One Hundred Years of Solitude

This is a long novel about a peasant in Colombia in the 1800s. He tries to travel to the ocean, but gets stuck and starts a town. The town grows over the following century, and the book tells the history of all the people that followed him, and what happened.

A key point: the town is slightly magical. Wikipedia calls it “magical realist” style. Some things happen that cannot be explained, and are never explicitly called out. People levitate sometimes, a woman ascends into the heavens, etc. The writer doesn’t spend any time explaining these things, they just happen.

Occasionally, the book was very hard to follow because the names are so similar. Several generations of men are literally named the exist same thing. The front matter of the book as a family tree, and you will need to refer to it, often.

The story meanders. You get to wondering if there’s a larger point to it, but it’s never boring. You genuinely want to know what happens to all these people, and how it all works out. At any given moment, the book is juggling a dozen different storylines.

I have a theory about the book –

This is considered a classic novel of the 20th century (it was published in 1967). I get it. It’s a long, epic story, in the mold of Tolstoy.

I enjoyed it. I would like to read it again in reading group, because there are a lot of subtleties and details I’d like to explore.

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