Cien Años de Soledad

Rating:
Summary: Great book, lousy edition
Review: If you are going to read only one book in Spanish this year, Cien años de Soledad is it. But beware of this particular edition. It has footnotes. Not illuminating notes. Not guiding notes. Not explanatory notes. Just dumb, distracting, unneeded, unasked for notes. If you can avoid reading them, great. I, for one, can't avoid looking at the footnotes, and in this case, the pleasure of reading an insanely great novel sours into the anger of being interrupted with subnormal comments (do you need to be reminded of a phrase that appears a few lines before?), long-winded diversions (do you really need the definition of the Real Academia Española to understand what is a Yuca?) or truly gratuitous opinions of the editor, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme. I am lucky the book I bought also had some imperfections in the cover, so I had a formal reason to return it. Now I am buying another edition, free of footnotes. It will be a bit more expensive, but I know, because I've read the book many times, that an unobstructed reading of Cien Anos de Soledad is worth it.

Rating:
Summary: A very good book
Review: A very good book that describes all the face of politics in a way that everybody can understnad. You relate to the characters in a way of another, in some part of the story. What pops out of this book is that evey character is a main character in some part of the book.

Rating:
Summary: Las inolvidables mariposas amarillas
Review: I first read this book in the 'sixties, when it came out. I lived in Colombia then. It would still be a few years before anyone in the world outside would read it in translation.

Since then, living in other places far from Colombia, I have re-read it several times, both in translation and in the original. In English, it comes across as a very, very odd story, much in same the way Colombia can strike visitors as an elusive, enigmatic place. But in Spanish, the book evokes the sounds and smells of Colombia so powerfully, that you have the sensation of actually being there, alongside the Magdalena River.

No translation can ever capture that quality. The power of a great storyteller's art is there in other languages, but not Colombia's innermost soul. Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, a friend of Garcia Marquez's, who wrote a biographical sketch of him, had that in mind when he entitled it "El olor de la guayaba," i.e. the smell of fallen fruit beginning to rot. Mendoza, also a Colombian, although from a completely different part of the country, may have been too closely touched to be able to talk about it. In any event he does not, the title notwithstanding.

In the 'eighties I lived in Spain, and every Wednesday a major newspaper there had a column by the by-then-world-famous Nobel laureate, who lived in Barcelona. Half his columns were about politics, and forgettable. But the other half, which were about everything else, fairly shimmered with inspiration.

Gabo has written a lot in his life, but hands down the best of it, and the distilled essence of all of it, is in that one novel. Once you read it, you'll never again be able to look at yellow butterflies, mariposas amarillas, without seeing ghosts.

Rating:
Summary: Exellent!!!
Review: This is a very important book to read for everyone specially Latin Americans. Is the mirror of reality, is a brief of the world in a book.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!!
Review: Unbelievable. No doubts, the best book I've ever read. Highly recommendable.

Rating:
Summary: Cien años de soledad
Review: Sólo leí esta novela una vez y sí, entiendo el entusiasmo que provoca siempre en muchos lectores pero lo que yo vi en esta novela es la fundación del mito de América latina como un lugar de excepción, donde pasa lo que en otras latitudes no se ve. ¿Cómo tomar esto; una sátira o un elogio? Me parece que García Márquez intentó hacer un elogio sin dejar de lado la sátira a expensas de los dictadores latinoamericanos. Por desgracia, la mayoría de los lectores prefieren ver solamente el aspecto de "cuento de hadas" en el peor sentido del término. Cada quien hace la lectura que quiere hacer, la que más necesita. Dentro de los logros de la novela se encuentra sin duda el de poseer un estilo de gran seducción, lo que garantiza que será leída por más de cien años, y no precisamente de soledad.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most profound and compelling Books ever!
Review: Cien Años de Soledad is definetely one of the best books in latin american contemporary literature. If you are going to read a book by Garcia Marquez, this is the one to read. It is written in a sometimes crude language, but still manages to absorb you into the story.

Rating:
Summary: Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento...
Review: Quien dice que Cien años de soledad no es más que realismo mágico, tiene una visión muy restringida de la literatura. Es una épica, la historia de la humanidad, una historia que atrapa al lector desde la primer línea. La novela que terminó con el regionalismo y refleja siempre a la sociedad latinoamericana como un todo, influida por el mundo capitalista estadounidense. Un libro en el que un inventor fracasado, un coronel antiheroico, una madre de familia resignada y demás personajes estereotipados del mundo actual forman parte de la realidad de la que el autor hace burla, a tal grado de sentir compasión por sus propios personajes, por la suma de esfuerzos siempre inútlies por hacer bien las cosas, a causa de la falta de amor, a la que se hace referencia durante toda la novela. El personaje principal es Macondo, el pueblo mismo, que sobrevive al olvido por cien años de fracasos personales y acontecimientos fantásticos, para finalmente desaparecer sin rastro alguno, al igual que toda su historia. Excelente novela, es EL libro, narrado con el excelente lenguage poético tan propio de GGM.

Rating:
Summary: La Transgresión de la realidad
Review: García Márquez atraviesa el velo que cubre la realidad y expone lo que siempre ha estado frente a nosotros, pero nunca hemos querido ver, en esta obra.

Rating:
Summary: La Transgresión de la realidad
Review: García Márquez atraviesa el velo que cubre la realidad y expone lo que siempre ha estado frente a nosotros, pero nunca hemos querido ver en esta obra.