I just finished reading ‘One
Hundred Years of Solitude’. And the story of the Buendías, with its
six generations’ worth of haunting nostalgia, is fresh on my mind.
So, there
are things I want to say about the book before I lose my train of thoughts to something else.
The Book is a
journey
The book traces
the lives of six generations of descendants of José Arcadio Buendía, who founds the town of Macondo (a metaphorical representation of
Columbia), and the generations span a hundred years.
Firstly, the
book is NOT about a clever plot or a gripping climax, but is about the sheer
experience of reading it – about leaving behind your societal prejudices and
opening your mind to receive the possibilities of a newly founded town; about
deliberating on the causes and effects that lead to a town’s prosperity or
ruin; about understanding the characters, identifying with their thoughts and
simply following their development over the passage of time.
So, don't pick the book if you're looking for some light reading. Don't
read it if the only way you can be kept satisfied is by sudden twists and
fantastical plots.
The book is for
the persistent. It rewards the ones who persist and are prepared to get lost in
the lands of Macondo. And the reward is the journey itself.
The Repetitive
Names
On goodreads, I
read a lot of reviews that indicated a difficulty in following the story
because of the characters of every generation being named the same. But I (not
to sound proud) did not face the problem at any instant – for I was so involved
in the story, that I could conjure up the family tree in my mind and know which Aureliano Or José
Arcadio the author was
talking about.
The author, on
his part, makes identification easier by referring to the characters by slight
variations of their names.
For eg:
· The first José Arcadio Buendía (The patriarch) is
always referred to by his complete name- José
Arcadio Buendía
· His son, José Arcadio Buendía (2) is referred to
as José Arcadio
· His grandson, José Arcadio Buendía(3) is simply called Arcadio
· Arcadio’s twin sons are each
referred to as José Arcadio
Segundo and Aureliano Segundo
So you get the
drift.
Moreover, not
more than two or three generations of Buendias are focussed on at any given
instant in the book. The story and the characters in focus change with time. So
we all naturally know which Jose Arcadio is being spoken about.
In fact, a few
days into the book, I only found it natural that they be named that way, for it
adds to the magic of the book and to its various themes.
The Prose
The book is a
translation- translated from Spanish by Gregory Rabasa.
I can only
assume that some of its charm could have been lost in translation, but I cannot
be sure, for I found the literature extremely satisfying.
The beginnings
are written modestly, in a style cloaked in simplicity, where the language is
dedicated to just tell the story. The sentences are relatively short and words
carefully chosen with intentions of keeping a simple reader glued.
But towards the
end (after page 360), the translator seems to let go of some internal barriers,
and gives in to the urges of words, that he stops holding back on long
sentences and unleashes them on us with repressed fury. And I loved them. Some
of them were so beautifully crafted, that I read them aloud to myself multiple
times.
Themes that made
a mark on me:
Time: I’ve
always maintained that Time is a bitch, so the confirmation of the fact in this
book made an impression. Ursula, (José Arcadio Buendía’s wife, who lives to see 6 generations) keeps saying that Time travels in
circles and observes the uncanny repetitions of unfortunate events in the
family. – But the whole observation is left to the speculation of the reader
who is free to contemplate on it.
Also, one notices how the passage of time keeps alive the spirits and vices in some until the very ends, but pushes the others to confine themselves to corners and lose themselves to their own delusions.
Memories and
Nostalgias:
· Collective memories: The author points at the short lived
and fleeting nature of people’s memories when people of Macondo forget even the
wars that happened, and have no recollections of the warriors that fought those
wars to shape the town’s destiny.
He also insinuates that it’s easy to distort history and corrupt public memory. The story describes how a massacre (Banana Company Massacre- google it), that kills thousands of people, is covered up overnight by the officials and is made to seem in the public eye as an event that never happened.
· Memories of individuals: The author writes from the
perspectives of different characters, and of their responses to the same
situation. With time, each one chooses to recall a particular set of memories
over and over again. These memories are purified, magnified and eternalized
over time, while the others are dimmed, leading to rigid and contrasting
perspectives being formed in each ones’ minds.
Solitude: The
members of the wealthy Buendían family are seen to be solitary in their pursuits of fulfilling their
own needs, that they eventually get consumed by the same. However, in the later
generation, when the wheels of time reverses fortunes, a couple (Aureliano
Segundo and Petra Cotes) discover that love changes everything, and they find
fulfilment in solidarity.
I find solace in
solitude, myself, and could relate to the many quirks of the characters.
The author also
points to the pros and cons of the solitary nature of the town (Macondo)
itself. The initial self-sufficient town sees the beginning of destruction when
it becomes connected to the rest of the world.
It’s impossible
to write of all the things I pondered over while reading through The Hundred
Years- But I believe each one of us would embark on a different journey while
reading the same book, and for that reason I ask you to make that journey.
