Book Diary: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This is the first time in my entire life that I actually took notes while reading. And it’s really helpful especially because this novel is like super long and confusing.
It’s about the Buendia bloodline. They all lived in the same house that Ursula had built. The great great great great great great granny, Ursula, lived the longest. She even surpassed her sons and great great great great grandsons. She’s my favorite character. She’s a strong woman who wants nothing but to to keep the family intact.
There were times, while reading, that I really laughed hard. I didn’t know that Marquez was that kind of writer. But most of the time, I cried. Especially when Ursula became blind and NO ONE even fcking noticed it. Damn the younger family members. They were as insensitive as a steel plate.
I don’t know but I just have a soft spot for old women and men. When Ursula was already old, my grandmother was all that I could think about.
Miss ko na si inang.
What was shocking about this story is that the books that Melquiades, a gypsy who was Jose Arcadio Buendia’s (Ursula’s husband) friend, gave to the family when he first came to Macondo (the family’s village) written in Sanskrit which the family couldn’t understand because their language is Spanish (Aureliano, the last in the bloodline was the one who deciphered the books and found out the truth) was actually a history of the family, written by Melquiades himself, down to the most trivial details, ONE HUNDRED YEARS AHEAD OF TIME!
It’s just mind-boggling you know like my mind was blown off literally. This novel is fantasy-realism. I don’t know how you call it but it’s fantasy-realism. You get my point.
And the phrase “per omnia secula seculorum” was used too many times and Google said it means “into all generations of generations”/”for ever and ever”.
Fantastic novel!
Macondo has stayed with me forever.
This might be a helpful tool for those who read the book:
