The prose is as lyrical and beautiful as any I have read. No other writer's words dance and chime as sweetly as those of Marquez.
The novel traces seven generations of the Buendia family in the town of Macondo. It is about how time is circuitous and repetitious and is as destructive as it is sublime. It is about how progress is deleterious and how it reshapes the past as much as it fosters nostalgia.
What impresses is that with as many characters as there are and with so much happening - over an entire century - Marquez weaves it all together with such fluidity. We often segment time; here, time is singular and free-flowing.
The novel is funny. For instance, at the end, Macondo is so dilapidated and forsaken by almost everyone that when someone leaves town on a train, he must signal the conductor to stop to pick him up. Or, as an example of magical realism (which I like), when some folks are staying at the Buendia house towards the end, they are unable to sleep because of the traffic of ghosts traipsing about.
1 comment:
Great review. I just don't think this is for me.
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