30 Second Review: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude.

I have realized that words are inadequate when describing this novel because even the most lyrical descriptions would not even come close to capturing the overwhelming sense awe that the novel inspires. At it's core, it tells the story of five generations of a single family, and the town they found, which, like the people, shrinks and grows as do the people, but that does it no justice. Because in this town, Macondo, flowers rain from the sky and blood does not move in one direction, and time never moves in a straight line. And although the book reads like a fairy tale, Macondo is so deeply rooted in the earth and the charachters so real that such episodes are never distractions but instead are woven into the very existance of the town and its people.

But this does no justice to the book. I could write, write and write and never really capture it. I will mention, however, that as I was reading the book, it's end dawned on me before I had reached it. Not detracting a bit from the experience, instead from then on it seemed like it's internal clock picked up with my realization and moved faster and faster until its ending, which though expected, was illuminating and only inches away from rapture.

Note:
When released, in 1967, the NY Times called it as being a requisite read for the entire human race.
Also, Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the 1982 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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