Latin America and the Caribbean's-- These terms had always fascinated me....May it be their rhythmic notes which transcends you from head to toe or be it the stories of guerrillas led by comrade Che-Guevera and Fidel or be it the passion for the soccer and cricket or be it the curvy Latino beauties or be it the Jamaican coleslaws or Tequila, Latin America and Caribbean Isles has always got something to stimulate my thoughts....Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "100 years of solitude" was an addition to that attitude ...This addition added to my addiction towards the culture over there.....
Eventhough reading is one of my hobbies this book is the first one which actually forced me to write a review..The book which is called Cien Años de Soledad in Spanish has been rated as the most popular book written in Spanish after "Don Quixote" by Cervantes...Garcia's quiver released more arrows like "Love in Times of Cholera" "No one writes to Colonel "and many more but this book was the one which made him a Noble laureate in 1982. If you appreciate the hypothetical Wessex by Thomas Hardy or Malgudi by R.K Narayanan this book is an asset to your bibliophilic collection..
Brought up by the mystic stories unfolded by his Grannie , Gabo (Gabriel Garcia Marques known popularly) was deluged with stories and vast creativity right from his childhood days.He was impregnated with the concept of Macondo for quite some time but couldn't actually body it into the Spanish characters...Garcia continued writing novels while he was working as a columnist in a newspaper but it took many years before the inevitable came and he found it difficult to suppress the germination of Maconda seeds inside him and he painted his canvas talking with the non-bodied souls for the chirography of the most complete book in the last century.."One hundred years of Solitude" took 18 months of hectic schedule while he kept aloof from all his earthly relationship after giving his wife Mercedes all the responsibilities to dramatize the characters which he had already been familiar with ...
Gabo presents his masterpiece like "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." which depicts the most memorable moment of a man facing death..The papyrus is epicentered around a lineage- The Buendía family who pioneered in starting a river side settlement called Macondo.José Arcadio Buendía the senior most in the Buendia lineage actually was forced to leave Riohacha out of his sympathy towards a man whom he killed in a arguement referring on his impotency and whose ghost used to aggravate the sympathy in him with his melancholy countenance..Thus they got into the founding of Macondo: a township near the river and the stories of the Buendia family unrolls in the novel.
Gabo took inspiration from the fables and legends pertained to Arcataca villages and the characters he had encountered in his life to create the mythical village named "Macondo" at a period "when the world was so young that many of the things doesn't have a name"..Magical realism is a concept which evolved in this masterpiece..It plays a part in making the readers think while laughing whole heartedly. A Spanish Galleon found in a forest, A priest who can levitate himself by drinking chocolate, The showering of flowers from the heaven over a dead mans' body,A preternatural beauty who ascended to heaven in mortal carriage, A village where due to insomnia people used to label each and everything like cow ("This animal is used for milking "), A lady who has been informed by the death himself so that she can prepare her own funeral dress,The flying carpet and other things that were brought by gypsies Macondo and parchments of Melquiades are only a portion of the extreme exaggerations that Gabo has crafted into..Infact Gabo put these things deliberately justifying that this what fiction is for.These all things reflects the traditional myths pertaining to all our villages where people prefer to believe some bizarre events without seeking an explanation..
The name "Hundred years of solitude" is dedicated to the hundred years of history of Macondo ...A place where the people don't know how to love each other. The place where lusty conquests and promiscuousness won over romance and where the only child born out of pure love bore a pig's tail..There township went through a series of social and political changes over the years ..Its adolescent age when the inhabitants faced insomnia and hence loss of memory, the fight between the Liberals and the Conservatives lead by Col. Aureliano Buendía , The invasion of Banana Company led by some gringos, The deluge that lasted for over 5 years and the final decline of the house and the township.All this happened exactly as written in Sanskrit by Melquiades, a clairvoyant gypsy..The lineage has been described as ."The first one will be tied to a chestnut tree and the last one will be carried by the ants" decrypted by Aureliono who in an attempt to discover the roots of his origin comes to know that as soon as he finishes reading this parchment the whole township will be destroyed by mother nature herself. quoting the writer "races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth".What else can be more complete than these.
