Goodreads | Love in the Time of Cholera

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Rodrigo rated it:

(review of isbn 140003468X)

02/17/08

Read in January, 2008

recommended to Rodrigo by: Estela Macías Turcott
recommends it for: Anyone who has been in love

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

"La memoria del corazón elimina los malos recuerdos y magnifica los buenos, y gracias a ese artificio logramos sobrellevar el pasado." - Gabriel García Márquez

La última vez que tomé un libro de Gabriel García Márquez fue a mediados del año 2002. Mi novia había insistido en esa ocasión que leyera Cien años de soledad, pues es ferviente admiradora de García Márquez y de esa novela en particular desde hace mucho tiempo.

La verdad es que, cuando surgió el tema, me vi ...more "La memoria del corazón elimina los malos recuerdos y magnifica los buenos, y gracias a ese artificio logramos sobrellevar el pasado." - Gabriel García Márquez

La última vez que tomé un libro de Gabriel García Márquez fue a mediados del año 2002. Mi novia había insistido en esa ocasión que leyera Cien años de soledad, pues es ferviente admiradora de García Márquez y de esa novela en particular desde hace mucho tiempo.

La verdad es que, cuando surgió el tema, me vi muy renuente a aceptar. Mis únicos acercamientos con García Márquez habían sido Crónica de una muerte anunciada y un fallido intento por leer Cien años de soledad. Mi mamá, siendo también fiel al trabajo del escritor colombiano, alguna vez había puesto ese libro en la mesa de noche que se encuentra justo al lado de mi cama, como sugiriendo vagamente que lo leyera. Supongo que pensó que, si el hecho de ser mi madre le daba el derecho de acomodar mi cama cada vez que le parecía desatendida, también le daba el privilegio de sugerir lecturas, procurando uno de los lugares más preciados de la vivienda moderna: la cama. Así que se aprovechó de la inherente necesidad de acostarme todas las noches en esa cama. Ingenuamente, caí en su pequeña treta y traté de leer Cien años de soledad.

No tuve ningún problema al principio. La manera anecdótica de relatar la historia de García Márquez me pareció entretenida y mi mente estaba suficientemente adaptada a la ficción y a la fantasía como para asimilar exitosamente el realismo mágico del autor. El problema surgió cuando empezaron a aparecer Aurelianos Buendía hasta por debajo de la sopa. Siempre he sido muy obsesivo con el tener control de cuanto se encuentre a mi alrededor, por lo que el hecho de perder la referencia del árbol genealógico me desesperó al punto en que hice algo que suelo no perdonarme: dejar el libro a medias.

Pasó el tiempo y supongo que mi inconsciente freudiano hizo que olvidara ese pequeño incidente... hasta el momento en que mi novia, al igual que mi madre, decidió recomendármelo de nuevo, justo en el momento preciso en el que uno es incapaz de negarle algo a una novia. Esta vez, ella misma se ofreció a leerlo de nuevo, para que pudiéramos avanzar a la par y que pudiéramos irlo comentando. Debo aceptar que avancé mucho más que la vez anterior, pues el hecho de comentarlo, o, incluso leer juntos ciertos fragmentos, me ayudó a llevar un poco mejor la línea de la historia. Sin embargo, no tardé en cerrarlo de manera definitiva sin haber alcanzado el final. Llegó el momento de nuevo en que mi desesperación por llevar una idea clara de la genealogía de la historia sobrepasó mi tolerancia. Tengo entendido que esa incertidumbre constante con respecto a los personajes es una de los aspectos principales de esa novela que la hace excesivamente atractiva entre varios lectores, entre ellos, mi novia y, probablemente, mi madre.

Honestamente, cada vez que alguien hablaba de Gabriel García Márquez o, lo que es peor, lo alababa, pensaba hacia mi interior en aquellas anécdotas infructuosas de mi pasado y no entendía el valor literario de alguien que había sido lo suficientemente frustrante como para que yo dejara una de sus novelas a medias.

Recientemente, a alguien se le ocurrió hacer una versión cinematográfica de la novela El amor en los tiempos del cólera. Con frecuencia, me gusta leer los libros antes de ver las películas. Esto fue un gran incentivo para tratar de tomar ese libro de nuevo, así que recurrí a mi fuente más confiable con respecto al escritor colombiano: mi novia. Dado que su madre es aficionada también (ha de venir en la sangre) y que tiene la colección completa de los libros de García Márquez, decidí preguntarle que si me lo prestaba para echarle un vistazo. Lo tomé decididamente, quizás con el temor de tener que dejarlo a la mitad, como había sucedido con Cien años de soledad.

Como debí haberlo imaginado, la novela es densamente anecdótica. No termina de contar una historia cuando decide ligar esa línea con algo relacionado, pero sin nunca perder el propósito de la novela. Es como estar leyendo código de un lenguaje funcional, en el que los paréntesis terminan por perderte, pero en conjunto suelen ser muy poderosos. Lo mismo sucedía aquí. Era como mis clases de literatura de la prepa, donde el profesor hilaba una idea con otra y, al final, le costaba trabajo recordar la línea de pensamientos que lo habían conducido fatídicamente a algo que muy probablemente no tenía nada que ver con literatura (suponiendo que algo en la vida NO tenga nada que ver con la literatura...).

