I used to read 100 years quotes all the time on my Insta. I posted, around August, that I wished to read this book. A friend handed me his old copy days later, telling me that it was handed to him by someone else, and I must keep up with the tradition of passing it once I’m done with it. I felt touched. It was the best synchronicity that’d ever happened to me.
I began reading it the very next day and unfortunately found myself bored. But by this time, at the age of 25, I have an ego about finishing books. The problem of attention span was concerning and prevalent.
Like, I wanted to prove to myself that I really can finish a book without quitting because of insta etc.
I trudged through it day in and out. I’M SO GLAD I DID. This book is divine. The last page of this book reduced me to tears, not because of tragedy, but because of its beauty. I highlighted all the stunning proses, wrote down all my notes, and grasped the meaning of solitude and love and death and creation. I don’t think any other book compares to this. I don’t think any other author can pen down such a book.
However, I feel like if I was any younger, like 21 or 22, I would have quit reading it initially itself. I wonder why that is. This book found me at a perfect point in life. I realized why reading fiction is so important. It helps your imagination, your attention span, empathy, and tolerance for boredom. What do you think? How did you like this book and how old were you to appreciate its themes?
by Shalini-Jha
33 Comments
My English teacher gave me a copy when I was 16 and it was instantly one of my top 10s. If you like his style, you should check out Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo.
Reading that book is ike having a dream.
That’s so weird, for me it’s all about the beginning. The founding Buendia couple were the most interesting to follow, back when you weren’t sure where the novel was going. The entire first third I think is my favorite. But cool to see different opinions, nice to see more people read it!
This is one of the few books I immediately flipped to the beginning and started a 2nd time upon finishing. It’s an art work.
Hmmm, I got like a third of the way through it and decided to move on. Maybe I’ll restart it. Just picked up The Count of Monte Cristo so that may take a while lol
I read that book for my Spanish class in high school, I was not a fan. Maybe I could enjoy it more as an adult.
Just picked this up for my next read, thank you! 🤝🏻
Absolutely amazing book
I really wanted to like it, but I think much of it went over my head. It should have made more of an impact. I didn’t really have any profound moments. Instead I remember always having to flick back and forth to the family tree to remember who everybody was, and I found that annoying. And then it didn’t really “go” anywhere. Maybe I should try it again.
What parts did you find divine?
Here’s another weird gem: Dictionary of the Khazars.
Read house of the spirits by Isabel Allende
I read that book at ~22-23 and it immediately became my favorite book upon finishing it. Some of its arcs are so strange and atmospheric: >!the insomnia plague, the years of rain, and Amaranta’s death sequence. I loved Jose Arcadio’s initial transformation from boy who runs away with the circus to being giant and covered in tattoos;!< this was really inspiring to me. I also love the way that magic and strangeness is handled, like >!how the dead just hang around and can still be conversed with!<. The last page absolutely blew my mind. The book’s just so beautiful in every way.
I generally found reading the book to be a hypnotic experience. I enjoyed its tangents, and jumping around, and its *everything all at once* kind of approach. I didn’t fully appreciate it as a literary device until after I was done and reading sparknotes.
If you ever want to reexperience it, *100 Years of Solitude* is an exceptionally good audiobook (since it’s already written like an oral history).
Interestingly, this is one book that I liked less and less with rereads. I can’t put my finger on exactly why. Part of the magic was the strangeness of it all, and to have it all end with a whimper outweighed the beauty of it more each time I read it through.
I have tried to read this book on at least 3 occasions. I never got further than 100 pages into it and I feel it’s highly, highly over rated.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, though. I don’t get it.
I read the whole thing in high school English and I wouldn’t have understood a lot of it if we hadn’t been analyzing and discussing it daily. I haven’t reread it as an adult because overall I can tell fantastic realism isn’t a fiction genre I’m that interested in.
This book is a masterpiece.
Somehow got to read it in Colombia down the road from where it takes place
I had heard about it for years and years, it was only earlier this year at the age of 34 that I read it.
It changed my life and I regret not reading it sooner. Beautiful, funny, complex, traumatic–everything you want with a dreamy prose.
It’s one of my favorites, and for the reason you state…it’s beauty is total. Everything he writes is a fever dream set to a haunted soundtrack.
Maybe in 5 or so years, try The Blind Assasin or The Poisonwood Bible. The Poisonwood Bible is the book that has haunted me most, and The Blind Assassin is, for me, the book that required the most boredom endurance but yielded the richest reward. Masterpieces on par with 100 Years
I will admit that I didnt like it. It was too bizzare, to weird just because it can be weird for my taste. When any thing can happen (girls ascend, people live for years tied to trees) then anything can happen and nothing makes sense, nothing has an impact. I just dont like that style (like Murakami).
A masterpiece
Thanks for this! I just bought a copy 🙂
I listened to it as an audiobook, and it was a very nice experience.
This edition: https://share.libbyapp.com/title/1435310
You are guaranteed to love his other book Love In The Time of Cholera. Honestly, I can’t decide which one I like more.
I tried reading this book while in rehab for heroin. I couldn’t do it. It was so all over the place and jumbled to me. Kinda like I was at the time lol. Maybe I should try again?
Nobody suggesting Chronicle of a Death Foretold so I just gotta: Read it! It’s very short and will satisfy your Marquez craving on a raining day.
**Gone With The Wind** really blew me away.
A friend of mine gifted it to me about 8 years ago. It sounds like a book I should absolutely adore. Yet, I just can’t get into it. Tried it several times. Nothing.
Reading the comments now really makes me want to try again, maybe one day I’ll be at the right point in my life to finally fall in love with it. Cause the way people describe their reading experiences makes me a little jealous to be honest.
But alas, maybe I will have to come to terms with it that this book just isn’t for me.
Latin American Literature is something else!
I picked “100 years….” after learning Rushdie’s magical realism was influenced by Marquez.
A fun fact about “100 Years of Solitude” is that GGM reportedly wrote the entire novel in a span of just 18 months. This is quite remarkable considering the book’s intricate and complex narrative, filled with magical realism and multi-generational storytelling.
I’ve been reading this for years and finally in at last 20 pages, it has been a struggle
My favorite book of all time! Yes. Glad you finished it. That’s a difficult one too, so if you finished it with focus issues, well done! You can read almost anything 💯
Try Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Paramo. Inspired Garcia Marquez. Mind blowing stuff. If you like the magical realism, but want to go the other direction try Kafka on the Shore by Murakami.