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  • 100 years of Macondo, 100 years of Buendia

  • When looking over the Amazon.com reviews for this book, I see that many people love it and more people hate it (usually for its descriptions of incest, intergenerational marriages, and even a brief mention of bestiality). I would be terribly wrong, however, to judge this book based on a sensationali ... Continue

    When looking over the Amazon.com reviews for this book, I see that many people love it and more people hate it (usually for its descriptions of incest, intergenerational marriages, and even a brief mention of bestiality). I would be terribly wrong, however, to judge this book based on a sensationalized account of the sins contained therein. Yes, the Buendia family is deeply troubled, each member acting out his or her internal terrors in a different way. In Macondo, everything beautiful becomes twisted. This is the real tragedy of this sometimes humorous, sometimes troubling novel. Anyone who comes away hating the Buendias was just treading the surface of meaning and missed the underlying madness that haunted the town of Macondo since its founding.

    

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• ― Sthomson06 said on Jun 11, 2007 | Add your feedback

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  • it's taking me forever to finish reading the book!!! dont know if it's just the translation or that the author is excessively wordy by nature.

    

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• ― Amusaur83 said on Jun 16, 2008 | Add your feedback

One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world, and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career.

The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. It is a rich and brilliant chronicle of life and death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the noble, ridiculous, beautiful, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility -- the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth -- these universal themes dominate the novel. Whether he is describing an affair of passion or the voracity of capitalism and the corruption of government, Gabriel García Márquez always writes with the simplicity, ease, and purity that are the mark of a master.

Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an accounting of the history of the human race.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

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