will hold up to repeated readings.

My favorite part of the reading experience was discovering at the end of the novel that Melquíades manuscript that is discovered is actually the narrative with the history we have just read having already been written. I found this to be a brilliant move and not one that I saw coming. Perhaps I should have suspected a character with a name that means 'yahweh is my god' might possess the gift of foresight.