Para mi sorpresa, la historia captura al lector desde la primera parte. En general, me gustan los libros con capítulos periódicos y bien definidos. Me dan tiempo para dejar el libro sin sentirme culpable de no haber terminado el capítulo. Esta novela tiene los capítulos más grandes y no hay manera alguna de parar el libro a la mitad de un capítulo sin sentir que algo interesante venía después. El narrador se encarga de hacer que la novela sea lo suficientemente interesante como para impedir que esto sea un problema. Las descripciones son maravillosas. Pareciera que cada esquina de la casa de la familia Daza tiene una historia detrás que el autor está dispuesto a contar. Finalmente, los personajes son bien definidos, claramente cambiantes y hay una justificación lógica a cada una de sus acciones, por más extravagantes que parezcan. Por tanto, el autor logra meternos a las mentes de los personajes y de vivir los escenarios extraordinarios en los que ha decidido ubicar esta obra de arte. Finalmente, se cuenta una historia de amor: la cosa más sencilla que uno pueda imaginar. Uno no puede mas que identificarse con los personajes, sabiendo y recordando la intensidad de algún amor platónico que hayamos sentido en nuestro pasado, la ruptura de un amor, la indiferencia de las personas que nos han amado y a quienes hemos decidido no corresponderles, y la estabilidad física, emocional y racional que sentimos cuando estamos en una relación. Aparte, el mundo en que viven los personajes, me recuerda mis mejores momentos en Costa Rica durante mi infancia. Para resumir, un libro cien por ciento recomendable, entretenido y muy distante de mis experiencias pasadas con el autor.

Pocos días después de acabar el libro, fui a ver la película. En los avances se mostraba, como principal atracción, el hecho de que Shakira había compuesto y cantaba varias de las canciones de la banda sonora de la película. La verdad es que es risible su presencia melódica, opacada por una excelente fotografía de montañas, selva y algún río. La dirección es impecable, aunque no puedo decir lo mismo de las actuaciones. Tal vez me haya molestado más el inglés con el que pretendían expresarse los personajes. No me molesta el inglés en una adaptación de una historia latinoamericana (nadie dijo nada cuando Julio César hablaba inglés en la obra clásica de Shakespeare). Me molesta que, si se decidió que los personajes hablaran inglés, no se respete ese lenguaje y que la pronunciación sea lo suficientemente notoria como para asesinar los momentos más dramáticos de la historia. Sin embargo, siento que la película no es más que una ilustración del libro. Como si los productores, los guionistas y el director se hubieran sentado y hubieran extraído los momentos más memorables de la novela y los hubieran entrelazado cronológicamente para crear la historia. En ese caso, siento que es exitosa en ese propósito. Yo no viví en esa época, pero siento que está bien ambientada: desde los carruajes que transportaban al Doctor Juvenal Urbino, hasta las casas maltrechas de las amantes de Florentino Ariza.

Mi calificación del libro: 95/100

Mi calificación de la película: 87/100...less

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Liz rated it:

(review of isbn 140003468X)

01/07/08

Read in January, 2008

I feel suspicious about the fact that I didn't fall for this book the way Florentino Ariza fell for Fermina Daza. I am compelled to blame my lack of appreciation on poor reader comprehension rather than GGM'S writing, because only one of us won the nobel prize and I'm pretty sure it wasn't me. However, I'm no idiot either, so I'll at least take the liberty to explain my grievances:

1. As a synesthete, I found Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza's names to be WAY too similar. They look the same...more I feel suspicious about the fact that I didn't fall for this book the way Florentino Ariza fell for Fermina Daza. I am compelled to blame my lack of appreciation on poor reader comprehension rather than GGM'S writing, because only one of us won the nobel prize and I'm pretty sure it wasn't me. However, I'm no idiot either, so I'll at least take the liberty to explain my grievances:

1. As a synesthete, I found Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza's names to be WAY too similar. They look the same; I kept getting them mixed up! I think it was unecessary to pick the two most F, vowel, R, N and Z laden names ever for use in this one story.

2. The narrator kept making very definitive, bold claims that 3 pages later turned out to be completely untrue. For example (not real quotes) "This particular bed-fellow was the closest thing to love that Florentino Ariza ever experienced apart from Fermina Daza." Turn the page, now talking about a brand new lover, "Now, as it turns out, THIS particular bed-fellow was actually the closest things to love that FA experienced apart from FD." Next chapter, another new lover "Okay, SERIOUSLY, this is the one this time"... etc. Similar broken promises were made about various other topics. Perhaps this was done on purpose to demonstrate the fickle nature of life or love or something like that, but for me all it did was make me yell at the pages, scolding the narrator for being a big liar.

