One Hundred Years of Solitude I

Whew. I read this book 3 weeks agoish, and it still sticks with me. Very vividly. I have a feeling it always will. Perhaps because the book is so primal in its tone and message. This is a lot to wade through, so I'm doing it in at least two parts. By the way, I'm pretty sure that this counts as my 25th book.



Overview: The One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a more modern writer, is a novel that revolves around the Buendia family that live in the village they founded in Spain, Macando. The family patriarch and matriarch who are the two who climb across the mountain range to found Macando (they hadn't any children yet) are Jose Arcadio and Ursula Buendia. Interestingly enough, when I looked up names (because this is the type of novel that you suspect that the names mean something), both Arcadio and Ursula mean bear. I'm not sure how this figures in at all, but it's interesting nevertheless. We find out eventually that the reason that the Buendias took some people and moved was that Jose Arcadio had murdered someone over a cockfight and the spirit of the murdered man left him no rest, so they pledged to leave the town. This is almost a bad omen, a curse that leave the Buendia family to one hundred years of solitude.



The Buendias. Wow. This family packs a punch. In the family there are exactly 2 men (patriarch Jose Arcadia is kind of a mixture of the two, in fact you would say that both men's traits were from him). The same men just repeat and repeat and have two names: Jose Arcadia (or variations) and Aureliano (variations). The women are varied and all strange. One becomes a hermit lady, one an old maid, one flies up into heaven, one an adulteress, one a pompous, overly religious hypocrite. Actually the latter was technically an in-law. But still cooky. However, the Buendias have one overwhelming trait in common: they are all passionate. In a second however, we find out through one of the themes of the novel, I think, is that passion does not equal love. Actually, Marquez reaffirms this belief by stating, when the last (insestuous) child is born - I believe they call him Aureliano -, that he was the only Buendia to actually have a heart. Of course this baby meets an tragic end just days after his birth, making his ending also tragic. And symbolic. But I'm trying not to reveal too many plot points, so you'll have to figure that one out on your own (hint: something else is destroyed at the same time).

If you haven't gotten a hint by now, the Buendias are a very violent and sinful family. Here is a quick list of violent/sinful acts I can remember off the top of my head:
Incest
Murder
Betrayal
Adultery
Incest
Lust (No, you don't say!)
War (not necessarily a crime, but violent indeed)
Usurping of authority(a brother's, so see betrayal above)
Incest
Gluttony/Carousing
The introduction of evil to society(not a direct crime, but I'll add it)
Now, don't get me wrong, there were some heroes in the family. And even someone who was taken off into heaven (via floating/flying). And do you get the picture that this is, indeed, a very passionate family?

There are some unique circumstances in the novel. Though the sentence of solitude, I'll call it, is 100 years long, time moves faster than that. How do I say this? At the beginning of the novel, Marquez states that the time was at the point when some words weren't invented yet, and gypsies roam and bring them magic and ice, which is given almost magical qualities. As time moves, the reader witnesses an Industrial Revolution and what I think is supposed to be the Roaring Twenties and airplanes and trains, as well as the civil war. Of course, the timeline of Macando wouldn't line up to that of the United States, because it is a Brazilian writer writing about Spain. But you see what I mean. Everything evolves faster in invention and progress while only a century passes. Actually time is a great theme of this novel, but I think I'm going to leave it at this and post things like themes and symbolism in my next post.

By the way, since I referenced a similar novel for The Joy Luck Club, I might as well for this. The Alchemist is a book also by a South American author that takes place somewhat in Spain. The writing style is a little similar, but I blame that on the toll translation takes on style. Apart from that, the two books don't really have a lot in common. But I love The Alchemist, which delves into the forces of the world, and other world-encompassing matters. It's a short read, unlike Hundred and way less tragic also. I would give it a 4 1/2.

The Joy Luck Club

Before walking out of the doors of my high school after exams, I decided to go to my now former English teacher, Mrs. Donaldson, and ask for book suggestions. Among the books she piled in my arms was The Joy Luck Club. This was the second book I've read by Amy Tan, since about a year - year and a half - ago I read The One Hundred Secret Senses. (Question: Why is it always one hundred?) I swear Amy Tan reuses plot points.



The Joy Luck Club is about 4 sets of mother~daughter pairs. Through these sets of women, we encounter and observe breaches of culture, since the mothers grew up and started life in China and their daughters grew up and started life in America. The actual 'Joy Luck Club' is where these families meet: at monthly Mah Jong tournaments that take place at each other's homes. So the families that are not related in most cases are a confusion of 'aunts' and 'uncles' and everything that a traditional Chinese family in the states should entail: jealosy and competition over cooking, the parading of daughters and other family assets, and the friendly family bickering.

Right now, I should introduce the characters. But the truth is, I can't remember their names. Which really isn't important when compared with the stories they tell. The only person's name I can remember is Waverly Place Jong. An odd name. She was named after the street they lived on. One daughter was a child chess champion. Another a designer. The mothers were much more interesting. They had tales of marriages and heartbreak and intuition. Every mother had a story - about a previous marriage or previous children or childhood traumas - that happened in China. But they almost never told their children these stories because they wanted to protect their daughters and leave the old life behind them. The irony in it, is that if the daughters knew these stories that made the mothers people and not just mothers, they would have more respect for them as humans.

I read this book about a month ago, so I don't really have quotes. I give this book a 3 out of 5. Just for me. It explained the chinese culture and the strife between generations. I liked the journey the younger generation had to take to fully understand that while they had hurried to cover the Chinese and flaunt the American, the Chinese part of them was still there and needed airing out. But it was not my favorite book. It reminded me of Obasan. Not just because of the Asian-American connection or the journey to self discovery when you have more than one culture pulling at you, but at the silence of the former generations.

Hello.

I created this on a whim.

I'll be layed up this summer for a good part so I have decided to make myself read.

Okay, it's not like it's torture to make me read - I love reading - but when it's summer and there's a tv in your room when there normally isn't and you have a short attention span because of the Darvaset you tend to not have so much interest in a nonfictional book.

Right now I'm trying to make myself read a book about Sargeant York, who is in fact and distant cousin of mine, but I'm having a rum time of it.

But! I've read a couple books earlier this summer so I think I shall begin with those.

OH! I missed a pivotal plot point! Because of the aforementioned 'being layed up this summer', I decided to embark on a reading list I downloaded off collegeboard.com. The list is entitled One Hundred Books You Should Read Before College. To be honest, they aren't the best or the most classic books, but they are intended to give the reader a fair sampling of major books and authors before college. OF COURSE no one is going to read the whole list before college.

But I decided to try to get to 50 before the end of the summer.

Right now, I'm at 25. And I don't even read purely 'list books'.

Whew. It's gonna be a long summer.

So on this site I'll be posting synopsis (kind of) and themes and symbols and possibly quotes and probably ratings of the books I read. Wow. That took me a while to get to the point.