One of the most distinctive genre that I have tried is 'Magical Surrealism'. I tried to start with Salman Rushdie but failed miserably. Then last year I came across Murakami and his windup bird chronicle which I did actually enjoy reading. This book has been there in my shelf for two years and I never had the interest to take it after first ten pages. But this year, I resolved to give it a try and finally succeeded in reading the book fully.
The book starts with Colonel Aureliano Buendia who remembers going out with his father to discover ice during his childhood as he was facing the firing squad. Then the story drifts back to Jose Arcadio Buendia and Urusula, how they set out with their friends and find a new place to live in and develop it as a town Macondo. Slowly the town grows big and sort of a civilization starts forming there. Gypsies are one of the first group that visit the town after it was found and they fill the people with awe with their so called magic and discoveries. One of the gypsies; Melquiades form a close friendship with Jose. From there starts a story of how the town Macondo sets it mark, prospers, undergoes big changes and how at last it crumbles and fall to shambles all told through the lives of various members of the Buendia family.
It is very difficult to pen down a specific storyline for this book as it takes us on a roller coaster journey through Macondo down to seven generations of the Buendia family. The males in the family are mostly head strong and they seem estranged most of the time right from the patriarch Jose Arcadio Beundia. The entire Macondo gave me a sense of mirage throughout the story. It might seem prosperous or self sufficient at times but looking through the lives of Buendia family we can sense it is very far from reality. The read was interesting but I will not say it was engaging enough. I did lose track of the story at many instances throughout and went to finish the read due to the sheer determination to do so. A little research after the read shows that people who has knowledge in the Latin American and Columbian culture will be able to easily relate to the story. I checked out the happenings over net and pondered over the book and then I was able to see many connections and relate to them - reality told through magical realism. The story seemed like the 'Age of Empires' game which started with people moving to a new place and advancing bit by bit expanding to electricity, the arrival of train, different culture, cinema, automobile, advancement in technology and politics etc. Another theme that we can see it the cyclic nature that unfolds each time and also the timelessness. The story gives us the feel of magical realm and again looking into the family we can see the cyclic nature on how the people in the family is brought to the world, how common their physical nature turns out and how they all end up at last. The matriarch Urusula seems to be the one who had been keeping the family running and her life extended till the fifth generation.
There is a continuous repetition of names down to the last generation and this was very much confusing for me. I had to go back and keep referring to the family tree very often and this did hinder the flow. I feel the author might have done this intentionally to depict the cyclic nature of life in Macondo. Another characteristic that you can see throughout the story in the repeated occurrence of incest relationships. Right from the patriarch Jose who marries his cousin there has been many instances of marrying cousins and nephews have relationships with aunts etc. But there was also an underlying fear in the family about the incest nature as they feared that the resulting children will be born with pigs tail. Buendia family being one of the founders of Macondo is an elite family and the incest seems to be recurring as if to maintain the elitism. The book also shows the life style prevalent among the people in those parts. Even though there seems to be an underlying similarity spread across generations, I really liked how the author was able to bring specific characterization to the various members of the family. While one was Liberal, another was conservative, one was violent and another was civilized, while one never professed love and remained likewise throughout her life, another one did profess their love. The political views in the book did interest me starting with the fight between Conservatives and Liberals. There is subtle comedy spread across the book but at the same time a sense of sorrow and solitude lays submerged in each of the member in the generation which we could feel strongly. I feel this might be the reason for the title of the book.
The book is considered as one of the major landmarks in literature and gave Gabriel Garcia Marquez his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. Even though the read was interesting for me, it did not engage me throughout which I guess might be due to the fact that I have no idea of the Latin American culture. It gave me a feel of a lot of things happening over 500 pages and the repetitive names did irritate me a lot. This is my second read in magical realism genre (first being 'The Windup Bird Chronicle'). At any point of time, I will choose Windup Bird over this read for a re-read. This book is definitely for people who have patience to sit through all the happenings and for people who is having some idea on the Columbian culture and history.
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