The characters portrayed in this novel is as flamboyant as the novel itself..José Arcadio Buendía who was messing up with his lab works and inventions, Urusula the epitome of a strong and responsible women who actually is epicenter character of the saga, Col. Aureliano Buendía who lost 37 wars surviving a series of attacks on him and finally resigning himself into the of making gold fishes, Rebecca with her passion for eating earth, Amaranta who had broken the heart of two men before dying as a Virgin, Arcadio Jose and his passion towards his aunt , 17 Aurelinos who was slaughtered on after the other, The twins Jose Arcadio Segundo and Aurelino Segundo who where so confusing in appearance that they ending up in swapped coffin, Remedios the beauty who broke many hearts before ascending herself to the heaven, Petra Cotes the concubine who used to give aid to her lovers' wife after his death, Amaranta Urusula the passionate girl who want to resurrect the house, Aureliono the intellect who satisfied his lust with his Aunt and who decrypted the parchments of Meliquides and lastly the baby Aurelino with pig tail who was eaten by the red ants depicts the variegation of the characters.
Infact some of the habits related to the characters has been taken from Garcia's real life only....Col. Aureliano Buendía infact represent the dictator who was heading his Grandpa's army of guerillas.He and his debauches were portrayed in Col. Aureliano Buendía ...Gabo had a sister who used to eat earth.The incident when Jose Arcadio Buendia took his children to see ice was also inspired from a real life incident when the author witnessed a boy going to see the ice accompanied by old man'.Even the common names in the family Aureliano or Jose Arcadio was inspired by the naming conventions followed in his own family..
To summarize the facts Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One hundred years of solitude" is an epic which gives you insight over the social and political structure of Latin Americas and Caribbean Isles in a most enjoyable way of chirographic maneuver..This book has been compared to none other than Homers' Odyssey.This is the first time I am writing a review about a book and I will be well satisfied if this effort makes the reader to grab book and dug himself into the labyrinths of this magical village between the jungles empathizing with the Buendia's .For me it is a never-ending thrive to be at one of the beaches in an evening having acki rice fish and salt with coleslaws and some shots of Tequilas toasting it to the ever-green souls of Macondo hymning Harry Bellefonte's "Jamaican Farewell" like....
"Sounds of laughter everywhere
Eventhough reading is one of my hobbies this book is the first one which actually forced me to write a review..The book which is called Cien Años de Soledad in Spanish has been rated as the most popular book written in Spanish after "Don Quixote" by Cervantes...Garcia's quiver released more arrows like "Love in Times of Cholera" "No one writes to Colonel "and many more but this book was the one which made him a Noble laureate in 1982. If you appreciate the hypothetical Wessex by Thomas Hardy or Malgudi by R.K Narayanan this book is an asset to your bibliophilic collection..
Brought up by the mystic stories unfolded by his Grannie , Gabo (Gabriel Garcia Marques known popularly) was deluged with stories and vast creativity right from his childhood days.He was impregnated with the concept of Macondo for quite some time but couldn't actually body it into the Spanish characters...Garcia continued writing novels while he was working as a columnist in a newspaper but it took many years before the inevitable came and he found it difficult to suppress the germination of Maconda seeds inside him and he painted his canvas talking with the non-bodied souls for the chirography of the most complete book in the last century.."One hundred years of Solitude" took 18 months of hectic schedule while he kept aloof from all his earthly relationship after giving his wife Mercedes all the responsibilities to dramatize the characters which he had already been familiar with ...
Gabo presents his masterpiece like "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." which depicts the most memorable moment of a man facing death..The papyrus is epicentered around a lineage- The Buendía family who pioneered in starting a river side settlement called Macondo.José Arcadio Buendía the senior most in the Buendia lineage actually was forced to leave Riohacha out of his sympathy towards a man whom he killed in a arguement referring on his impotency and whose ghost used to aggravate the sympathy in him with his melancholy countenance..Thus they got into the founding of Macondo: a township near the river and the stories of the Buendia family unrolls in the novel.
