Around the World for a Good Book selection for Colombia
Author: Gabriel García Márquez
Title: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Translator: Gregory Rabassa
Narrator: John Lee
Publication Info: Blackstone Audio (2014) (originally published 1967)
ISBN: 9781482939682
Other books read by the same author: Love in the Time of Cholera
Summary/Review:
I always find it difficult to review a book that is a recognized classic. What can I possibly say that hasn’t been said before. I enjoyed this book a lot, and I was surprised it was so funny (it was meant to be funny, I hope?), at least parts of it. I also couldn’t keep track of all the characters but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that is not as vital as the story of the town of Macondo itself with its sleepless sickness, civil wars with civil generals (but gruesome executions), and endless rain. There’s also the books style and use of words and imagery that set it apart from your typical novel. This novel is also rich in symbolism encapsulating an alternate history of Colombia.
So there you have it, my very short and very dumb review of a classic work of literature. Here’s all you need to know: read it!
Favorite Passages:
“Fernanda was scandalized that she did not understand the relationship of Catholicism with life but only its relationship with death, as if it were not a religion but a compendium of funeral conventions.”
“Literature was the best plaything that had ever been invented to make fun of people.”
Recommended books: The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
Rating: ***1/2
Panorama of the Mountains 