Sun, 22 Dec, 2024

The DWIT Book Club: Experience of Reading "One Hundred Years of Solitude"

By Nikita Gautam

How can a writer think so deeply, with each character reflecting an image of extraordinary contemplation? This is the thought that we, the members of DWIT Book Club, have been trying to reason and justify every time we sit to discuss about the book. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is indeed a prodigious piece of art that we are forced to admire. Because of its astonishing plot of literature reflection, each sentence tends to relate to the existence of magical environment. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is a 1967 novel written by a famous Columbian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Book Club of DWIT has successfully conducted 4 discussion sessions and has finished 7 chapters of this novel. This novel has been one of the best I have read so far. It basically reflects a family tree of generations initiated by a person, who seems to be the main character of the novel till now, Josè Arcadio Buendía, along with his wife Ursula. This novel invites its readers into a world of paradise with excitement and unexpected surprises. The plot of this novel is itself a tree of generations with tangled lives.  The successive generations of the Buendía family hatches, lives and dies in the land of Macondo; founded by Josè Arcadio.  Every discussion session gains its momentum surprisingly when we discuss about the mysterious characters of the novel. This novel provides its readers knowledge about how a town built from scratch turns up into something huge, how the so-called gypsies are, how it compels us to believe in magic, how each character plays an important part and so on. It lets us believe that even a disease like insomnia is communicable. In my point of view this novel touches upon each and every aspect of life such as, family, relationship, integrity, intimacy, love, passion, responsibilities and so on. It is an inspirational novel. Story plot is confusing and characters have repetitive names such as Josè Arcadio Buendía has his elder son named Josè Arcadio who has his son named Arcadio. This deeply rooted connection in names tends to continue with each new character evolving in the novel.  This novel shows a magical realism of evolution of scientific experiments, success and its failures. Some characters in the Buendía family are wild and avaricious while some are calm and peaceful. This novel shows how hatred can turn into love, how family relationships do not separate people from holding an intimate relationship followed by marriage, how mysteriously a man can adopt souls inside his human body and how emptiness and loneliness can turn eventually into greatness. There is yet more to discover and more to learn, more to connect deep down with the characters in this novel.