3. Florentino Ariza = mid 70's, Young Girl placed in his "care"= 14. It's just not okay. (P.s. She later kills herself because he ruined her life and stole her innocence, and his only reaction to it is that he has a bout of indigestion while lying in bed with the woman he left her for...what a swell guy). P.s. he also kinda kills another woman...the one on whose stomach he writes with red paint and her husband murders her when he sees it.

4. The whole premise of the book is the waiting...FA is waiting to finally be with FD. And when the wait is over, I don't feel like there's any reward. Nothing between them is all that magical...yeah they have fun on the boat, sure the fun is a little subdued because of their age, etc...but ultimately I don't understand what the point of all that waiting was for when he seems to have just about as much a connection with FD as he had with any of the other 621 ladies over the years. I dunno...as I stated in point #2, the ABSOLUTENESS of this book is what really holds it back for me. He says he absolutely loves FD, better than the rest, into eternity...he says this, but the reality is actually quite different. The ending is the same kind of thing...is that boat really going to sail up and down the river FOREVER? No. It's not. So why cheapen it with the gross exaggeration...just say "until we die" or "until somebody makes us stop"... it doesn't sound as cool but it means more.

In summation, it wasn't a horrible book but there were a few things that made it less than perfect. The writing really redeemed it, however, and made the experience pleasurable overall. An example of this is the detail GGM throws in about Urbino drinking chamomile tea, any then rejecting it, saying that it tastes like windows. Everyone is perplexed, thinking he must be crazy. Then they taste it themselves: Yup. Windows.
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Syd rated it:

(review of isbn 140003468X)

06/17/07

bookshelves: classic, cultural, drama, favorite, fiction, finished

Read in October, 2003

An unrequited love story. It is the story of a woman pursued from the first buds of puberty to the sour smell of old age by one man. For fifty-three years, seven months and eleven days and nights he does nothing but obsess over the woman. She accepted his love as a young girl but only from a distance and only through letters. When she finally meets him face to face, she realized that the love she felt for him was an illusion and broke off their engagement.
He persisted to love her from afar. H...more An unrequited love story. It is the story of a woman pursued from the first buds of puberty to the sour smell of old age by one man. For fifty-three years, seven months and eleven days and nights he does nothing but obsess over the woman. She accepted his love as a young girl but only from a distance and only through letters. When she finally meets him face to face, she realized that the love she felt for him was an illusion and broke off their engagement.
He persisted to love her from afar. He anguished over her and fell ill with the biting sting of unrequited love, which seemed to some to resemble cholera, an epidemic sweeping the Caribbean latitude. He was sickly to begin with, an old man even in his youth.

The woman married another man, a doctor; they lived together in unhappy happiness for fifty years. It was a successful marriage. Estranged, hard, and effected by the pendulum of emotions that people feel for each other over fifty years of learning to love and live together. However, after her husband’s death the woman still wondered if it was real love or just the illusion of love.

Upon her husband’s death, after waiting fifty years for her to become a widow the sickly romantic man approached her again. With the smell of flowers from her husband’s casket still permeating the house, the man offered his eternal love, again. Eventually, through a series of well-written letters about love and they heart’s method of mending itself, the man wins the woman’s favor and they begin the romance they never started. The story ends with the two elderly people traveling by riverboat, apparently forever.
This book was hard for me to dive into. Marquez writes with so much detail that while the story does move forward it seems to trudge along. I will admit this could be due to my own impatience since my brain has been trained mostly by the T.V.

Also, I found the main characters to be somewhat despicable.
The man who lived for nothing but love seemed very weak. He also had a habit of seeking to fill the void in his heart with broken woman. Towards the end of the story, he ruins a young girl by interfering with her and then casting her aside once he began his rekindled love affair with the woman.

How am I expected to feel happiness for this spindly little man? Yet, I know how he feels in his loneliness and desire for true love.

And the woman, though married for fifty years, endures the infidelity of her husband. She seems to live is a haze just above reality. She never seems to know if the emotions she feels are reality of illusion. Yet, she is stubborn in her resolve to rebuke love time and again.

How can I feel joy for her? Yet, I’ve been her before. I see that in myself.

Overall, it was a good book. I am fond of Marquez and I’m so glad that my friend introduced me to him. This book was thick, descriptive, and full of nooks and crannies. Noteworthy quotes:

"He was a different person: the lover who never showed his face, the man most avid for love as well as most niggardly with it, the man who gave nothing and wanted everything, the man who did not allow anyone to leave a trace of her passing in his heart, the hunter lying in ambush–this man went out on the street in the midst of ecstatic signed letters, gallant gifts, imprudent vigils at the pigeonkeeper’s house, even on two occasions when her husband was not on a trip or at the market. It was the only time, since his youngest days, when he felt himself run through by the lance of love."–pg. 216

“We men are the miserable slaves of prejudice,” he had once said to her. “But when a woman decides to sleep with a man, there is no wall she will not scale, no fortress she will not destroy, no moral considerations she will not ignore at its very root: there is no God worth worrying about.”–pg. 329

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Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 140003468X)

05/14/08

bookshelves: 2008-journey-to-30, funky-fiction, hersday-book-club, i-own-it

Read in May, 2008

I read Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez because of John Cusack. It’s no secret that I have a weakness for the man. Between him and Gilbert Blythe, I’m likely to remain single for my entire life, because I’ll be searching for the combination of the two of them for eternity. I've started reading this book at least half a dozen times. This last time it was selected for the HBC ... Hersday Book Club. So I had to keep going this time.

