I thought it might be nice to have a post up that can allow the conversation to continue regarding our last book. I know that a couple of people missed the book club and some of us have not yet finished the book (me!).
So here's the space (in the comments) if anyone has thoughts on One Hundred Years of Solitude.
*Addition*: Interesting review of the book
4 comments:
Well, I have yet to finish too. What sort of comments floated around the meeting?
Michael, so good to see you. Hmmm...some of the subjects: the magical realism used in the book, the difficulty/ease of reading the book. Some of the politics in the story led us to reflect on the current election and Vicky also enlightened us as to the political parties in Argentina.
I've now completed One Hundred Years, after all, and though some of that perseverance was due to the desire to get to the end it must also be because of some attraction to the book.
I'm unsure what exactly to think of it. It was a struggle to read, and if I had not wanted to read some Marquez already or do it for club or see what Vicky was talking about with the very last line of the book, I might not have proceeded to the end. At times it dragged and I never felt that there was deep enough characterization. There wasn't one compelling conversation for me in the whole book.
However, I was fascinated by the model presented of humanity by Macondo and the Buendias, of what was said about man, woman, their living together, and our civilization. I can respect the breadth of the book, but I do not think I will come to adore it.
Still, I would not want to hamper the variety that can enliven the club and the joy of reading. On to the next book!
Michael you make some good points especially with regards to the lack of compelling conversations and a breadth that attempts to encapsulate the everything of a family and its relationships. I'm close to the end and will certainly persevere until I too can reach that last line.
I've read some of Marquez's other work and part of the reason I think he won the Nobel Prize in literature is his ability to write in different styles. Love in the Time of Cholera is more along the lines of a traditional narrative with focus on one primary relationship and a love that extends over two lifetimes. I've also read some of his short stories and marveled at the compactness of his prose--something you don't find as much of in this verbose tome.
I first read this book about eight years ago and strangely enough I remember not a thing. Now this may say more about the state of my own mind then the merit of this book. There is a certain quality of slipperiness with One Hundred Years--time oozing by and lives coming and going so fast that the overall effect is one of perpetual blur. Though that flood of lifetimes sprouting from nothing and returning to nothing may reveal one of the great truths of existence: this too shall pass.
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