College Students! discussion

Please use this thread to talk about the book as a whole after you have finished.

Some general starting questions:

Did you like or dislike the book? Did you like the ending? Favorite characters? Favorite quotes? Did you like the author's style? Were you confused by anything in the book? etc.

Feel free to post any discussion questions that are more specific to the book once you have finished. The moderators and discussion leader will try and facilitate the discussion but since everybody's reading schedule/life schedule are different, they may not be able to do so at the beginning of the month. So, any discussion questions are welcome! :)

Just finished. Thought it was amazing! I've always loved Marquez books, and this just pushed ahead in my favorite author territory. I don't know what to say about it. There were so many bittersweet moments. (for example as he was wrapping up the story - how the last of the 17 Aureliano sought refuge in the house and was killed).

Two things I'm wondering:
-what happened to Meme after she got sent to the nuns?
-did Remedios the Beauty really just float away? That part was so odd.

Loved loved Ursula. She really held the novel and the family together for me. I was devastated when she died.

Also Did anyone else feel like the house itself was a character? It was always changing, and it took on a personality to me.

Finally finished it! I really enjoyed it but it was not an easy read by any means. The longer I stayed away from it, the harder it was to pick up again. It was just such a complex book (and I kept getting confused about people so the family tree came in handy) that I'll want to re-read it in a year or so.

This was the second novel of his that I've read. I read Love in the Time of Cholera in December. He is an amazing author.


Paula--I wondered that too! I couldn't think if they wrapped up her story or not.. Also, I questioned that part as well with Remedios the Beauty floating away. I think that maybe it has to do with the style of magical realism..inserting fantasy type things in the midst of normal, realistic life.

I loved Ursula as well. I felt bad for her because she realized how cyclical the family history was.

That's a really interesting thought about the house. I hadn't thought about it but really, looking back, it does kind of seem like that. It was always changing; particularly with whomever was running it and also it changed when certain people came home or died.

Oh I am definitely going to re-read this multiple times. I think it has enough detail that new things will always appear in re-reads and better connections will be made.

I know that it was magical realism, it's part of why I love his work, but for some reason Remedios was just way too out there, it didn't seem to have any basis. I guess it was just saying that she was too ethereal for this world, or something? It felt more like he didn't know what to do with her character and was like...man i'm gonna make her float away. But I kinda disagree with myself there because I'm pretty sure Marquez is a genius and knows exactly what he is doing, and maybe with my second and third re-read of the book I will eventually have an "Aha" moment about it.

Haha..I don't know why but you cracked me up with the "man I'm gonna make her float away." I have no idea. It did seem way more "out there" than anything else in the book. Let me know if you have that "aha" moment!

I finally finished this book--I really had to slog through it. Probably because I have an incredibly hard time keeping track of characters in general, much less when they all have the same/similar names. Still, I started enjoying it more toward the end when Marquez started bringing all the story lines together and showing how time moved in a circle for the Buendia family.