Much like my quest for the perfect c...more

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Moody rated it:

(review of isbn 140003468X)

04/30/08

Read in January, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

2.3 Stars

I can't remember the last time I paid full price for a work of fiction, what with ebay and libraries and thrift stores.

I was thirsty for this book, had to get my hands on it. I had caught a brief review of the movie in the paper, and thought "man waits 50 years for his true love. That's the story for me!" Picked it up at the airport, the following day, just like those suckers placing orders in the SkyMall catalogue.

And now, for some reason, against the current...more 2.3 Stars

I can't remember the last time I paid full price for a work of fiction, what with ebay and libraries and thrift stores.

I was thirsty for this book, had to get my hands on it. I had caught a brief review of the movie in the paper, and thought "man waits 50 years for his true love. That's the story for me!" Picked it up at the airport, the following day, just like those suckers placing orders in the SkyMall catalogue.

And now, for some reason, against the current of the canon and others, I feel the need to qualify my opinion. But the truth is, just because he's great, the work stands on its own or it doesn't.

Some books, I'll be reading and with a big grin, roll over from my stomach to my back in bed, hold it the air and shake it like the Gay Cowboy love of my life...it's that good. It's so damn good. It takes over, I can't get enough of it. I'll stay up thirty-six hours rather than interrupt the experience. At the end, I feel real loss, and anger at the author for not continuing on and on forever to keep these characters and this story alive for me, so enriched is my life my their presence.

I celebrated 100 Years of Solitude and Of Love and Other Demons, transfixed by both. I remember reading them and being in awe of Marquez; his style and storytelling were inspiring, and I got lost in them. With that said, it never occurred to me I wouldn't enjoy this book as well. But I didn't. The overwhelming sense for me was frustration.

Clearly Marquez can paint. His talent transports the reader into the streets with completely, immerses you in the smell, texture, taste of the place. His characters too have sharp, bold outlines and real richness, their clothes and faces and their slightest mannerisms are all skillfully infused. For all the detail, the characters never came across as totally human, and as time progressed and more was revealed, I cared about them less and less. The stench of wasted ________ coated everything. The tangential threads of plot that careened off here and there didn't work for me in this book, where in 100 Years, the magic and chaos of the story matched the telling perfectly.

I took meaning from the incites the book made into the reality of love, marriage, romanticism, and the misguided pursuit of the ideal. And he could get under my skin too, make me want to rip out pages rather than stand for the decisions of his characters. Those bastards. Also, for me, the book could have dropped about two-hundred pages without significantly impacting its effect.

The final sentence had me cheering, in real celebration; I loved it. "Huzzah!" I shouted right alongside Florentino. "That's Right!" I shouted, laughingly. Found it Fantastic.

I have to mention that I wasn't impressed with the seventy year old Florentino's relationship with his adolescent ward near the end of the book. And I've got nothing against dirty old men; I hope to be one someday. In Of Love and Other Demons, the relationship didn't bother me at all, as it had some others I had loaned my copy to. Maybe the intervening ten years have colored my perspective, but I think it was more about how he approached it. As though the fourteen year-old was grateful/fortunate to have such a gentle and experienced lover initiate her sexuality. Lucky her. She gets over him by killing herself. Moving on...Fermina Daza is in a hot air balloon... I recognized the purpose of her inclusion, but even so, this part took my lack of interest and tinged it with disgust.

Maybe because it wasn't the story I wanted or expected. Maybe more magic, less ugly reality would have suited me.
Maybe I need no lessons or lectures on love and lust and obsession and needful desire and hollowed out bones from longing. Whatever the reason, I donated my copy to the local library with the sincere hope that its next reader would cherish it in the way that I wanted to but could not.
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Rebecca added it (review of isbn 0307389731)

05/13/08

Read in May, 2008

recommended to Rebecca by: Stephanie

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

The idea of a lover who will follow you around, keep track of your life obsessively, and collect everything your touch (including buying a mirror just because it once had your reflection in it) only seems romantic until you've actually had a stalker. After that, you recognize it for the creepy and disturbing behavior that it is. I was a little skeptical about Florintino Ariza from the beginning, as the first time we meet him he's barged into Fermina Daza's house during the funeral of her husband...more The idea of a lover who will follow you around, keep track of your life obsessively, and collect everything your touch (including buying a mirror just because it once had your reflection in it) only seems romantic until you've actually had a stalker. After that, you recognize it for the creepy and disturbing behavior that it is. I was a little skeptical about Florintino Ariza from the beginning, as the first time we meet him he's barged into Fermina Daza's house during the funeral of her husband, who died that day, and asks her to marry him before her husband is, literally, cold in his grave. Or in his grave at all, as he hadn't even been buried yet. That's not romantic, that's profoundly disturbing.

