Cien Años de Soledad

This is one of my favorite books. I read it a couple of years ago and loved it and I am excited that we get to read it in Spanish. I really enjoyed the storyline about the gypsies who come to town and, though the story isn´t so much about the specific characters, but the several generations of a family and how the actions of one generation affects the younger generations (I think that's why Marquez gave everyone such similar names, making the characters personalities blur into one another, making it difficult to distinguish one character from another), I still enjoyed the stories of specific characters.

What I really appreciate about this epic work of fiction is the contrast of comedy and tragedy, which I think says something very profound about life in general. There is much to analyze here and I think a whole course could be spent on dissecting this novel. I know there are things that I am missing, such as the social/political comment being made by Marquez. I say this because, in my experience of Marquez'z work, there tends to be some sort of criticism of the social and/or political sphere but I would need to read more of the book to get an idea of what that is in Cien años de soledad. I am guessing it's more subtle for some reason or another. Maybe because I truly don't understand the culture because I am not part of it. Gender is another important theme in this novel. I think it would be easy to classify each person into stereotypes associated with their names... but I will think more on that and write on a later week. Though, I think the stereotypes work well in a book like this because it not necessarily about the individual but about the family as a whole.