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The After Hours Book Club

The After Hours Book Club from Cheltenham discuss Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Description of ourselves: A group of eight working ladies some who have known each other for over twenty years but all met two years ago to enjoy books over a glass wine. Seven of us work in education and have children of similar ages. We were delighted to be chosen to review a book but our faces dropped over the choice, having assumed we would be given a newly published book. However it gave us the opportunity to read something we otherwise would not have chosen. Always up for a challenge we tackled One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The story of seven generations of the Buendia family and the village of Macondo in Columbia they have discovered and built. This is a book of magic and fantasy. At times it is difficult to follow as the family adopts the same names. The 100 years, as documented in the family encyclopaedia by Melquiades, is a journey through the lives and generations of the Buendia family, the rise and creation of its town through 32 civil wars and liberation and downfall of this strange and mythical place. The characters, especially those of the women, came to life with very descriptive passages of their interwoven lives, at times eccentric, unbelievable and disturbing, at others magical and full of astounding and graphical descriptions and images.

Solitude seems to be the theme of the book. Each character has a time of solitude which is something we all face at times. That experience, whether self inflicted or imposed, is wonderfully portrayed. Our favourite character was Ursula, who masked her blindness and was able to know exactly what was going on around her.

The book reminded us of a previous book we had read; Like Water for Chocolate, set in Mexico. This is a book to be read in large chunks so that you can escape into the mythical world of Macondo. If you enjoy a book with a good story this would not be for you, but if you want an ultimate fantasy through time, enjoy.