After this introduction, we step back in time to the beginning of Florentino and Fermina's relationship, begun when Fermina is barely pubescent, and Florentino is already a teenager. I got past that by reminding myself that that wasn't as unusual as it seemed in that time and place, but things got worse. To cut a long and increasingly ridiculous story short, Fermina comes to her senses and cuts Florentino off after a couple of years, where their relationship consisted almost solely of letters and telegrams. Some time after that, Fermina decides to marry, and that is where Florentino's obsession, rather than redirecting itself, only increases. We then follow both of them over the next half century, during Florentino's 622 affairs.

We know it's 622, because he keeps track, although he takes care to never fall in love with any of them, because he's still convinced he's waiting for Fermina's husband Juvenal to die so he can marry Fermina himself. He thinks that having sex with 622 women is all right, as long as he doesn't fall in love with any of them, because he only needs to save his heart for Fermina, not anything else.

Whatever you think about the moral implications of Florentino's decision in the abstract, reading the details is what becomes truly horrifying. Without going into the eye-popping detail that the book feels in necessary, over the course of time we learn that two women are killed because of Florentino - he doesn't kill them himself, but they both die because, and only because, of his actions. Right up there and maybe tying with this, the last conquest of Florentino, when he's in his 70's, is a girl who's sent to him by her parents so he can be her guardian while she's in school. She's perhaps 12 when she arrives, and he seduces her. Yes, seriously. He is, in fact, with her when he hears the funeral bells and realizes that Fermina's husband has died, and he promptly dumps the girl so he can go back to stalking Fermina. Yep, he's a charmer.

Fermina is the only character in the book who acts with complete integrity. Even her husband cheats her on her at least once (possibly twice, although the second one is not confirmed). Fermina's world is filled with adulterers, liars and cheaters, and she alone seems to keep her core character intact. Aside from my commitment to finishing every book I start, she's the only reason I read through the whole thing.

Even the writing style was occasionally gauling; it was clearly translated into English, but that wasn't the real problem. Most of the time it was lyrical and flowing, and then for absolutely no apparent reason he would drop some random crudity ("shit" was a favorite) that was completely jarring.

This was a book I read because I wanted to see what all the fuss is about, and having read it...I still have no idea. This isn't a story about love, except possibly about the disasters that happen when someone is too obsessed with the cult of love; really, it's about a mentally unbalanced sex offender who needs to be committed and possibly castrated. There's beautiful literature and genuine love stories out there - why would you waste your time with this?...less

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Samantha rated it:

(review of isbn 140003468X)

10/05/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in May, 2007

I previously read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and I liked it a lot, and I was intruiged by the title "Love in the Time of Cholera" so I thought I'd read it.

Within the first few pages I had the inkling I didn't like it, but sometimes it takes books a little while to get warmed up. Plus, I don't like starting a book and not finishing it, because I know I'll never go back to a book I stopped reading because I didn't like it, and if I stop reading it, I'll never know if I...more I previously read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and I liked it a lot, and I was intruiged by the title "Love in the Time of Cholera" so I thought I'd read it.

Within the first few pages I had the inkling I didn't like it, but sometimes it takes books a little while to get warmed up. Plus, I don't like starting a book and not finishing it, because I know I'll never go back to a book I stopped reading because I didn't like it, and if I stop reading it, I'll never know if I would have liked the rest of it. So I forged ahead and completed the whole book.

First off, the magical realism that made "100 yrs. of Solitude" so gripping was not as prevalent in "Cholera." I actually only saw it a few times in the entire novel, unless it was so well-done that it was just perfectly woven into the book and I didn't notice. I doubt that though...but this was easy to get over; I mean, it's a different book, so it was bound to be, well, different from "100...Solitude."

But I guess my conservative / religious side was riled up by the rest of the book. It portrays everyone as being incredibly sex-oriented. Men, women, everyone. And not "morally" so, if you know what I mean. Everyone sleeps around, while married and while unmarried. And the tone of the book seemed to be saying that that's expected - quite frankly, like the more sex a person has, most of the time with the more people, the more normal and in some ways the more gifted they are. I'm generalizing quite a bit, not getting into the specifics of the story and my reactions to them, however.

Now this book is on Oprah's book club list and she said it's "the greatest love story" she's ever heard. Alright...if a good love story equals someone "waiting" for their true love, where waiting means having sex with everything that moves. And now they're making a movie. The tag says "Florentino, rejected by the beautiful Fermina at a young age, devotes much of his adult life to carnal affairs as a desperate attempt to heal his broken heart." ?? I guess I can see how you can read the book that way. I guess I just don't prefer books where carnal affairs are the center. And I didn't read it that way. It didn't seem to me that the carnal affairs were a desperate attempt to heal his broken heart. They seemed like he just wanted to have sex in the meantime. SOMEWHAT SPOILER ALERT BUT NOT REALLY:::::you cannot declare yourself a virgin just b/c you didn't love the hundreds of people you had sex with before your "one true love."

