Wow! Did I just finish it? Yes, I did!
It was definitely like dreaming about a distant town called ‘Macondo’, with weird characters, all of them having similar names, making the read a bit difficult. I had to keep referring the family hierarchy given in the beginning to comprehend what’s going on and with whom!
So this was my first novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I picked it up because someone told me that he’s way too good, even much better than Murakami, when it comes to magical realism (I doubt this one though). Anyway, not getting into any comparisons. The tale is about a remote village called Macondo, and the family of Jose Arcadio Buendia, and his wife Ursula. The storyteller takes you through multiple generations of this family, with distinct and weird characters. Peculiar thing is, everyone is having similar two names, so half the time you’re confused what’s going on and with whom exactly. After a while, you get used to it though. So there’s some who makes gold fishes, some girl who eats dirt, gypsies with flying carpets, a man with super human strength, butterflies accompanying a guy, a blind woman who can see way too much, a woman who makes prophecies through cards and what not!
This is a book, that would take you through a dream world, where logic and realism would be defied, and you would witness something magical, something supernatural. I would put Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the league of Haruki Murakami. This kind of literature is definitely different.
‘Magical Realism’ is a fantasy style of writing where magical stuff, unbelievable things, - they happen as part of the daily routine. And such things are so seamlessly mixed with other occurrences, that it is not even pointed out, it just kind of mixes in. Some instances of Magical Realism in the book –
- Gypsies – they have flying carpets
- A woman, so beautiful, that men just get wasted in front of her
- A man has super human strength, and an appetite of multiple men
- A man has 17 sons, from different women, who arrive at his home at the same day
- A man living tied to a chestnut tree for 20 years
- A blind woman, who can see much better than others through her sense
- A woman making accurate prophecies about others
- A woman making her own shroud
- There are many many more examples of course
At a point, you feel there’s no real story. It’s just a family, and you’re just reading about them generation after generation, new children keep getting born or are brought to the house, and they get added to the family. They grow up, and you start reading about them. This continues through multiple generations. However, each character has a distinct story to tell, but the story itself is short lived and you move on to some other character. Hence, you get a long narrative style story where you keep touching different characters, and where the ‘Buendia’ family becomes the main character, and everyone else becomes secondary. This was my first reading experience of ‘Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ and I would say I enjoyed it. I won’t say it’s the best book or story I’ve ever read, but it definitely had its own charm. If you like magical realism or want to read such literature, I would recommend this book to you.
For others, I would also tell why you should NOT pick this book. If you’re looking for light entertaining reads, this one is not for you. The characters (And so many of them) are complex, with similar names. Half the time, you’ll be scratching your head and returning to the hierarchy tree, to figure what’s going on.
Overall Rating - 4/5
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