One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude 

by Gabriel García Márquez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I listened to this narrated by John Lee which was an excellent choice because there were a lot of Spanish words that I would have stumbled over, including many very similar names. Lee did an excellent job of making the different names clear. He also has a beautiful voice. 

I read this book when I was in college and did not like it at all. Since then I listened to Love in the Time of Cholera which I did enjoy. That inspired me to give this another try and I am glad I did. 

The story is set in the mythical town of Macondo and tells the story of the Buendia family which is intricately intertwined with the history of the town. It starts with this memorable line: 

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice...”

Then weaves through time and various versions of reality to spin a tale of beauty and suffering and love. 

“Wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end." 

This book is on my Classics Club list.