What bothered me I think was that in the end, I couldn't tell if the novel was condoning a life of promiscuity as long as it leads to one "true" love, or if it was condemning its character's behavior in some ways. I tend to lean towards thinking it wasn't really condemning it though. I probably missed something, I'm sure. Because not being sure what a book was saying is not usually the book's fault.

In some ways it should have been titled "Sex in the Time of Cholera," because the term "love" was used instead of "sex" almost constantly, and obviously, those are two very different things....less

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April rated it:

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03/25/08

bookshelves: 2008, book-club

recommends it for: people who enjoy torturing themselves, perverts, sex offenders, and jerks

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I don't like this book.

I don't like the characters. (This was going to be a list, but then I realized that this is the only reason I have.)

Florentino Ariza is a baby. Seriously, his mom gives him whatever he wants, and she tries to make everything all right for him, and he is very, very ... if he lived today, he would be one of those emo kids with the dyed black hair and the eye liner and the journals full of bad poetry (he does write bad poetry, in the book), all "Nobody gets me,&q...more I don't like this book.

I don't like the characters. (This was going to be a list, but then I realized that this is the only reason I have.)

Florentino Ariza is a baby. Seriously, his mom gives him whatever he wants, and she tries to make everything all right for him, and he is very, very ... if he lived today, he would be one of those emo kids with the dyed black hair and the eye liner and the journals full of bad poetry (he does write bad poetry, in the book), all "Nobody gets me," and just a grating, time-sucking, high maintenance type. He rationalizes his behavior in whatever way he can, so he never feels that he is doing anything wrong.

I grew impatient with him fairly quickly; I wanted to wring him by his neck and yell, "GET OVER IT!!!" I have no tolerance for that kind of behavior.
Sometime during the Seduction of the 600, it says that Florentino Ariza thought that when a woman said no, she really meant something else (that's a paraphrase). This is another thing I have no tolerance for. So, when he persisted in his attentions to Fermina Daza, even after she'd made her own feelings quite clear (TWICE), and she came around to his way of thinking, it justified his behavior. I don't think he should be rewarded for that. I think he should be kicked to the curb.

Fermina Daza was almost likable; I was almost there with her, but then I realized that there wasn't anything really likable about her. She was efficient and organized, she was well-behaved, and she was boring. Why did men love her? What did she have to offer? I DON'T KNOW.

I did like Juvenal Urbino. Of course he dies in the first chapter.

It seemed to me that the book dragged on FOREVER; I kept looking ahead to the end of a chapter and sighing, "Forty-two more pages." (The chapters are long.) Even though two weeks doesn't seem like a long time, it's a long time for ME to be reading a book, particularly one that isn't a thousand pages long and written in Elizabethan English.

I didn't think this was any kind of love story. Like Wuthering Heights, it's more a love-gone-wrong story, or an obsession story; none of the characters really displayed any of the traits that I would associate with love, one which--the chief one, I would say--is selflessness. None of them were willing to put anyone else above themselves, and maybe that's why I didn't particularly care for them, or for this book.

I've written a more in-depth review here....less

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Samilja rated it:

04/15/08

Read in February, 2008

I'm a GGM fan and as such, I am utterly incapable of approaching one of his books with objectivity. One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my all time favorites and I did not expect to enjoy Love in the Time of Cholera as much as that book - probably because of all the hype it's received on it's 20th anniversary and as a result of Oprah lauding it. Well, color me stupefied, I loved it even more than 100 Years.

Yes, this is a love story of sorts - it spans more than 5 decades and the 'lovers'...more I'm a GGM fan and as such, I am utterly incapable of approaching one of his books with objectivity. One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of my all time favorites and I did not expect to enjoy Love in the Time of Cholera as much as that book - probably because of all the hype it's received on it's 20th anniversary and as a result of Oprah lauding it. Well, color me stupefied, I loved it even more than 100 Years.

Yes, this is a love story of sorts - it spans more than 5 decades and the 'lovers' at the story's heart interact in person only in the last 25 pages or so & only after all that time has passed. But as with all GGM books, the real story is in the details. It's in the absolute fabric-like breadth of the book. I read an interview where Marquez talked about his penchant for delving into the minutiae (he relates it to his early career as a journalist)and for me, this is exactly what I love about his stories. On the other hand, I've had several friends with whom I typically share book opinions tell me that they can't 'get through' one of GGM's books (no matter which Title is in question). They find him hard to follow, or too slow, or tedious - maybe all of the above and then some. I can appreciate that but I actually enjoy the slow pace of these novels. I like that I really find a sense of feeling for the places and the characters that I often don't find in books where the plot unfolds quickly and development is forward-moving. Marquez embraces exposition which I think can turn people off or on - just depends.

Specific to this book, I love that once the story was told, I could think back through the novel and realize that the love story in question is really just a metaphor for cholera (or is it vice versa?) and the havoc it wreaked for decades on the characters' Caribbean homeland. The central character here, Florentino Ariza, is not particularly lovable. He's very human in his many vices and peculiarities and one must question his emtional and pscyhological stability when considering his lifetime spent in pursuit of what amounts to idolatry. Then again, many spend their lives this way, with the same hypocricies and faults - just not in the name of love.

