1001 Group Read: 100 Years of Solitude

This is the group read selection for July. There is also a complimentary group read for the same book at Club Read 2011 group. You may want to post comments there as well as on this string. Enjoy.

Thanks for starting the thread.

I am about 40% of the way though the book. It seems quite different from Love in the Time of Cholera to me. It reminds me of Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. I wish I knew more about the history of Colombia. I think I would understand the story better if I did. It took me a little while to get hooked, but the story has gotten quite compelling now. This is my third attempt to read this book, and it is the most that I have ever read of it. I think I might finish it this time. :)

#3: I have to reread Love in the Time of Cholera some time, I read it almost 20 years ago. You are right about MC, it was a similar experience. Something is happening in every sentence, so you have to be careful not to miss anything.

It's a surprisingly slow read for me. The first time, in German, I quite rushed through the book. The English translation probably does more justice to the original language wise, I really enjoy the writing, it's almost like some strange kind of poetry. Often I have to read passages aloud, and slow.

I read this book some (many!) years ago, and found it an absolutely fascinating book. I'd never been previously exposed to magical realism, and I loved that it was literature, but also magical. It was perfect for me, at that stage I had read a lot of fantasy novels, but needed something more challenging. This novel somehow straddled the divide between fantasy with its miraculous happenings, and literature. I'm slightly worried that I may not have the same reaction were I to re-read it, but one day I shall take a deep breath and dive back in. At the moment, I have too many other books I need to read!

I'm about 100 pages in and so far it's a big "okay". I suspect I'm reading it too fast, but nothing about it makes me want to slow down.

you'll really appreciate my review of this... it's one of the most popular out of the 317 I've written on my blog... and don't worry, there aren't any spoilers in my reviews...

http://johnandsheena.co.uk/books/?p=283

I think you'll pick up pretty quickly what I thought of this book!

#3 - BillieJean ... I can see why One Hundred Years of Solitude reminds you of Midnight's Children and I agree with you. And speaking of Rushdie, has anyone read Shame? I could swear there's a scene in the beginning of the book where the protagonist's father takes him to get ice. But I read it years ago and gave my copy away. Perhaps it was Rusdie's nod to Marquez . . .? Or, perhaps I'm just misremembering. (I've been known to do that).

Arukiyomi, I'm determined to like it more than you did!

I haven't read Shame, but I definitely want to read more by Rushdie.

I am about 2/3 of the way through the book now. It is growing on me. I find Ursula is my favorite character. It is interesting to me that everyone is surrounded by people and yet still in solitude. And I am wondering if we will ever get the wisdom of Melquiades that comes after 100 years of solitude. Finally, I am wondering why the Colonel cannot see the ghost of his father? I always have more questions than insight from this book, but that is part of what is so intriguing to me. I think that I am going to finish it this time.

7: That is a cool edition of the book. Sorry you didn't like it - it's one of my absolute favorites.

What's everyone's favorite character? Remedios the Beauty always stuck with me, and Fernanda was great. Her old home in that dark and musty city is chilling. (Love the bit when her dad came to visit.) However, Colonel Aureliano is definitely my favorites. I want him to teach me to make little golden fishes.

I finished the book. It became more and more interesting as it went along. The message seemed to be that time doesn't pass, it circles back around. And, finally, I got to see Melquiades' words of wisdom at the very end.

I am so glad that we have this group read, as this book has been hard for me to stick with in the past. I found that this time I stuck with it long enough to be drawn into the family saga. I did have a few moments of name confusion, but for the most part I was able to tell them all apart. I was glad to have the family tree at the beginning.

For those of you who are following this thread, the 1001 Group Read book nominations thread for Aug and Sept has been started on the main page. Check it out and give us a couple of book nominations.

I'm just over half-way through our novel and I'm liking it better. Still annoyed by the 2 page paragraphs, though.

There was one sentence in particular that I thought would never end.

I finished the book yesterday and loved it even more this time than on my first read. I'll wait with my comments regarding the ending till the end of the month.

I really can't believe how much I had forgotten. That train... *shudder*

#11: I liked most of the characters, but I had to go back to the family tree often to check to which Aureliano or José Arcadio a certain woman belonged. I didn't like Fernanda though (in the sense that I wouldn't like to know her in real life, for the book she was great). I didn't get this thing with the invisible doctors.
I think my favorite was Úrsula.

And I loved the 'little things' which were not so important for the plot, like the red ants or the yellow butterflies or how everything became mouldy and mossy during the big rain.

Favourite characters? I really like Ursula (especially how she dealt with her blindness) and I'm enjoying all the female characters, actually. They all have something different and interesting about them. At 2/3 of the way through, I decided I definitely don't like Colonel Aureliano. Although I do like his little fish.

#17> Yes! Walking with her hand raised before her like the angel Gabriel!

I too liked Ursula the best.
What i said when I read it couple of months ago: I'm not that fond of sprawling family epics but this one was still pleasant. Despite it being often quite messy and weird, the solid structure of the book kept the reader going where some lesser writers would have had things falling apart...
For me not quite worth the buzz but to be honest I enjoyed it more than I expected.

Oprah picked One Hundred Years of Solitude for her book club at some point, so there is a section of her website devoted to the book: http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Synopsis-of-One-Hundred-Years-of-Solitude

I thought there was some interesting stuff there. Take a browse if you have a few minutes.

Finished! I have to say that I liked it, but didn't love it.

The month is almost finished, so I'd like to say (hopefully without spoiling anyone) that I find the ending quite disturbing. I had obviously completely repressed that bit from my memory after the first reading. Okay, it might be symbolic, etc. but just the idea of the ants and ... .

It makes sense that the book ends as it ends, but I wish he had found another way, something less drastic.