One Hundred years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Today I have accomplished a great achievement – I’ve finished reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, a novella by the noted Colombian author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who has written other great works including Chronicle of a Death Foretold – which I’ve already read and appreciated, and Love in the Time of Cholera.

I found One Hundred Years of Solitude quite a long book, and I wouldn’t have read it all if it wasn’t an amusing, clever story.

One Hundred Years of Solitude was not like any other novel I have read: it had no particular plot; it was rather a series of events that have happened in the fictional town of Macondo, which is similar to where Garcia Marquez grew up. The story covers more than a hundred years (according to Wikipedia), as you read about the lives of the Beuendia family through generations.

Although the story is purely fictional and has the wittiest happenings I’ve ever read – even wittier than Harry Potter – it seemed so real and magical.

Lots of parts in the book were skillfully hilarious and bizarre.

What confused me was that members of the Buendia family were named after each other, since the story went on for about seven generations; sometimes I couldn’t identify who was who.

As you read One Hundred Years of Solitude you’ll encounter war, amnesia, spirits, solitude, heavy rain, incredible Gypsies and supernatural amusements. The story also contains a shade of mystery behind it.

This surely is a book to read. It’s a very long book, but you’ll never regret reading it.

Visit Wikipedia to read more about One Hundred Years of Solitude.