Gabo at his best: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Going by the fact that I almost never propose to make an analysis or at least a review of my monthly readings, I think it is a titanic task to start making a post about this book. One Hundred Years of Solitude is the magnum opus of one of the most influential literary of all times (at least in terms of the Spanish language) its type of story is one that combines a lot of fantasy as well as many adjectives in each of its paragraphs, the "Magical Realism" as it is called this style of reading is one of the currents that inspire even today thousands of works but that began from the hand of always agile and persevering Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez: "One Hundred Years of Solitude" a work that allows itself to express about the rawness of what life means, we start with the story of a colonel and we end up, as we go reading with a hollow in our chest.
For this review I will not delve too much into the story or spoilers, although it is very difficult to give an accurate synopsis because this work includes many small stories that are told in such a detailed way that sometimes in the details we tend to get lost in all the magic of Gabo's paragraphs and we get a little lost in the story, however I can say that the story begins with a colonel who begins to remember, to appreciate life and to remember many of the situations that happened throughout his childhood, He takes us to his memories and then on a journey of multiple generations, from here is that One Hundred Years of Solitude takes us by the hand always in an explicit way when telling us about details, smells, tastes and every adjective that we can find along the way, it is a story that also wanders between reality and fantasy, often opposing one with the other and leaving much of the interpretation to the reader.
Macondo, Colombia, the town where the story takes place, is a place full of strangeness and a complete challenge to the reader because unlike many of the towns and cities in the region Macondo stands as a place away from the typical characteristics in the functioning of a society and replaces them with something else, I said that it is a challenge for the reader because as the story progresses we are introduced to certain concepts in other ways that we do not know but that are common in this town, At first it can be challenging to understand why certain social statutes and how certain characters relate, but the book, I insist, does a great job with the details, it takes us by the hand throughout the journey and only lets us go when everything is explained and we are sent to fly the imagination with scenarios much more attached to the fantasy. Magical Realism they call it...
Cyclical narration and time experiments also abound in each of the stories, we repeatedly jump between characters in different periods of time and that gives us certain clues about the events that we will read later, Much of Gabo's work is seen in these moments where the author plays with reality and with many hyperboles and gigantisms that make sense once we are introduced to the fiction, although the story is told in a scattered chronological order and not linear we can easily identify many of these timelines seeing the town of Macondo, its changes and paying close attention, again, to the details. Everything falls into harmony as we are told the story of a family, their experiences, their relationships with the town and its inhabitants, and why they are important to this town. The Buendia family is our anchor point from the moment we start reading with the colonel at the beginning.
One Hundred Years of Solitude is much more than the story of the family, Gabo takes the town of Macondo to give an example of all the stages that civilizations go through from its creation to its end, the small Colombian town is also a compass that guides us in the adventure, mysterious at first but it becomes more and more familiar to the reader as we discover the culture and each of the achievements that are being made, it is also mixed with the feelings of the different characters and especially with those of the main family.
Definitely, I can not talk too much about the story plot without going into the dreaded spoilers for what I have told you so far will suffice, it is a beautiful book that uses many literary devices such as hyperbole that abound throughout the book to describe (or rather exaggerate) many of the actions that are taking place in the story, Marquez was also characterized by the use of gigantisms. Gabo's work reflects life and how generations pass leaving their mark, Macondo is a living entity in much of history and we feel its presence, the majestic paragraphs of Marquez make this one of the masterpieces of Latin literature and one of the most read books in the world with a touch of Gabo and a touch of magical realism.
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