Gabo took inspiration from the fables and legends pertained to Arcataca villages and the characters he had encountered in his life to create the mythical village named "Macondo" at a period "when the world was so young that many of the things doesn't have a name"..Magical realism is a concept which evolved in this masterpiece..It plays a part in making the readers think while laughing whole heartedly. A Spanish Galleon found in a forest, A priest who can levitate himself by drinking chocolate, The showering of flowers from the heaven over a dead mans' body,A preternatural beauty who ascended to heaven in mortal carriage, A village where due to insomnia people used to label each and everything like cow ("This animal is used for milking "), A lady who has been informed by the death himself so that she can prepare her own funeral dress,The flying carpet and other things that were brought by gypsies Macondo and parchments of Melquiades are only a portion of the extreme exaggerations that Gabo has crafted into..Infact Gabo put these things deliberately justifying that this what fiction is for.These all things reflects the traditional myths pertaining to all our villages where people prefer to believe some bizarre events without seeking an explanation..
The name "Hundred years of solitude" is dedicated to the hundred years of history of Macondo ...A place where the people don't know how to love each other. The place where lusty conquests and promiscuousness won over romance and where the only child born out of pure love bore a pig's tail..There township went through a series of social and political changes over the years ..Its adolescent age when the inhabitants faced insomnia and hence loss of memory, the fight between the Liberals and the Conservatives lead by Col. Aureliano Buendía , The invasion of Banana Company led by some gringos, The deluge that lasted for over 5 years and the final decline of the house and the township.All this happened exactly as written in Sanskrit by Melquiades, a clairvoyant gypsy..The lineage has been described as ."The first one will be tied to a chestnut tree and the last one will be carried by the ants" decrypted by Aureliono who in an attempt to discover the roots of his origin comes to know that as soon as he finishes reading this parchment the whole township will be destroyed by mother nature herself. quoting the writer "races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth".What else can be more complete than these.
The characters portrayed in this novel is as flamboyant as the novel itself..José Arcadio Buendía who was messing up with his lab works and inventions, Urusula the epitome of a strong and responsible women who actually is epicenter character of the saga, Col. Aureliano Buendía who lost 37 wars surviving a series of attacks on him and finally resigning himself into the of making gold fishes, Rebecca with her passion for eating earth, Amaranta who had broken the heart of two men before dying as a Virgin, Arcadio Jose and his passion towards his aunt , 17 Aurelinos who was slaughtered on after the other, The twins Jose Arcadio Segundo and Aurelino Segundo who where so confusing in appearance that they ending up in swapped coffin, Remedios the beauty who broke many hearts before ascending herself to the heaven, Petra Cotes the concubine who used to give aid to her lovers' wife after his death, Amaranta Urusula the passionate girl who want to resurrect the house, Aureliono the intellect who satisfied his lust with his Aunt and who decrypted the parchments of Meliquides and lastly the baby Aurelino with pig tail who was eaten by the red ants depicts the variegation of the characters.
Infact some of the habits related to the characters has been taken from Garcia's real life only....Col. Aureliano Buendía infact represent the dictator who was heading his Grandpa's army of guerillas.He and his debauches were portrayed in Col. Aureliano Buendía ...Gabo had a sister who used to eat earth.The incident when Jose Arcadio Buendia took his children to see ice was also inspired from a real life incident when the author witnessed a boy going to see the ice accompanied by old man'.Even the common names in the family Aureliano or Jose Arcadio was inspired by the naming conventions followed in his own family..
To summarize the facts Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One hundred years of solitude" is an epic which gives you insight over the social and political structure of Latin Americas and Caribbean Isles in a most enjoyable way of chirographic maneuver..This book has been compared to none other than Homers' Odyssey.This is the first time I am writing a review about a book and I will be well satisfied if this effort makes the reader to grab book and dug himself into the labyrinths of this magical village between the jungles empathizing with the Buendia's .For me it is a never-ending thrive to be at one of the beaches in an evening having acki rice fish and salt with coleslaws and some shots of Tequilas toasting it to the ever-green souls of Macondo hymning Harry Bellefonte's "Jamaican Farewell" like....
"Sounds of laughter everywhere
And the dancing girls sway to and fro
I must declare, my heart is there
Though I've been from Maine to Mexico
My heart is down my head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town"
