Review of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garciz Marquez

I did not like this book in the slighteset. One Hundred Years of Solitude starts with a brilliant first sentence and never reaches that level of writing all 422 pages. GGM does not have any character development in this book, no structured plot and provides the reader no reason to care about the characters he has written about.

Magical realism can be fun but in this instance it hinders the book. Why should I care about a characters death when other characters reappear from their death years later? Why should I take a death seriously when a characeter simply floats into the sky one day and is never seen again. Sure, magical realism allows for the introduction of a flying carpeter which is just a magical to the characters as ice or magenents are (and it total fiction to the reader) and it allows for some nice metaphores to be included in the book but thats about it. Great-great-great grandmothers living to 130+ years old do not help the plot. YoU dOn'T uNdErstAnD tHe cItY oF MoCaNdO iS tHe mAin ChArAcTeR. Yeah I got that. Still doesn't make me care. 5 straight years of rain that flood the town followed by an unstoppable drought do not make me care.

I think if GGM focused on a few characters over a normal span of time instead of dozens of characters that never become developed the reader would care more. Speaking of character who in their right mind thinks its ok to name all the characeters in the book one of three names? YoU dOn'T uNdeRsTanD ThE NaMeS rEprEsEnT ChArAcTeRiStIcS. Yeah I got that too. There are better ways to do that that don't include naming all the characeters the same names.

Reading some of the reviews for this book on Goodreads I feel like the individuals who give this book a 5 star rating fall into 1 of 2 categories. 1: people who actually enjoyed this book (probably 10% of the readers). 2: people who say that they liked this book because they want to sound smart (90% of the readers).

Nothing really happens in this book that makes me care, the plot makes no sense, characters are very confusing, and characeters are not developed. Not even bothering to mention all of the damn incest that takes place in this book.

I'll read his other book but will never reread this book or reccomend it to a friend.

The Romantization of Farmers

 This is something that I am guilty of. Maybe its the "thank a farmer" bumper stickers or maybe its the "God made a farmer" Chevy ad that ran a few years that got me, but I completely romanticize farming. The tilling of the soil and harvesting of the crops. I was asked what I would do if I won the one billion dollar lottery the other day. After saying I would quit my job and help out friends and family I soon realized that I would have to find a way to occupy my time. So I figured I would become a wheat farmer. 

I find myself often Googleing "agriculture of *insert country here*" and then reading the wikipedia page of Bulgaria, Spain, Ukraine, Canada, ect. It interests me. I watch YouTube videos about farming different crops and am surprised at how technology-heavy modern farming is! 

Or maybe the simple life of a farmer is in my mind. I know that it is not an easy life, but working the land seems to be a way of living a peaceful life. 

A Rye Field by Ivan Shishkin

I am currently reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel garcia Marquez and one of the characters is forced to be a soldier during his country's civil war. He states that he didn't want to become a soldier and instead just wanted to be a farmer. You hear about this often. Men forced to leave the life of a farmer and become soliders during times of war. Dick Winters during World War II said that once the war is over he wanted to return to PA and live on his farm. Simply away from all things chaotic. With only the weather and the chance of a bad harvest to worry your mind. Its things like that which makes me romanticize farming. Yearning for the ability to return to a simple life. 

The Sower

Jean-Francois Millet

We often see this in art. The above photo shows a man sowing his land. The below shows a man after the American Civil War back in his field working. 

The Veteran in a New Field

Winslow Homer

We'll see if this sticks with me. But I think it will. Its just nice to think about living a simple life when often life is tumultuous.

Europe!

 How could I forget!

I traveled to Europe for the first time in early September. This was my first time leaving the United States in 10 years. I went to Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest. 

Vienna

Bratislava feat Camil

Budapest

Anyone else browse Zillow for fun?

 This is probably a common hobby but I have yet to meet anyone else that does it.

I browze Zillow for fun.

I can't afford to live in my own city anymore so I look online at what my budget would get me in other cities. Sometimes its nothing (NYC, Boston, LA...) but sometimes its a lot. Today I have browsed Zillow in Pendleton, OR, Tucson, AZ, and Chalreston, WV. 

Its a fun little thing to do that doens't require much effort that allows me to day dream about moving to one of these new cities, finding a nice house or apartment and calling it home.

I am sure I'm not the only one.