One Hundred Years of Solitude

By: Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa - translator

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Includes a bonus PDF with a character chart!

One of the twentieth century’s enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career.

The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility, the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth—these universal themes dominate the novel. Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an account of the history of the human race.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©1964 Gabriel García Márquez (P)2013 Blackstone Audio

Amazing.

John Lee did a fantastic job narrating this wonderful book. His voice brings to life the magical realism in Marquez’s work.

Super story

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excellent novel and excellent reading

couldn't stop listening once I started. The magical and real world created is so vivid and complete.

astonishing

Great narrator brings new life to this classic.
Love, passion, folly. Mythical and truly magical!
Deserves its reputation for being one of the greatest classics of the 20th century.

Change and solitude

As most stories of any worth, this is one of change. I don't rightly know if I have understood it, though. Halfway through it occurred to me that the book is an absurdist comedy, and from that point on, it became much more enjoyable. Even so, I fail to properly grasp it. I think perhaps I have found the first book I need to actually read in order to follow.

There is nothing wrong with the narration. In fact, it is splendid! But the disjointedness of the story, the faint fantasy elements, the liberal handling of chronology and flow of time, and the propensity to name all the characters the same, makes it hard to keep the story straight.

On the other hand, I feel like there isn't that much to keep straight; all the Buendias simply wish to be left alone. They don't want to follow anyone's rules, and are willing to die and kill for their goal. Across all the generations, this seems to be the overarching trait; they only approach anything like happiness (though more often they only succeed in escaping abject misery) by being alone, or at most sharing their life with a single other person. I can relate to this sentiment, but it doesn't necessarily make me like the story.

It has several brilliantly funny moments, though. Like when Ursula catches herself worshiping the gold calf (plaster statuette full of coins), or that people in Macondo don't consider the railroad particularly fancy, since they remember the flying carpet of the gypsies. And of course, Remedios the Beauty is a treasure trove of comedy.

Captivating through time and space

100 years of solitude aged me in the best way. The story weaves itself through time in a very peculiar but captivating journey. This narrator is nice for this book. I believe the translation of a particular Spanish word for "anxiety" should be replaced in English by the words worry, stress, and concern, where the word anxiety doesn't fit every context. 10/10 recommend read.

Liked not Loved

Any additional comments?

There were many negative reviews on this book based on John Lee's narration and I slightly agree with them. I actually enjoyed the narration with the exception of how John Lee did the character voices, good thing most of the story is told by the narrator's POV, the other being how fast the story was read, it could have been slowed done ever so slightly with pauses between paragraphs. I normally follow along in the book (when able) while listening to any audiobook so that enabled me to follow the story easily. If I didn't follow along I would have been lost about 50% of the time.

I enjoyed the story at times and was annoyed by the prose at other times. You definitely need the family tree chart to understand the story, it's now available as a .pdf when you buy the audiobook, it doesn't show up on the iphone app but does appear at the .com site. The beautiful and at times daunting descriptions and adjectives used sometime leave you a bit lost but I believe that's the beauty of the story, and as much as I was annoyed by it at times it also opened up a different style of writing I was not accustomed to and because of that I definitely want to read more of Marquez's work. I kept looking for a deeper meaning and trying to understand the solitude of each character but really didn't find it in my first read so it might be a book you read more than once. I have to admit, I wasn't moved emotionally by the story but that didn't bother me. It wasn't a book I was able to read for hours on end, I would read a chapter or two then rest, then pick up again for a chapter. It took me about 6 days to get through the book at that pace.

Overall I would say it's a book you should read/listen to. If you listen to it, I would advise following along in the book.

Women don't speak like that

The tone and voice of the narrator is very annoying when he tries to do the women's part. Some of these characters are very strong women and he does not seem to realize that. They all seem like miserable feeble crying women.

Superbly narrated

Mr Lee does a phenomenal job of bringing to life the nuances and subtleties of the text with an eye for inflection and pacing that should be considered the bar for narrators. Masterfully done.

Also the book is wonderful - but that goes without saying as it could easily be the greatest book of modern literature of the Americas.

Classic read, although not easy to follow!

John Lee does a great job narrating this book👌🏽
I enjoyed listening as I followed the written version