“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”
Columbian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, journalist, and Nobel Laureate, Gabriel García Márquez was a prominent figure in the Latin American Boom and is regarded by many as one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. Universally revered, but with particular fervour in his native Latin America, García Márquez has justifiably obtained a place of prominence in the grand pantheon of Spanish language literature.
García Márquez’s magnum opus and the subject of this review, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a masterpiece of experimental fiction and possibly the most seminal novel from the Magic Realism genre. Widely considered to be one of the most significant works in the Latin American literary canon, it has been translated into 46 languages and has sold in excess of 50 million copies.
Published in 1967, One Hundred Years of Solitude chronicles the lives and loves of seven generations of the Buendía family, documenting their fluctuating fortunes in the ever-evolving town of Macondo. The novel demonstrates the ambiguous boundaries of individuality and identity ‒ despite the vast span of time covered in the novel, characters repeatedly share names and personality traits with their ancestors, even echoing the actions of their namesake predecessors in a process akin to a sort of fatalistic spiritual reincarnation.
Like the Buendía family, Macondo itself endures shifting conditions ‒ often in parallel with the family. Beginning as an Eden-like utopia in a mythical state of isolation before eventually suffering at the hands of foreign intervention, American capitalism, a rainfall of biblical proportions, and cataclysmic windstorms.
Concerned with themes of solitude, the supernatural, imperialism, and the circularity of time, One Hundred Years of Solitude is saturated with metaphor and symbolism; near every object, location, event, or colour are masterfully infused with deeper meaning.
Despite its relatively simple prose, One Hundred Years of Solitude, due to the complexity of its characters, repetition of names, and the circularity of its non-chronological narrative is a challenging read; that being said, it is one of the greatest novels ever written and worth the challenge. It is thought-provoking and a rich reflection of Latin American history.
“… was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth.”
This review of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez is the sixth instalment of a fortnightly series called 50 Books. The series shines a spotlight on classical literature from throughout history and all over the world. If you have suggestions for future instalments comment and let me know.
Next time: The philosophical classic, The Plague by Albert Camus
Words by Luke Horwitz
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