Yes, my review can be condensed into three words: READ THIS BOOK!!!

Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude"

Thats 1 HEAVY BOOK given to me by one of my friend!..
the cover attracted me very much so my as my blog entry i want to share my views on this book..

"The book picks up not too far after Genesis left off." And this fictitious chronicle of the Buendia household in the etherial town of Macondo somewhere in Latin America does just that. Rightly hailed as a masterpiece of the 20th century, Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" will remain on the reading list of every affected college kid, every under-employed author, every field-worker, and indeed should be "required reading for the entire human race," as one reviewer put it a few decades back.

I can only hint at a few of the striking features of the work that are so novel, so insightful, and which make it such a success in my opinion.

By far and away the most inspiring element of the work is the author's tone. He reportedly self-conscioulsy wrote in the style that his grandmother back in Columbia used to tell him stories. Thus there is a conversational, meandering, but indeed succinct and perfect narrative voice to whisk the reader through the years of Macondo's fantastical history.

Not unrelatedly, the tone has ample visual imagery, with superb attention to detail (and just the right quantity and nature of the detail that surrounds everyday life) to help prod the story along. The dolls of the child-bride treasured by the mother-in-law and heroine Ursula. The paranormal and mundane contrivences of the gypsies that are celebrated in the opening pages and which close the book. The tree to which the mad genius who founded the town and Buendia line is tied and dies in. The pretentious suitcases of the returning emigre. The goldfishes that are the relicts of a disillusioned but celebrated warrior. And the ubiquitous ants. All these objects have their proper place among the daily going abouts of the Buendia family, and serve to weave into the story a sense of BOTH the ordinary and the surreal.

There is ample space in this world of Macondo and the Buendias for a sad commentary on that world South of the Rio Grande. Incessant, pointless civil wars. A rigid political and ecclesiastical hierarchy shoved down the throats of decent folk. The rampant exploitation of the tropics by outsiders, both foreign and domesitc. And perhaps most significantly, the strangely marginal and uncomfortable space occupied by technology in daily life in the Latino world. I am surely not alone in uncovering some facet of the work that speaks so boldly and loudly to me. This rich yet surprisingly elegant novel has, it seems, on every page the germinating seeds of an exciting conversation that speaks directly to an observation and experience everybody, and especially those coming to or from Latin America (or any underdeveloped nation), has had.

And of course there are the brilliant characters, and the sense one gets of how they are affected by, and in turn affect, their setting. The story is aided by a pedigree one keeps referring to in the beginning of the book, as its immense scope (yes, 100 years) and maddening array of characters demand of the reader to conjure up visualizations of what exactly is going on. It is no wonder that this work is celebrated for being almost in accord with the Bible in scope.

One night with this book @ my home

This book was gifted to me on my birthday! 1 night @ call center; here are my views... 


One thing strikingly remarkable about this book is that it keeps the reader hooked till the end. Maybe the reason for this is its small size but more importantly, it is realistic. One can relate with each of the characters. Their problems depicted are certainly not worth being in the news but these are common problems we common people often come across, maybe in our own lives or in the lives of people around us.


Of course, the ’call from God’ is impractical, but isn’t this fiction? The author undoubtedly has the right to present his imagination in his own creation. On the contrary, ’the call’ can also be interpreted as ’the inner voice’ which called out when the characters were on the verge of death asking them to analyse what all they have done in life.I liked the story the author built up about the train journey and the beautiful lady pestering him to make her story his next book. It makes the readers feel that it is a true story and the author is simply relating it. Only in the epilogue, it is evident that even this incident is a figment of his imagination.   


This is a better attempt than his previous book atleast in aiming at the youth and their issues. However, the language used is too simple which is why, this book may not be counted among the best ones in a bookworm’s library. But who cares anyway. His work appeals to the masses and therefore it ends up as a bestseller.