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

challenging sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 Of course this book can be incredibly hard and uncomfortable to read, what with the incest and weird thing about breasts and big penises. But the author has so much psychoanalysis in his characters—mainly the men, but sometimes the women get some insight into themselves—that makes it worth it (and I think psychoanalysis specifically, Freud vibes). War, capitalism, and colonialism, with their effects, perpetrators, and victims are all explored, as well as people who lose themselves to their vices (I do think “the cardinal sins” play a huge role in the metaphors within the text)...Marquez creates such a rich tapestry of the world’s truths and horrors hidden within a singular character to the whole town. Layers upon layers of symbolism seep in every letter and space of this book, which I always love.

 It’s just amazing to see both the degradation of the Buendias family and the perpetual cycle they all go through, even when they can act so differently from one another. To see what moves each Jose Arcadio or Aureliano to action and how that relates to the world’s progression and its regression. Each chapter is sooo dense with meaning, it’s hard to really write a review that doesn’t discuss what tidbits I gathered from the whole thing. I have to say, I REALLY loved that each chapter was about 20 pages long because it made it a lot easier to digest. There are obvious flaws within the book regarding prejudices and gratuitous scenes, but I think it all takes part in the punch in the mouth the ending gives us all. 
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