How about I just use those books (and have read Remarque's book for a WWI cultural history class) as a supplement that discusses how others have portrayed these events? That's what several of my courses did and I learned more about both history (how the ??????? elements diverged, for example) and literature (how events shape perspectives, even propagandistic, misleading accounts) in the process. All that you said above and more were discussed in these classes that I took and it made a point of noting that literature to a large degree reflects the Zeitgeist and influenced latter perceptions of events, even to the detriment of facts, as seen by Richard III, for example).



Should I find it amusing that you are not providing more justification than "it is monotonous" without providing examples? The entire story was written as a cyclicar event in which personalities and tragedies repeat. It pretty much is what Gabo meant and the style is going to reflect that. Did you read this in Spanish or in English? I ask because while Rabassa's translation on the whole is good, he does not capture some of the wordplay that is present in the original (ternura/turnera, etc.) And as for the Buendia family...I think the politics just enrichens it, since the story has had cross-cultural appeal. The "bizarre" actions I tend to treat as metaphors that may or may not translate well.



That may be the case; I read it in 2004 and it was the first novel I finished in Spanish (I used the Rabassa translation to help me along at the time. Have since re-read it twice and taken more from it each time). I read it with the understanding that it was a metaphor for the shitheap that is Colombian politics and reading it as such (and later, as more than just this), it made the tragedy all the more powerful for me.



That is indeed a problem with him, I agree (it really shows up in his non-fiction writings, I've noticed). As for Baudolino, I'm going to be reading it in Italian starting today, so perhaps I'll have more to say about it later. It's been 7 years since I last read it.