Ok...I get it. I just don't "get" the "get" everyone else is "getting".
I recently grabbed a copy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's supposedly earth shatteringly brilliant novel One Hundred Years of Solitude from our library collection to amuse myself while hiding from students during my lunch break. I'd been wanting to read it for a while since I'd seen it on every modern classic Top 10 list forever. I briefly hesitated when I saw the cover was bedazzled with an Oprah Book Club Choice sticker. I have delved into the murky waters of the Oprah Book Club before and it is a somber world indeed. But I gave it the benefit of the doubt as I ripped open the corner of my Ranch Doritos. Alright...starting out good. A little modern day mythology. Lots of crazy characters. Forging a new beginning in a savage land. I can dig it. After a few more days worth of p b & j sandwiches I started feeling a heaviness descend upon me. Is it just me or does this book sorta suck? I get the whole history repeating itself theme, I do. But, Good Lord, how many depressed men named Aureliano can a girl keep track of? How many dead ghosts can walk through the house reciting long lost Sanskrit passages? How many times can incestous relationships pop up before you start saying "ewww!"? It just all seemed like a big chaotic blur of dysfunctional family drama enough to keep Jerry Springer in business for decades.
Far be it from me to disagree with all the critics who claim this book is singlehandedly the savior of modern literature. Maybe y'all are seeing something I don't. But for now, I just don't "get" it. Oprah strikes again!!
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