Saturday, December 18, 2010

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

This is a very strange book.  It has a lot of parts that are gross and seemed unnecessary until you consider the total picture that Márquez is trying to paint.  I didn't really enjoy reading the book, but I do like to think back on it and analyze its meaning.

The story in a nut shell is about the Buendía family and the founding of a little town in the middle of the jungle called Macondo.  They have really no connection with the outside world an live in an Eden state.  José Arcadio Buendía, the father of the group and founder of the town leads to the eventual distruction of the town because of his undying interest in science and the outside world.  Every bit of modernization that comes to the town brings with it destruction. 

You definitely feel a connection between faith and the magical as elements that are real and concrete.  The book is written in a way that the the spiritual and magical as anything physical.  The destruction of the town is prophesied by an old gypsy at the beginning of the town, which gives the impression that the lives and progress and eventual destruction of the town are all part of a predetermined cycle, similar to the world in the Bible.

Like I say, I thought the book was quite crude and strange while I was reading it.  I am not sure if I would suggest it, but it is definitely a masterpiece.

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