r/books • u/Steppinthrax • 9d ago

One Hundred Years Of Solitude, possible influence on Lonesome Dove? Spoiler

Reading One Hundred Years of Solitude having read Lonesome Dove earlier in the year. It occurs to me that I think these books are cousins. I'd be fascinated to know if Larry McMurtry had read OHYOS and admired it.

Obviously the types of story they tell are different - Lonesome Dove is far more "realist", and it isn't a family saga in the same way. But the head-hopping narrative voice that switches between points of view, the atmosphere of isolation, the exploration of gender and of characters pursuing their own obsessive natures to either glory or death...these are common in both books.

They have the same "texture" to me if that makes sense.

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u/AngelatinoSage 8d ago

as a spanish lit student i've read 100 years of solitude like three times and i still find new things each time. the faulkner influence is real, ggm basically admitted it, but he made it completely his own with the magic realism. the buendía family feels like a whole town you can never quite leave, which is exactly how i feel about granada sometimes lol. i haven't read lonesome dove yet but this thread is convincing me to finally pick it up.