Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Epic Novel, "One Hundred Years of Solitude"

Fernando: I bought for a gift. Excellent product and quality

United Kingdom on Nov 13, 2022

TiffanyAnne: One of the most amazing book ever written, a must read for sure.

Germany on Oct 16, 2022

Michael J. Crown: For the first few chapters, I had wondered why this book was so renowned. By the time I was done I realized why. There's a magic to it, an expression of the sheer joy of life, but also of its futility and madness. This book isn't for everyone, and it will take patience to absorb its message. I regret not being able to read this in the original Spanish.

United States on Jan 23, 2022

JORGE FLAVIO SANTANA CRUZ: O livro é muito bom!

Brazil on Jul 28, 2021

pedro: Buy Everyman's Library editions for your favorite books, seriously. They are a pleasure to look at and read. Half the fun reading this had been holding this fantastic book.

Spain on Nov 09, 2020

Broadway Turk Superstar: As an indie lit postmodernist author, I can say with authority that this fits the description of a postmodernist novel. Yet the global literary community has branded this as a new genre of magical realism, and even gave Gabriel Garcia Marquez a Nobel Prize in Literature for it. Oh well, if you've gotta live your lifetime in Colombia I guess you should have something to show for it.

At any rate, if you're into postmodern this is a worthy read. Jose Arcadio Buendia founds the village of Macondo after a time of wandering in the jungle. Eventually the village begins to grow, and Buendia continues his efforts to develop its community. Only he finds himself bracketed by the mysticism of tradition and technology of the modern world. What the primitives see as magic is explained by Buendia as wonders of the civilized world. Alternately, the technical aspects of new concoctions and contraptions that Buendia cannot fully explained are accepted by the villagers as magic. His consternation grows beyond expectation as political issues in Colombian society have an impact on the village. They are drawn into a revolutionary conflict, and Buendia is heralded as a rebel leader against an...

United States on Jul 02, 2018

maja v.: The best book of all times. Must read!!!

Canada on Dec 05, 2017

richardovaz: In The Aleph, Jorge Luis Borges' sublime short story, "all the places of the world, seen from every angle, coexist" in a single point of light a mere two or three centimeters in diameter.
In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has done nothing less than recount human history and, yes, even human nature itself, seen from every angle, in a mere 417 pages.

Since many of the reviewers here have identified the glories of this breathtaking novel far better than I could, it would be redundant and presumptuous to paraphrase their observations.

Suffice to say that One Hundred Years of Solitude marks a leap forward in the art of fiction comparable to those achieved by Proust and Joyce.

William Kennedy wrote: "One Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race", and Salman Rushdie called it "the greatest novel in any language in the last fifty years".

I've read it eleven times in the past three decades and, believe me, it is the ultimate Gift That Keeps On Giving.

Please give it a try. After all, like me, you may end up cherishing this book...

United States on Apr 17, 2015

Khoi Trieu: This book is broken down into pseudo-chapters which follows a family through several generations. It's fiction, but it's a bit more than that. I remember reading somewhere that there is no difference between poetry or prose, fiction or nonfiction, that all these are just tools for writers to explain a truth. This book explains the truth in humans and everything from our vices to our virtues.

The story also falls into a certain realm of fantasy because it does involve some supernatural elements such as ghosts and alchemy. It shows great men who lost their humanity, poor men who sold their souls for greed, the corruption of governments, the madness within ourselves, and the fallacy of our belief that people who are different than us are beneath us. The book follows an omniscient narrator as he tells the story of various family members of the Buendia family. Spanning several generations, these characters fill every quirk and vice that dogs humanity. My favorite character is Remedios the Beauty, who out of either extreme ignorance or extreme clarity is thought of as an eccentric, dumb girl. Her character poses the question, "Is she really dumb or is she just smarter than us...

United States on Apr 07, 2012