The three books that we have read have all been examples of magical realism and have all been historical in nature. The first book Legends of Guatemala is by far the most random of the 3 books as it had various legends in it, all about Guatemala. For the most part the legends described the history and beliefs of the maya and the history of the creation of the country and its belief system.
The second book and the easiest to read, Kingdom of this world which is also a history related book tells us about the freedom of the slaves in Haiti and the history that lead to the liberation. This short book was the best of the 3 book as it was very straight forward to read and easier to understand than the other two books. The simplicity to the story line and the language used in the text makes it easier to read as theres really no need for dictionaries or foot notes (stuff I never resort to anyways). The book doesn't really go into huge depths like 100 yrs of solitude so its a way better read and given the amount of time we had to read it made it I was able to understand it way better than 100 yrs.
The final book 100 yrs of solitude which is a long and tedious read. The book starts off strong in my mind and captivates the reader but withing 150 pages it becomes boring and drags on completely losing me out of sheer boredom and the need to read the rest in the least amount of time possible. This book is the history of the Buendia family and the town of Macondo; this follows the history nature of the 3 books we have read. This book really lost me with all the details and the long pages of apparent nothingness that was being said, rushing through the book really left me with a general understanding of the book but the depths and alternative meanings of the book where lost to me. So over all the was a boring bibliography of a family to me and really nothing I would ever want to read.
The 3 books being examples of magical realism seem to go from more magical in nature to more realistic as we progress from one book to the next. The first book is very magical talking about gods, magic and mysticism. The 2nd book employs a bit of magic but heavily relies on the realism of the slave revolution in Haiti. Finally the third book has a few magic elements but there very discreet this book is mostly realism even though its about a fictional town and family.
The similarity's between the books would be the the fact that there all historical, take place in Latin America and are mostly depressing or morbid.
I have no idea what to say about this but if I had to choose Kingdom of this world is my favorite of the 3 as I got the most out of it
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interesting interesting interesting..
ReplyDeletei also was wondering whether 100 anos was the best book or not.. hm.. at the moment.. it isn't for me either.. I also agree that El Reino is probably the easiest to understand and read so that help in choosing which one is better :P but i guess because 100 anos is so much harder to read, it allows for a lot more analysis and maybe moe interesting topic to discuss within the novel.. Also, although most of the plot in both the last two novels are depressing and negative, they both end with characters finding/realizing the truth.. which might be.. one of the most satisfying things in life..
Again, the three books are *not* all examples of mgaical realism.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, I'm not sure what you mean by saying that all three books are "historical in nature"; they each have very different relations with history.
You might also explain what you mean by saying that each of the three books is "depressing or morbid." How so?
By historical in nature like I some what mentioned each of the books depicts history be it fictitious or real.
ReplyDeleteLegends is historical in the sense that it depicts the colonization of Guatemala and there religious beliefs that lead to some of there current belief system.
Kingdom is historical in that it describes the liberation of the slaves in Haiti
100 yrs is a fictional history of a family and town
Depressing or morbid because everything ends up in death, rape, murder, destruction and slavery.