Cien Años de Soledad

By Julia D’Aloisio

Has inspiration struck you at the most inopportune times? It has for Gabriel García Márquez, author of the landmark novel Cien Años de Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude) While en route to Acapulco, México for a family trip, Márquez suddenly had the urge to write the novel’s first sentence: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” This opening line is just the start of the adventures that Márquez leads the reader though. Through an epic tale of the town of Macondo and the Buendía family, the reader is able to discover the true meaning of solitude

In addition to its whimsical anecdotes and continuity through generations of the Buendías, Cien Años de Soledad is revered because it is written in the style of magical realism Known for its combination of daily occurrences with the supernatural, magical realism has attracted many authors. Although magical realism wasn’t yet a well established style during Márquez’s writing period, following the publication of the novel, the style of magical realism grew exponentially Authors such as Isabel Allende and Toni Morrison, author of the New York Times bestselling novel Beloved, would go on to make use of the style established by Márquez His work in Cien word

Años de Soledad would eventually win him the Nobel Prize in 1982.

Cien Años de Soledad also inspired a counterculture known as McOndo, inspired by the central location of the novel, Macondo. Followers of McOndo, particularly Alberto Fuguet, who spearheaded the movement, oppose magical realism because according to them it “reduces the essence of Latin America to men with ponchos and sombreros,” as phrased by Fuguet. Despite this counterculture, Cien Años de Soledad still remains one of the most well known Latin American novels, only eclipsed by Don Quixote From its rich history to engaging storyline, Cien Años de Soledad has something for every reader