One Hundred Years of Solitude

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of illness, death, grahpic violence, and sexual content.

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude is considered one of the foundational works of the magical realism genre. Have you read other novels that have magical realist elements? (You may wish to consider examples like Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie or Beloved by Toni Morrison). Do you tend to like or dislike this genre?

2. The novel traces multiple generations of the Buendías family and has a large cast of characters. Do you typically enjoy novels that can be considered “family sagas” (other well-known examples might include Alex Haley’s Roots and Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko)? What is unusual about how Márquez approaches the genre?

3. Did you read the novel in translation? What do you think are the constraints or limitations imposed by reading a work in translation?