One Hundred Years of Solitude is a novel written by Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. It takes place in a small fictional village Macondo in Latin America and centers around the Buendía family, the patriarch of which, José Arcadio Buendía, founded Macondo. The novel is about the many fantastical and unusual events that took place in Macondo, and its effect on the many members of the Buendía family. It is really an interesting book and it is a great example of the genre of magical realism, which García Márquez is a genius of. The interesting part is that the entire book is a metaphor for the colonization and subsequent modernization of Colombia.

Despite all this, I would recommend this book with reservations because I don’t believe it’s for everyone. It is very easy to become frustrated with this book and give up reading it midway through. It is over 400 pages long, and the pace does seem to slow down in the middle. Also, every male Buendía is either named Aureliano, José, or Arcadio (sometimes even a combination of the three). This makes it increasingly difficult to keep track of who’s who. There’s a genealogy chart in the beginning of the novel, so you may find yourself constantly flipping to it to refresh your memory on how everyone is related. And, like the title of the novel suggests, the book spans 100 years and 7 generations of the Buendía family. But, if you could get past all this, it is a really good book and you should read it.

Availability: USMAI
Review Submitted by: Marissa Parlock
Rating: Recommended with Reservations