From the Mississippi to Macondo: Huckleberry Finn and One Hundred Years of Solitude

This week we take a look at two novels that were on last year’s reading list. Why are we revisiting them? Because we only read a couple of chapters of each one, and that wasn’t enough!

First up, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I shared last year that this was one I only had bad memories of from high school, but rediscovering it as an adult was a real treat. In particular, we talk about:

• The centrality of Huck’s relationship with Jim, and how Huck grows and changes
• Twain’s remarkable use of vernacular
• The vivid locations and their relationship to Twain’s earlier writing

Finally, we get into the details of the ending—it’s fairly controversial. Did Twain rush the ending or did he mean it as a warning on the nature of change?

Then we move on to Gabriel Garcia-Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude. This is a beautiful book, not for everyone but certainly a great book. We discuss:

• Generational novels, and how the structure cyclical patterns and repeated names creates a dreamlike mood for this novel
• How the magical realism here emerges as a natural part of the environment and not through any apparent supernatural activity
• Various tensions, like isolation and connection, or ephemerality and stability, that are at work both in the family and the town of Macondo.
• Whether the town of Macondo is itself the main character of the novel.

Finally, we end with a couple of things I’ve learned lately that are improving my reading. First, I’ve started to recognize that writing a little about each book helps me to resolve what I think about that book. Second, great (and even good) books tend to illuminate each other, making your world bigger, while less worthy books tend to run together. Another argument for great books!

LINK

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