One Hundred Years of Solitude This entry could be subtitled: On Relieving Cynicism. While beginning to read this wonderful book again for the purposes of this article (purely research purposes, you understand), I was dismayed to discover that I didn't embrace all the magical and mysterious happenings in Macondo with the enthusiasm I had in former times. The fantastic inventions of Melquíades and his family of travelling gypsies; José Arcadio Buendía's discovery of ice in the tent of one of the gypsy's; even his discovery of the aged shipwreck in the forest when trying to find a way to civilisation with his small band of men - all these things that so fascinated me when I first read One Hundred Years of Solitude, just passed me by this time as if I had never read them, or as if I had read them over too many times for them to make any impression on me.

But continuing on into the book, with the sheer wealth of beautiful writing that is Gabriel García Márquez's forté, any feeling of disgruntlement soon disappeared. The wonderful characters with their oddities; the confusing array of family members, almost all sharing their names with their descendants; and the way these characters' lives develop - all bring me back to the love I had for the book. And then, after this, when any magical or unbelievable happenings occur, I can suspend my disbelief as I had, and enjoy reading it, safe in the knowledge that I'm in the capable hands of a genius.

It's very hard to encapsulate a wonderful work of fiction (as I'm discovering with this chapter of mine) and do it justice, so perhaps it's better that I stop now, and let you read it yourself and enjoy it. The last thing I'd want to do is spoil it for you.

Word of the Week

Fiction

fiction n. 1 an invented idea or statement or narrative; an imaginary thing. 2 literature, esp. novels, describing imaginary events and people. 3 a conventionally accepted falsehood (legal fiction; polite fiction). 4 the act or process of inventing imaginary things.

Definition courtesy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary

If time seems not to be on my side, and I am not making a very good job of this speedy attempt, please be lenient. But stay tuned, next week we may have a much funnier bit of writing to read about, and perhaps more time in which to write about it. I bid you adieu. I will be twenty-one next time we meet. Farewell!