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A review by youraveragedave
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
emotional
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The opening line is so intriguing. It makes you think this book is going in a certain direction, then it doesn't.
As another review put it, "beautiful written, but weird as fuck". The lyrical flowy prose is in full display, some sentences and phrases just knock you over. That never felt clunky like some translations do.
That being said this book just didn't work for me, I struggled through much of it. I was loving the 1st third, got really bogged down the 2nd third, and grudge read/listened to the final third (had to switch to audio).
I know the author is doing this thing about the cyclical nature of the mistakes made by this family, but the reuse of the two names wore on me. The closing of the circle at the end was really great though.
I was glad the DoofCast podcast covered this on their bookclub, their discussion made me appreciate it more than I initially did after finishing.
I must say the audiobook reader did a fine job capturing the melodic tone of the book.
As another review put it, "beautiful written, but weird as fuck". The lyrical flowy prose is in full display, some sentences and phrases just knock you over. That never felt clunky like some translations do.
That being said this book just didn't work for me, I struggled through much of it. I was loving the 1st third, got really bogged down the 2nd third, and grudge read/listened to the final third (had to switch to audio).
I know the author is doing this thing about the cyclical nature of the mistakes made by this family, but the reuse of the two names wore on me. The closing of the circle at the end was really great though.
I was glad the DoofCast podcast covered this on their bookclub, their discussion made me appreciate it more than I initially did after finishing.
I must say the audiobook reader did a fine job capturing the melodic tone of the book.