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

Why did they choose this narrator????

I can’t listen to this guy. I gave up. Which is unfortunate because apparently this is a great book. Just because someone has a resonant voice doesn’t automatically make them a good narrator. He starts out doing very inconsistent accents and then abandons that very quickly. His characters have no consistency. You don’t get a feel of continuity in the through line. His women are weird. He can’t do women at all. He pronounces “R” as “d” which adds a sense of affected erudition to the narration which seems completely inappropriate to the subject matter to me. Seems like a poor choice by the production team. I guess I’ll actually have to read the book.

Wow! What a masterful painter of words.

To be engrossed in one family for 100 years ( or longer ) was quite an adventure. Not for the faint of ears or mind, as the twirling, twisting narrative anchored only by the same names assigned to multiple generations, wraps to and fro through lifetimes intertwined and begrudgingly let go of; in a secluded South American jungle village.

100 years of solitude

Great book, I loved the foreshadowing but sometimes the story felt like a conversation that never ended.

100 years too much.

Gabriel Marques Garcia was not given the pulitzer prize for "One Hundred Years of Solitude" for an incredilbly good reason. The first half he wrote his heart out as the novelist he is, as he did in Love In the Time of Cholea--a clear novel from beginning to end. What the hell happened after the first half of 100 Years? He just went off line. WTF. This not only makes me mad as an individual, but rage against a professional/author who betrays his position as a professional/author. Unbelievable, and shocking. What a great story for the first half. Unbelievable. Betrayal.

rough reading

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

very very hard to listen to, had been very excited and impressed with Audible books until this one, much less excited and thought about canceling.

Would you recommend One Hundred Years of Solitude to your friends? Why or why not?

Perhaps in print, definitely not through this performance

Would you be willing to try another one of John Lee’s performances?

not after this one

Need a different narrator

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No. Reading the book, the story is difficult to follow. Listening to it is even more difficult. Unless you have a familiarity with the book, it's probably best not to try to it.

In addition, the narrator was totally inappropriate for this book and he really took me out of the book with his Scottish/British accent.

How could the performance have been better?

A new narrator is needed. I recently listened to Love in the Time of Cholera and Armando Duran's narration was excellent. I was disappointed to see that John Lee, not Duran, was narrating this. Lee's performance took me totally out of the novel.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

This novel is difficult and listening to it without having first read it, will not be easy. In any case, do not listen to this version. Wait for a more appropriate narrator. I recommend Armando Duran.

Ehh....

This is a classic. No doubt about it. I tried reading it in paper a few times and just couldn't grasp it. The same name for dozens of characters, I couldn't keep it straight. Listening to it helped. The narrator is great. I could keep up but I can't say I really enjoyed it. I'm glad I read (listened) to it finally but can't say I'd recommend it unless you want to cross it off your classic reading list. The story is a 100 years long, literally.

I will return to this story in awe.

An excellent performance of a mind boggling rustic fantasy. Given the opportunity, this is a book I will read twice more: Once after married, once before my death.

Confused

I’m didnt like the narrator and it was very hard to follow but it was interesting.

Good book but.

It's a good book, but with so many of the characters having similar names it got a bit confusing. I'm sure this book would be much better actually read rather than listened to.