A few years ago, I realized I know very little about the history of Latin and South America, and since I only enjoy history in the form of fiction, I asked a friend from Mexico who studies literature for a list of good translations of books from those countries I should read. This was on the list. 
 I really enjoyed this book. I took me a while to get into the story, i had a hard time following the generation changes with the constant repeating of the names, but once I got used to that I enjoyed the story of the village and the family and how the matriarch watches what happens during her long (100 year life). 
 I enjoyed the cadence, the ebb and the flow of time and people and that feeling of the more things change the more they stayed the same.