García Márquez, Gabriel, a Columbian novelist, explores powerful allegories of the Latin American identity. One Hundred Years of Solitude is an avidly creative and strange work, conveying the issues in the region's history, including political violence, sexuality, rebellion, and the Columbian Civil War. I guarantee half of my classmates hate this book; I enjoyed 30% of it but did not like 70%.
Why did I dislike this book? :
The novel had significant pitfalls in the story; where it is about a family getting bigger, and crucial events arise for everyone. The contents of the story were not entertaining, and I was quite disinterested in following all the births, deaths, magical events, and mythical legends. Plus, it is so LONG! I spent my entire reading break reading through this book! A literal epitome of “reading” break.
Further, I like to read books/mangas and recognize the characters' personalities, goals, and motivations, but this novel failed to portray them even though there are so many characters. It was a challenging read for complex characters with the same name. There are approximately 20 main characters, and 4 of them share the same name. I believe this would be realistic in the Latin American culture of the time, yet I needed to draw a diagram by the time I saw "Aureliano" to avoid mixing up characters.
Lastly, this book makes me uncomfortable and disturbed by the depictions of family incidents. Women are treated as objects, a 9-year-old girl is forced to marry, and the Buendia family members tend to fall in love with their close cousins and nephews. The first time I used a dictionary to confirm the meaning of "incest", thank you for teaching me a new English vocabulary …
Nevertheless, unlike Borges, I am glad it has a simple vocabulary and is easier to follow. In the future, even if the author's name is not given, I could anticipate it to be the work of Márquez! What I meant is his writing style is unique, and I like his use of metaphors!
"The air was so damp that fish could have come in through the doors and swum out the windows, floating through the atmosphere in the rooms" (420).
In conclusion, since this book is perceived as a "masterpiece" and "a giant of 20th-century literature" [lecture], I was expecting more. This is definitely the novel for university English and Hispanic culture courses, as he metaphorically illustrates Columbian-Hispanic political issues! It was an intriguing experience, but I will not read it again.
Questions:
Do you think this book should be read as a fairy tale, myth, or fable? Do you like his metaphorical expressions? If so, what are your favourite phrases?
One little thing, it's "Colombia" (with an "o"), not "Columbia" (with a "u"). If you want to get a Colombian to like you, you won't make that mistake! :) It's also *García* Márquez, not just "Márquez."
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, I'd have liked to have heard more about the "30%" that you did like!
"Women are treated as objects"
I see this much of the time, but I wonder how, for instance, the figure of Úrsula Iguarán fits here? Or even (a bit more arguably) Pilar Ternera? There are at least some instances of strong women, and perhaps Úrsula is the strongest of the lot, male or female, no?