I struggled getting through this book. I almost gave up several times, but I am so glad I stuck with it and finished reading this. It's not a book where it picks up at the end with an epic finale. It is not a book where the last sentence ties everything together and leaves its readers pondering some philosophical idea. No, One Hundred years of Solitude is the same book by the end as it started out in the beginning. It is simply the story of a of a family and a town and how even when everything seems to change, it really is a lot of the same. The symbolism is excellent. The magic-realism is beautiful and really makes the uninteresting parts more tolerable. I didn't like how most of the woman were portrayed in this book, but they are also some of my favorite characters. My feelings were mixed while reading this, but when I was done and looked back on this book I only had positive feelings towards it.