Reviews with content warning for Death - Cem Anos de Solidão

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Cem Anos de Solidão by Gabriel García Márquez

140 reviews

bbqcandy's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Its easy to see why Cien Años De Soledad is considered a classic. The timeless themes of family dynamics and the cyclical nature of time, combined with the pseudo-historical nature of the book and the hint of mysterious magic make this an absolute must read for anyone interested in hispanic and latino literature.

Though the book can be very challenging and confusing, this often serves as a way to further the themes of the book. I’ve heard others complain that they can get confused by all the characters that share names, but this is quite purposeful in the book,

especially as you find out that the characters that share names, also share personalities and even their ultimate fates.

The other, often confusing and major theme in the book is the cyclical nature of time. Much of the book is written in a way where the passage of time is hard to discern. Many sections are written as flashbacks, some segments are written as flashforwards, and overall the book is written in a way that almost feels as if every event is happening at one.

At the end of the book, it is revealed that Melquiades’ manuscript is actually the book we are reading, that he wrote at the start of the 100 years, predicting everything that happens and writing everything as if it occurred all at once.

For me personally, the hardest challenge of this book was reading through it in the original Spanish. I have been a Spanish-speaker my whole life, but most of my education took place in the USA, so I never got the chance to read many books in Spanish, especially more challenging and academic books. I do not regret reading this in Spanish. Marquez’s words and rhythms add a deeper layer to this book that makes it so much more rich and often beautiful in a tragic way. That said, I do wish I had read other, simpler books in Spanish as practice, in order to work myself up to reading this one. I don’t think my lack of skill took much away from my experience reading this, but it did take me a long time to get through it.

I could talk about this book for hours, but this review is getting long, and I’m writing on the clock at work, but I will just say that this is an incredible book written by a very talented author and I would frankly recommend to anyone, especially if they are interested in hispanic literature and history.

Content Warnings

jmdressel's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

this book was a challenging read! the writing was very stream-of-consciousness focused, and so there was less of a reading story, and more just like someone was telling a story in person. this is the first book i’ve read in the magical realism genre.

Content Warnings

isnotacrayon's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

2.0

Content Warnings

juiceman's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One of those books that you can’t fully appreciate until you have finished it. Wasn’t going to give it 5 stars until I got to the last page and suddenly found myself wishing I could read it with fresh eyes all over again, with the mystery and unknowing of where it was all going. Where are we all going?

Content Warnings

annagrimmyy's review against another edition

Go to review page

1.0

Dnf at 135 pages

I can understand why this is considered an important piece of literature.

That being said, due to the fact that every female character is raped (up until 135 pages at least), I cannot believe that to this day people are heralding this book without critiquing the way women are treated. Gave up reading as quite frankly there are better classics that deserve my time more than this load of horseshit.

Content Warnings

glorifiedloveletters's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

On Bluesky, there's a monthly book club that seems to be mostly "I always meant to read that" selections, and this is one of those books. I'm so glad I decided to participate because, yes, this is worth reading. ("Sara, this book is one of the best known..." YEAH I KNOW, but sometimes you gotta state the obvious.)

Some of the deaths and uh..... relations.... are a bit hard to stomach, but that's part of the point of the book and isn't just because of changing times. You'll also have to flip back to the family tree at the beginning in order to keep track of all the Aurelianos. The rest is a wild ride of magic and devastation, and it's a masterclass of descriptive writing.

Content Warnings

adhdru's review against another edition

Go to review page

A pesar de ser un clásico que quise amar, ni el conocer al icónico Macondo ni a las leyendas de la familia Buendía lograron encantarme como lo ha logrado con gran parte del mundo.

Este libro es indiscutiblemente centrado mas en los personajes que en cualquier tipo de trama. Normalmente, esto es una plusvalía para mí en los libros, pero en este caso en el que los personajes son complejos pero tan desagradables (y no en esa manera que me hace amarlos más) solo he hecho la lectura de apenas la mitad del libro un gran tedio.

Por otro lado, la narración de Juan Pablo Raba me ha parecido bastante buena.

Content Warnings