Product Description

One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, and alive with unforgettable men and women -- brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul -- this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1701 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-01
• Released on: 2006-02-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
"More lucidity, wit, wisdom, and poetry than is expected from 100 years of novelists, let alone one man." -- Washington Post Book World

"The first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race." -- William Kennedy, New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Gabriel GarcÍa MÁrquez was born in Colombia in 1927. His many books include The Autumn of the Patriarch; No One Writes to the Colonel; Love in the Time of Cholera; a memoir, Living to Tell the Tale; and, most recently, a novel, Memories of My Melancholy Whores. Gabriel GarcÍa MÁrquez was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.

Customer Reviews

Excellent, but not typical of Marquez.
I'm one of those who found One Hundred Years of Solitude fascinating and enjoyable. The style definitely made it for me; Marquez's prose is misty and mythic in a beautifully descriptive way. I never lost interest in the story. It's told in an unusual manner, more like an oral history or legend than a written work. After reading it, I could see why Marquez is called the "South American Faulkner"; the style in One Hundred Years of Solitude can only be compared to a book like The Sound and the Fury. I have called it misty, but it's deeper than that. The haze over Macondo is analogous to the haze of memory itself. I was thoroughly satisfied and amazed by the book. For me to attempt further description of its marvelous intricacies would be to rob you of the full joy of reading it.

I was disappointed, though, when I sampled some of Marquez's other works. In Evil Hour failed to hold my attention at all, and the only novel that has even come close was Love in the Time of Cholera. Marquez was a good author and journalist, but he didn't have the consistency to maintain the style he achieved in One Hundred Years of Solitude. I would wholeheartedly recommend OHYoS to anyone interested in this book or this author, but I would simultaneously warn him or her not to expect to find another book like it. Perhaps it's best that way.

Well-written but very graphic
100 years of solitude is an extremely well-written novel. The town of Macondo is personified through the Buendia family. It was the Buendias who founded the town and their lineage that is followed in the story. The town (like the Buendia family) is a desolate and solitary place that rapidly matures until it is destroyed. From the founding of the town, to the installment of the banana company, to the town's destruction, Macondo is destined to remain in solitude. Like the Buendias, the town never really reaches its full potential. Although the novel is extremely graphic and somewhat depressing at parts, from a literary point of view, 100 years of solitude is a fantastic novel.

Appalling. . .
I checked this book out of the library after reading rave review after rave review.

I wanted to like it, I really did, but I honestly cannot understand all the high marks. To me the book reads as if it were written by a 6th-grader. Characterization and storyline aside, the language itself is what turned me off. It seemed stilted, contrived, lacking in fluidity, and devoid of any real color; an amateurish effort at best.

Perhaps this reads better in its native tongue, but the translation I read was atrocious. I promptly returned it to the library, shooting it soundly down the return bin with a force that it so richly deserved.