About halfway through Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s (or “Gabo’s”) seminal work, I realized that this was my favorite book I’d ever read—a ridiculous notion that I couldn’t believe myself. I tried to convince myself that I was deluded, that the excitement I felt about the impact this book was having on my life was premature and unearned. But as I turned the penultimate page, that feeling had only grown stronger.
I’m lucky enough to not have experienced much death in my family as of yet, and I think this is a key reason I gleaned so much from this incredible work that evokes the things that matter most in life, and the lessons that the death of a loved one can give you. The Buendia family that the book follows gave me so many of these important lessons again and again.
The themes that spoke to me the most (there are many present in the book, so I’ll limit to the top 4):
We are all the same. If you’ve heard anything about this book, you’ve no doubt heard about the confusing naming of each of the characters and their brood. Everyone’s identical namesakes reflect their shared personality and destiny. The beauty of the book is how it forces you to see these parallels in your own life—how you’re impacted by your upbringing, how your family’s culture perpetuates without you even realizing it until much later on, and the cycle of trauma, glory, and abuse that we can’t help but reproduce (no pun intended). The only difference between these characters seems to be the events that shape their experience, but that experience does not shield them from repeating the mistakes of their ancestors.
Time is relative. From the first sentence, the notion of time is a fickle one. Past, present, and future are all occurring at once and informing each other. Much of the book is actually written as memories of the main characters. Our actions and destinies are shaped by the past AND the future, and we are unable to break free of these temporal constraints. Then again, that is the beauty of life itself—the inability to transcend time makes us a slave to it, but it is also the reason we create purpose and meaning, too.
Life is magical. This book is considered to be the pillar of the elusive genre that is magical realism, and I think it may just be my preferred genre now. The way Gabo is able to evoke the hills and valleys of life with fantastical imagery is the most accurate way to depict life I’ve ever read. Remedios the Beauty becoming so elated that she ascends to heaven while folding clothes evokes how it FEELS to be elated. This occurrence, and many like it, are meant to be taken literally within the context of the story, but they are simultaneously metaphors for what life FEELS like when you are experiencing its peaks and its depths.
Family is everything, and it isn’t always bound by blood. There are too many examples to name, but the notion of family is as imperative as it is fluid in 100 Years. The most under appreciated women (Santa Sofia de la Piedad, for example) are nevertheless the roots and the pillars that support the family throughout its history. Other family members, while being a full-blooded Buendia, serve little other than to sabotage and dismantle the family (Jose Arcadio, for example).
There’s so much more to unpack, so much more to glean, and I imagine that subsequent readings will further open up more themes, more lessons, and more beauty. Astounding book. Poetry in novel form. Can’t recommend it enough. 10/10
by yeezy_fought_me