One Hundred Years of Solitude — Gabriel García Márquez
The fact that this book has acquired the label of “classic” in such a short time is remarkable, but now I understand. It became an instant success since its publication in Spanish in 1967, and was soon translated into many other languages, winning several awards and worldwide praise. Its author, the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ is now a book not unlike ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ or ‘Anna Karenina’, one you have definitely heard of even if you haven’t read it, and a staple in many lists of the best books of all time.
Magical realism is a literary genre that originated in Latin America, peaking in popularity during the 60s and 70s. Its main feature is the use of fantastical elements as something entirely ordinary, that is, delivered in a matter-of-fact tone. ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ is perhaps the poster child of magical realism. In this tale we find babies that are born with pig tails, a pandemic of insomnia, rainstorms that go on for years, and characters that are chased by butterflies or ghosts. However, the magic is not the central part of the story, but maybe represents the veil of myth and superstition we sometimes use to cope with reality.
The book tells the story of the Buendía family through several generations. Although the author plays with time now and again, we can say that this story begins with the founding of Macondo, the town that will see the Buendías come and go and experience love, heartbreak, tragedy, madness, feasts, wars, and, as the title suggests, a lot of solitude. I don’t think I have ever underlined a book more than I have with this one. García Márquez manages to be both poetic and precise, to the point of reading his words and thinking that none other could have worked, that those are the only ones that could be. He leaves dialogue on the background and brings his narration to the forefront with descriptions that are as clever as they are beautiful. It is really one of those books that makes you glad you can read in its original language.
Perhaps you have heard that many of the characters share the same name. That is because the Buendía family — like many families in Latin America — has the custom of naming the children after their parents. Although García Márquez adds small distinctions to be able to tell who is who (José Arcadio Buendía, José Arcadio, Arcadio, José Arcadio Segundo), it can indeed be confusing at times, so it is a good idea to build the family tree as you go. It made me reminisce of when I was a kid and I would answer the phone at home, asking for further identification whenever someone was looking for my mother or my older sister: “Older Patricia or younger Patricia?”
As the story goes on, we see each new generation of the Buendía family make the same mistakes and develop the same obsessions, affirming that “time does not pass, but it turns in a circle.” It is unfortunate that the wisdom you get with age cannot be inherited. While I read this story, I wondered about the lives of my parents, and grandparents, and great-grandparents, when the world revolved around them instead of me, and I thought of the mistakes I have made that they did just the same.
‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ has inspired operas, ballets, plays, paintings, songs and even a Japanese beverage and a new series coming to Netflix, therefore, I can only but add to the praise of this work that I read in a little over a week and that even now, several days after finishing it, I find hard to describe. I will say that to read this book was to go through a moving experience that left me just like one of its characters, “wounded by the fatal lances of his own nostalgia and that of others.”
This review was originally published in Spanish at Cuaderno Reciclado.
