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A review by eva_jean
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
3.0
dear lord.
i picked this up on a whim. i was at the bookstore and my mom wanted me to buy a book that i wouldn't normally gravitate towards, and this one was staring me in the face. and it was certainly outside of my comfort zone.
many people say this is the best book they've ever read. and i can genuinely see why. in fact, i can see why some believe it "should be required reading for the entire human race." i totally believe it should be part of the high school curriculum.
but my god it was a chore to get through.
there was no plot, but so much stuff happened. to be exact, seven generations worth of human stupidity (plus magic). because of all this, i was never engaged, never interested or invested. there were too many characters and too many events crashing into each other simultaneously, so that at once it moved at a glacial pace and so fast that i couldn't keep up.
also, maybe it's just me, because i don't hear a lot of people talking about it, but the excessive amounts of pedophelia and incest in One Hundred Years of Solitude really ruined it for me. i had to put it down so many times because i just couldn't bear to read it. maybe that's part of the point, but i still hated reading it.
then, there is so much in this book that i can't tell if i hate or if it's brilliant. i think i am coming to terms with the fact that they could be both. for example, i felt so far removed from everything that was going on because the tone with which everything was written was so indifferent that i had barely any incentive to keep reading. i couldn't tell if he was condemning or condoning all of the shitty things that happen in the story. but at the same time, i've come to recognize that the choice of tone is also brilliant because it demonstrate's the reader's power to make meaning of the story, further emphasizing that though truth may be objective, facts are subjective; in other words, we can't ever access the truth because unless we experience it for ourselves, and even then it is tainted by our psychology.
taken into historical context, the meaning of One Hundred Years of Solitude magnifies exponentially. with the themes i mentioned above, Márquez explores neo-colonialism and exploitation, as well as the larger history of latin america, through a lens that i think many in the West don't often encounter. i really love the Crash Course videos on this novel because it really helped me to understand why this book is important, as i wasn't familiar with a lot of the historical references made.
i also think that this novel has the most accurate view of human nature that i have ever encountered (at least according to my worldview). Márquez does not portray humans as inherently good or evil, but instead shows that we are mostly just stupid, destined to repeat our ancestors mistakes over and over. i don't think humans are angels or demons, but i can definitely get behind the idea that none of us know what we are doing, and it's such a relief to see that reflected in literature.
ultimately, I feel that I am more interested in the conversations about this novel than the novel itself.
i picked this up on a whim. i was at the bookstore and my mom wanted me to buy a book that i wouldn't normally gravitate towards, and this one was staring me in the face. and it was certainly outside of my comfort zone.
many people say this is the best book they've ever read. and i can genuinely see why. in fact, i can see why some believe it "should be required reading for the entire human race." i totally believe it should be part of the high school curriculum.
but my god it was a chore to get through.
there was no plot, but so much stuff happened. to be exact, seven generations worth of human stupidity (plus magic). because of all this, i was never engaged, never interested or invested. there were too many characters and too many events crashing into each other simultaneously, so that at once it moved at a glacial pace and so fast that i couldn't keep up.
also, maybe it's just me, because i don't hear a lot of people talking about it, but the excessive amounts of pedophelia and incest in One Hundred Years of Solitude really ruined it for me. i had to put it down so many times because i just couldn't bear to read it. maybe that's part of the point, but i still hated reading it.
then, there is so much in this book that i can't tell if i hate or if it's brilliant. i think i am coming to terms with the fact that they could be both. for example, i felt so far removed from everything that was going on because the tone with which everything was written was so indifferent that i had barely any incentive to keep reading. i couldn't tell if he was condemning or condoning all of the shitty things that happen in the story. but at the same time, i've come to recognize that the choice of tone is also brilliant because it demonstrate's the reader's power to make meaning of the story, further emphasizing that though truth may be objective, facts are subjective; in other words, we can't ever access the truth because unless we experience it for ourselves, and even then it is tainted by our psychology.
taken into historical context, the meaning of One Hundred Years of Solitude magnifies exponentially. with the themes i mentioned above, Márquez explores neo-colonialism and exploitation, as well as the larger history of latin america, through a lens that i think many in the West don't often encounter. i really love the Crash Course videos on this novel because it really helped me to understand why this book is important, as i wasn't familiar with a lot of the historical references made.
i also think that this novel has the most accurate view of human nature that i have ever encountered (at least according to my worldview). Márquez does not portray humans as inherently good or evil, but instead shows that we are mostly just stupid, destined to repeat our ancestors mistakes over and over. i don't think humans are angels or demons, but i can definitely get behind the idea that none of us know what we are doing, and it's such a relief to see that reflected in literature.
ultimately, I feel that I am more interested in the conversations about this novel than the novel itself.