I am amazed to know that someone made this novel into a movie not long ago - I'm curious enough that i think I'll watch it although I can't imagine it being successfully done. Marquez books embody exactly those characteristics I think would elude a film: languidness, patience, detail, and a receptivity to veering off in many directions without the expectation of always finding resolution....less

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Lani rated it:

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11/22/07

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: Those not easily squicked.

I came to this book with the unlikely expectation I bring to all works of lasting fiction that beg for my attention: I wanted to fall in love. Simply, purely, I wanted to fall in love with any character García Márquez may ask me to. As it turns out, I did, only not with any character at all.

The novel's powerful, simple opening, "It was inevitable," immediately and quietly bowed, asking for rather than demanding my patience and full attention. Upon reading of Jeremiah de Saint-Amo...more I came to this book with the unlikely expectation I bring to all works of lasting fiction that beg for my attention: I wanted to fall in love. Simply, purely, I wanted to fall in love with any character García Márquez may ask me to. As it turns out, I did, only not with any character at all.

The novel's powerful, simple opening, "It was inevitable," immediately and quietly bowed, asking for rather than demanding my patience and full attention. Upon reading of Jeremiah de Saint-Amour's death, I was more than happy to oblige.

Looking again at my copy and trying to tell you what this book is "about" and why I "liked it," I find that very little is coming immediately to mind. In green Micron ink, I've underlined at least one passage on every page, adding running commentary along the way as I tried to figure out my own thoughts on memory, love, and death.

The curious thing about the actual text of this book is that it's compulsively easy to read, but incredibly difficult to digest. García Márquez's characters are barely fictive, yet they contain all of the best and worst of most of the people who will read them. They feel mistakenly, they understand falsely, they feel guilt and anger with compulsion, they misplace their affections, and they mishandle the love they do receive. This makes them deeply human and yet irrevocably flawed.

In any other character, that sort of flaw would seem a character's best part. In these characters, however, they become something much deeper. The beauty of García Márquez's words is deeply rivaled by the ugliness of the characters he creates. I asked of Juvenal Urbino at one point: "is he adventurous, absolutely stupid, or frighteningly lucid?" I positively *hated* Florentino Ariza, calling him "such a patriarchal monster"--the most demure of my insults. I wrote "guilt, guilt, guilt, horror, torment, flash of brilliance and peace...begin at start" in at least one page's margins. I suffered extraordinary pangs of my own guilt as I read of the characters'. I was sickeningly reminded of my own Florentino Ariza and felt young Fermina's abhorrence with the same fiery fury. I longed to have a marital spat end in "there was soap."

Ultimately, I don't think this novel is about any one thing, unless that one thing is the self we create upon entering into a relationship. Love, guilt, anger, sex, and memory all take starring roles, but in my estimation, this novel explores nothing so chilling as the identity we create in the eyes of someone else.

To narrow down my absolute lack of cogency--with this novel, you'll trust the narrator, mistrust his characters, wonder at the accuracy of memory, the legitimacy of time, and the integrity of love....less

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Jon rated it:

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12/31/07

Todo amor es un tipo de obsession, aunque no todos los amores duran. Éste es eterno, pero es literatura. En la vida real, los amores cambian. Y el cambio puede ser maravilloso.

Great Quotes:

"Although she never even hinted at it, she would have sold her soul to the devil to marry Florentino Ariza. She knew that it would not be easy to submit to his miserliness, or his maniacal sense of order, or his eagerness to ask for everything and give nothing at all in return, but despite all th...more Todo amor es un tipo de obsession, aunque no todos los amores duran. Éste es eterno, pero es literatura. En la vida real, los amores cambian. Y el cambio puede ser maravilloso.

Great Quotes:

"Although she never even hinted at it, she would have sold her soul to the devil to marry Florentino Ariza. She knew that it would not be easy to submit to his miserliness, or his maniacal sense of order, or his eagerness to ask for everything and give nothing at all in return, but despite all this, no other man in the world was better company because no other man in the world was so in need of love. But no other man was as elusive either, because their love never went beyond the point it always reached for him: the point where it would interfere with his eternal love for Fermina Daza."

And . . .

"She prayed to God to give him at least a moment so that he would not go to death without knowing how much she had loved him despite all their doubts, and she felt an irresistible longing to begin life with him all over again so that they could say what they had left unsaid and do everything right that they had done so badly in the past."

And . . .

"The truth is that he was never the same again. Wining back Fermina Daza was the sole purpose of his life."

Now THAT'S writing.

Basically, for a long time, I though this was going to be the story of my life. It’s the tale of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza, and a passionate first love that is kept alive for fifty-one years, nine months, and four days through a combination of intransigence and adamantine ardor. Some people will tell you that One Hundred Years Of Solitude is better—they don’t know what they’re talking about. García Márquez’s writing is, as always, gorgeous, and he understands emotion better than just about anyone.

