One Hundred Years of Solitude

by Beverly Tjerngren

Though we're a third of the way through the year, I've just now--ten minutes ago, in fact--finished reading the first book on my 2005 Reading List. As I had been warned by more experienced readers, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez was a difficult read. As I had been promised, it was well worth the difficulty.

The book, considered by most Márquez's masterpiece, is the story of seven generations of the Buendía family and of the mythical Colombian village, Macondo, that they built. It is an examination of the many forms solitude can take, from the literal, geographical isolation of a person or place from the outside world to the isolation brought about by human acts and emotions such as love, pride, war, grief, and jealousy. Interwoven with the details of political and practical reality, elements of fantasy and myth make this novel unlike any I've read, and Márquez's skillful blend of the magical and the mundane is what will make it stand out in my memory for years to come.

For all its sterling qualities, however, I can't go so far as to claim that One Hundred Years of Solitude was a pleasure to read. While the plot is engaging and the writing is top-notch, the narrative is a complicated one and getting through it required a fair amount of effort and concentration on my part. I'd be lying if I said there weren't times I contemplated abandoning it. Now that I've reached the other side, though, I'm grateful that I had my New Year's pledge pushing me to continue. The final paragraph of the book, more than two pages long and beautifully constructed, is an exquisite pay-off, and one that I could never have appreciated without having fought my way through the 420 pages that preceded it.

My verdict: read this book--you're missing more than you imagine if you don't.