AUTHOR: GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: SPANISH
TRANSLATOR: GREGORY RABASSA (translated from Spanish)
This is a masterpiece for sure, but it's not an easy read.
I found myself to be going back and forth many times while reading this book. The reason is that I had to figure out the time frame for most instances. This book is not as linear as I thought it would be. Also, the names are tough to get a hold of. Yeah, too many Aurelianos, Arcadios and Remedios. After a point, I lost count of how many Aurelianos were there. So, I mapped the to different names in my virtual memory for ease of understanding. Yes, it's not an easy read and it took me nearly 6 months of on-off reading to complete this.
Nevertheless, this a book from which a whole country perhaps a continent can be created. The Caribbean and the people in it would have been easily created even if they did not exist. So, in one way, it acts as a travel help book that can help familiarise with the conditions of Caribbean. As a fiction novel, I certainly shall put this a must read and a book that deserves to be on every book readers shelf.
It created a century of time travel and generations of a family in nearly 300 pages. That in itself is a feat and I bow my head in humility to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He is a great writer I can confirm, after reading this novel. Let me tell you, that this is the only book of his, I read. Yet, as per what this book gave me, I concluded that he is a great man and a great writer.
I loved the book, the characters, the objectivity and above all, the feeling it gave after completing it.
A 5/5 for a definite masterpiece written by a master.
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