One Hundred Years of Solitude / Thirty Years of Trying

 

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez for me is the quintessential 80s book. The book was given to me by a Cuban friend in 1990.  The young woman who would become my wife also had a copy.  In thirty years I have tried again and again to pick it up and finish it.  I always failed.  I finally read it to the end – mostly – I skimmed material near the middle – and now I know why I never carried this book over the end zone.

Structurally, I find and always found the book difficult to follow.  It does not help that the characters are so indistinguishable from each other – it is difficult to plant one’s feet firmly in the flow of the story.  I’ve read hundreds (really thousands) of books since I started reading seriously when I was sixteen.  This is just one of those novels that never clicked – or was meant to click.  

So, I am glad I put this to bed.