Colin gave me this for my birthday and I only recently started reading it. Of course, I probably won't finish it before school's out, but maybe I can read it during spring break. Regardless I am making pretty decent headway (~1/2 way through) and I am really liking it! I was very unenthusiastic about reading it because I thought I didn't like magical realism (since Winter's Tale disagreed with me so much) but I actually think this is awesome! Very powerful visual imagery and interesting story line.
Also, this book seems to me to have been a very large influence on Jonathon Safran Foer's novel Everything is Illuminated. If anyone else has read both these books, does that strike you as well?
Update: finished the book! Thought it was very good. For anyone who is considering reading this but thinks they have no time to read: this book lent itself very well to being read 1 paragraph at a time over a period of months.
I have read both, but separated by enough time that the similarities didn't strike me. I'd love to discuss - perhaps they've come back to me. I liked EiI much more - in fact, I refer to this book as One Hundred Years of Suckitude.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read either, so I thought I'd post a lengthy discussion....ha ha. Actually, I was never able to get into 100 Years, but I REALLY enjoyed Love in the Time of Cholera. It's been so many years ago, though, I can't really remember more than a mood. And the mood I recall is rather of mature love - love that lasts, even though unrewarded for many years. Not moony "I'll always be tue" love, but just deep regard that endures while other things are going on. (Sounds like rather a shallow memory - mebbe I'll sneak a look at it again.
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe Jonathon Safran Foer only picked the good parts to rip off... haha.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Love in the Time of Cholera, but I saw an opera which was based on it I think...
The movie version of Love in the Time of Cholera from last year is really terrible, so if it ever comes up you might want to do something more valuable with your time.
ReplyDeleteAll of Marquez is good but One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my favorite books. I think the most interesting similarity is between this book and Genesis; the biblical tone of the whole thing is really striking and one of the big things I like about it.
god is awol tho
ReplyDeletefor the most part yes.
ReplyDeletei would be interested in looking at the book again, i get the biblical thing but i can't call to mind any parts that really contained "god" per se... what parts are you thinking of?
ReplyDelete