"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

In a perfect world, I would have finished this novel. As summer reading goes, I don't think this book is something you'd want to sit down and read while the hot sun beats you to death with UV rays. As a book for discussion within a group, it is the perfect novel to digest, however, it needs a cold day, a warm fire and a drink to sit next to the reader. I wish I finished the book in it's entirety, but after 200 pages of narration with barely any dialogue, I just couldn't do it anymore.

That's not to say it was poorly written. Far from. Marquez does an excellent job weaving together a tapestry of a family so unique, you can't help but find some resemblance. Having won the Nobel Prize for literature (for many, that's not saying much), Marquez describes the rise (and I'm assuming fall, but I didn't get that far) of the fictional town of Macondo through the lives of the Buendio family. Each family member has it's faults, and much of what happens throughout the book is quite fantastic. When a man tries again and again to make gold via alchemy, and another character is visited by a dead spirit, while another is strapped to a tree and lives there for a while (at least until his death), that's what I mean by fantastic.

I am not finished forever. I plan on picking up the audio and listening to it once school starts, but until then, find a couple of other people to read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" with you that way you're not alone experiencing dynamic language.