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One Hundred Years of Solitude
By Gabriel Garcia Marquéz
This is a challenging book to review! Often viewed as the first example of magical realism, Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude is a very strange, slow-moving story that combines dry humor, barbed political commentary, and a touch of magic for good measure.
In the city of Macondo, it is always Monday. Likewise, nothing else ever really changes — even when it does. Lives are long, but memories are short, and cycles repeat.
This story follows the Buendia family and their pursuits of fulfilment, happiness, and sometimes political gain in a sleepy town full of strange characters.
I greatly enjoyed the pieces of this book taken from Colombian history — as an example, I went down a little Google rabbithole about the Banana Massacre of 1928 by the United Fruit Company (now known as Chiquita).
I also found the plagues fascinating, especially the peoples’ lack of major reaction to them.
I’ve seen Reddit users claim that this story loosely inspired the Disney movie Encanto — although I’m afraid I don’t see much similarity aside from Colombia, magical realism, and a well-known family caught up in their own drama and trauma cycles. I may read further on this.
This book’s primary themes are cyclical behaviors of humans and societies, isolation, and a vague feeling of hopelessness — that we cannot change our fates. Despite this, the tone is strangely light despite the subject matter.
I have very mixed feelings about this book and the characters with rehashed names. This may be a generational issue, since I know names carried more weight in the past. But I really really did struggle to keep track of which Aurelianos and Amarantas we were following this time around. Initially, I thought maybe this was because I’m white and the names are less familiar, but ultimately I think I’d have been just as confused if they were named Michael and Katie.
(Side note! I hybrid read this story — meaning that I went back and forth between paperback and audiobook. I may have had less trouble with names if I had seen them on paper more than I did.)
Ultimately this is a story about humanity, and while it seems lighthearted initially, you soon discover a layer of darkness and desperation hidden amongst the magic.
Very strange book. I recommend if you enjoy family sagas and don’t need a happy ending.
The Midnight Review 