One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabiel Garcia Marquez

BOOK REVIEW –

I recently re-read the cult classic novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de), written in 1967 by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, after seeing that it was been dramatised for Netflix.

The novel is often cited as one of the supreme achievements in world literature and is recognised as one of the most important works of the Spanish language.

The magical realist style and thematic substance of the book established it as an important representative of the literary novel of the 1960s and 1970s, which was stylistically influenced by Modernism  and the  Avant-Garde literary movement.

Since it was first published in May 1967 the book has been translated into 46 languages and sold more than 50 million copies; it is now considered to be García Márquez’s magnum opus.

In 1965, Marquez was driving to Acapulco for a vacation with his family when he thought of the beginning for a new book; he turned his car around and drove back home to Mexico City.

For the next 18 months he spent his time writing what would eventually become One Hundred Years of Solitude inspired by Colombian history, his experiences as a journalist and the influence of his maternal grandparents.

It tells the story of seven generations of the Buendía family, whose patriarch José Arcadio Buendía and his wife Úrsula Iguarán founded the fictitious town of Macondo.

José and Ursula, along with many of their friends and neighbours, leave their hometown when José kills someone after a cockfight for suggesting he is impotent.

José dreams of Macondo, a city of mirrors that reflects the world – he decides to establish it at the riverside after days of wandering the jungle; his founding of Macondo is utopic.

Macondo becomes a town frequented by unusual and extraordinary events involving the generations of the Buendía family, who are unable or unwilling to escape their periodic, mostly self-inflicted misfortunes.

For years the town has been solitary and unconnected to the outside world, with the exception of the annual visit of a band of Gypsies and their leader, Melquiades, who show the townspeople scientific discoveries such as magnets, telescopes and ice.

This forms the beginning of José Arcadio’s obsession with science and he is driven insane, speaking only in Latin and tied to a chestnut tree by his family for many years until his death.

Macondo becomes exposed to the outside world and the government of newly-independent Colombia and a rigged election between the Conservative and Liberal parties is held in town, inspiring second generation Buendía Aureliano to join a civil war against the Conservative government.

He becomes an iconic revolutionary leader, fighting for many years and surviving multiple attempts on his life, but ultimately tires of war and signs a peace treaty.

Disillusioned, he returns to Macondo and spends the rest of his life making tiny goldfish in his workshop.

This book is surreal, at times nonsensical – but the writing is a glorious masterpiece full of evocative language, metaphors and allegories.

The series is great; it does not encompass the entire novel, which leads me to think there may be another season to come.

Julie Chessman