100 Years of Solitude

Date Posted: 08.04.07

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the story of the town of Macondo and the family that founded it, the Buendias. The story covers over 100 years and seven generations. The town begins in isolation. It develops politics, faces civil war, begins modernization and industrialization. It becomes prosperous only to loose that prosperity and ultimately revert to isolation.

The family follows the same path. The progenitor of the clan, Jose Arcadio Buendia and his wife Ursula bequeath to their children and grandchildren a complicated web of entangled truths. Each member of the family follows their destiny heroically. Ultimately, the final surviving Buendias deciphers a prophecy predicting his own death as it defines and validates the cycle of the family's development

I read this book because a friend suggested it and it is on my list of 100 books I will read this year. I did not have any expectations. I didn't really know what the book was about. I think I approached it with as open a mind as possible.

Unfortunately, 30 pages into the book I was not impressed. 50 pages and I was mildly annoyed. 100 pages and I hated it. It is a fine example of Magical Realism which I have never found particularly appealing. I didn't understand it. Like most people, I don't usually enjoy things I don't understand. It makes me feel inferior.

Fortunately, I have vowed to myself that I will not put any of the books on my list to the wayside. I will read them and at the very least, I will understand them even if I do not like them. I am glad I made this little rule for myself because I think I have gained something important from this book.

I have gained appreciation for the style. I can't exactly explain how or why but somewhere around 150 pages, I quit counting down how many pages were left. I stopped rolling my eyes at the absurdity of an "insomnia sickness" or a woman levitating into heaven. I didn't necessarily appreciate those elements yet, but I stopped wasting my energy being annoyed and just overlooked them and focused on the elements of the story that I did like, such as the beautiful characterization.

Somewhere around 350 pages I realized I wasn't overlooking things anymore. I was accepting them. I was reading the story and allowing the authors words to work their magic on me. It is a little melodramatic but I will say that I stopped reading the words with my mind and started reading them with my heart.

376 pages and I stopped, overcome by the flashes of understanding and more importantly, the searing emotional intensity of the novel. I had to stop so that I could go back and digest what I already read and allow the ending to reach me the way the author intended it to.

I don't think I will ever forget this book because it taught me not to judge so harshly. It showed me how to let go of my sometimes excessively rigid cognitive processes and float freely in the world of the mind. I have found that imagination need not be limited to science-fiction and fantasy or children's stories. Folklore is not just an interesting way of evaluating the mores of a society. I can broaden my horizons.

I leave this book with a new sense of humility. I am eager to explore some of the books I disliked in the past (i.e. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Midnights Children by Salman Rushdie). Maybe now I have finally found enough humility to appreciate them.

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