By Gabriel Garcia Marquez Jiyu Lin

Gabriel Garcia Marquez  Raised by his grandparents in northern Colombia  His grandfather was a retired colonel and his grandmother a fervent storyteller.  Studied law for a while, but decided to be a journalist.  Wrote numerous editorials, short stories, and five novels, most notably OHYOS and Love in the Time of Cholera  Won the Nobel prize for literature in 1982  Married to Mercedes Baracha, and has two sons

Setting  Macondo  An imaginary village in Latin America  Inspired by Marquez‘s hometown Aracataca  He once said, “I have never renounced the nostalgia of my homeland: Aracataca, to which I returned one day and discovered that between reality and nostalgia was the raw material for my work.”

Characters Buendia Family Tree

Characters  Jose Arcadio Buendia – founding father of Macondo, exceptionally intelligent but impractical  Ursula Iguaran – Jose Arcadio Buendia’s wife, the steadfast and savvy matriarch of the family  Jose Arcadio – first son of the second generation, runs away with a gypsy and becomes a brute  Colonel Aureliano Buendia – leaves Macondo to join the Liberal revolution, becomes a war hero  Amaranta – only daughter of Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula, spends her entire life torn between various men but remains a virgin

Their children  Arcadio – takes over Macondo when his uncle leaves, transforms the town into a totalitarian state  Aureliano Jose – in love with his aunt Amaranta, is killed by Conservative forces  Remedios the Beautiful – empty headed girl with legendary beauty  Jose Arcadio and Aureliano Segundo – twin brothers believed to be switched at birth, but then switched back in their graves

Those children’s children  Meme – in constant conflict with her controlling mother, gets sent to a convent against her wishes and refuses to speak for the rest of her life  Jose Arcadio II – raised to become a priest, but chooses to follow a life of indulgence instead  Amaranta Ursula – has an incestuous affair with her nephew Aureliano  Aureliano II – Meme’s secret son, forever resented by his grandmother Fernanda  Aureliano III – son of the previous two, the last of the Buendia line, fulfills the family prophecy

Plot  Jose Arcadio Buendia founds Macondo  The people live in isolation from the world, but are happy and safe.  His children and grandchildren come and go - joining wars, killing Conservatives, marrying gypsies, eating dirt, leading strikes, falling in love – causing chaos in general.

Themes  What is Reality? Literary style called magical realism Realistic events (war, affairs, deaths) highlighted by supernatural events Blurs the line between rational perception and mystical forces  The repetition of history The descendants of Jose Arcadio Buendia are all named after ancestors They exhibit similar traits and make similar mistakes

Recommendation  Magically inspired language  Some mature content  Perfect book for cool (and lazy) summer evenings  Word of advice: Take your time. Let the words sink in.

Page 121 “... In the shattered schoolhouse where for the first time he had felt the security of power, a few feet from the room where he had come to know the uncertainty of love, Arcadio found the formality of death ridiculous. Death really did not matter to him but life did, and therefore the sensation he felt when the gave their decision was not a feeling of fear but of nostalgia. He did not speak until they asked him for his last request...”