I’ve Endured 100 Years of Solitude

That sounds a bit dramatic doesn’t it? I’ll clarify: I’ve read the book One Hundred Years of Solitude and it felt like an endurance test.

Now I know, I know this is a world renowned book and so this is not going to be an unpopular opinion to hold- so just hear me out (or cover your ears if you’re a huge fan). In all fairness, I can see this is a very well written book- but to be brutally honest I have to admit I found it insufferably boring. It’s very rare that I read a book and think “yeah it’s well written, sure it may be a masterpiece, but oh my god MAKE IT STOP!” It felt like having my braincells slowly fed to the fishes.

And on top of that, while I feel the urge to acknowledge it is well written, I *hated* the writing style. Now this isn’t a complaint exclusive to this book- anyone that knows me may very well have heard my rant about stream of consciousness books. I make no secret of the fact that I can’t stand long ambling paragraphs that go nowhere, mean nothing, and express a jumble of thoughts and emotions. In short: I like coherence! And for me, stream of consciousness just doesn’t do that.

Reading this kind of thing always has the same affect: I skim. And I hate skimming more than anything. There were points when I was suffering through (*ahem*) reading this, that I just thought “jeez- I’m going to blow my brains out if I have to suffer through another page of this”.

The characters, the setting, the plot are all well-drawn- sure, sure, sure, check, check, check. (Boy I’ve never felt the need to defend my opinions this much). But for goodness sake, stop making me feel for being punished for liking reading. I felt like my mind was being ground into dust. I’m sure the book’s legendary symbolism was excellent- but I failed to grasp any on it cos I was, as I said, *so bored*. And if not enjoying this book makes me a total pleb, then so be it- cos I never want to read anything like this again. I hope you all have more luck with it.

In summary: I hate stream of consciousness writing. Please don’t make me read it.

Rating: 1/5 bananas

(Because I’m feeling generous, it got more than a banana peel)

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