The book’s theme is an innovative twist on the age-old idea of ‘true love’: is there really such a thing as Fate, or the Absolute, or is it all just self-delusion made inescapably real by uncompro-mising will? In other words, if you define yourself as something—e.g., the suffering lover or the eternal amour—then you’ll do anything, no matter how self-destructive, to perpetuate that definition. Or else, what are you?

This is why the book is so resonant for me. After college, but before my marriage, every relationship in which I found myself got only as far as the point where it might interfere with the one great love of my life. I shut off many a girl because I wouldn't let anyone into that space that I had reserved for the woman I once had, even though I thought I'd never have her again. Not a day goes by that I don't thank my stars that we got a new beginning.
...less

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Rollie rated it:

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03/01/08

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Rollie by: Book Club (even though we didn't pick it to read)

I cared what happens to these characters much more than I cared about the ones in One Hundred Years of Solitude, perhaps because there are far fewer characters in this book than in the latter, or possibly because the latter were too confusing and irrational to me to provoke much sympathy.

Once again I feel enriched to have read one of Marquez's works, although I'm certain that I absorbed a tiny fraction of the themes he intended. Marquez crafts his narrative to subtly suggest the emotional...more I cared what happens to these characters much more than I cared about the ones in One Hundred Years of Solitude, perhaps because there are far fewer characters in this book than in the latter, or possibly because the latter were too confusing and irrational to me to provoke much sympathy.

Once again I feel enriched to have read one of Marquez's works, although I'm certain that I absorbed a tiny fraction of the themes he intended. Marquez crafts his narrative to subtly suggest the emotional transformation his characters undergo. Definitely fleshier but less taxing than 100 Years of Solitude, but with same rich description of characters and circular rather than linear narration of their lives. Marquez very adeptly builds conducted my empathy for Florentino Ariza due to his unwavering fidelity to Fermina Daza, despite his many affairs and very inappropriate relationship with his doomed and underage ward. In general I don't hold with moral duplicity, but I found myself waiting and fully expecting that Florentino and Fermina would find each other again. The complex and imperfect emotions of Florentino, Fermina, and Dr. Juvenal Urbino made them inherently believeable.

Doubtless the characters' names hold some additional significance, something for which I was on the watch after missing most of the point of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Florentino suggests to me (besides "cooked with spinach") one who, like Florence itself, clings to glories of past years, seeming impressive, noble, and charmingly out of touch with the present. San Fermin was a martyr who, like Fermina, martyred himself; his saint's day, July 7, was the date chosen by Marquez for the start of Fermina's fateful river voyage, the day she set on a path from which she would not return. Juvenal suggests a juvenile and underdeveloped spirit, despite the doctor's sophisticated veneer. America Vicuna, Ariza's emotionally captive ward, suggests the delicate and fragile South American animal, which produce small amounts of very soft and warm wool. If I tackle this again, I'll pay more attention to the names of Ariza's paramours to see what their names suggest.

The motif of cholera was one I didn't think about until I finished the book. The juxtaposition of "cholera" with "love" in the title, as well as the narrative's beginning with the death of Dr. Urbino's chess partner, sets the reader up to expect a bittersweet story. Cholera can kill victims within mere hours, contrasting with Florentino's 50-year lovesickness.

Another thing I wasn't aware of before reading this was that for this book, Marquez (like fellow South American magical realism writer Isabel Allende) drew upon his own family' history. Ariza's courtship of Fermina is based upon that of Marquez's parents....less

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Jennie rated it:

(review of isbn 140003468X)

07/01/08

bookshelves: important-but-craptastic

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in June, 2008

GGM is an amazing writer, his prose is fluid and draws you in. I wish my Spanish was still good enough to read this in the original, rather than the translation.

Unlike many of the people that disliked the book, I had no problems with Florentino sleeping around. His promiscuity was no issue for me, I mean, people do this all the time. I struck me as an honest dipction of how some people live. And I even get that he could never really kill his love for Fermina. My personal opinion is that ev...more GGM is an amazing writer, his prose is fluid and draws you in. I wish my Spanish was still good enough to read this in the original, rather than the translation.

Unlike many of the people that disliked the book, I had no problems with Florentino sleeping around. His promiscuity was no issue for me, I mean, people do this all the time. I struck me as an honest dipction of how some people live. And I even get that he could never really kill his love for Fermina. My personal opinion is that everyone you love you love with a different part of your heart and love in a different way. What I couldn't like was his inability to incorperate his past into his present, to live in the present, to embrace life and enjoy those who cared about him. (Yes, I get that this was intentional.) I felt bad for him, but in the same way I feel bad for addicts...they live in a hell of their own actions. Which, when you think about it, is the case for much of humanity.

I never really got the sense of love from either Florentino or Fermina. I got obsession pure and simple. I do remember being head over heels for someone when I was a teenager and I get that obsessive is the best way to characterize those feelings. But to classify it as love, and a love that is worth dwelling on for 50 years, I never got that in all of the beautiful writing in the book. I felt like I could identify much more with the kind of comfortable, familiar love that is clearly expressed between Fermina and Juvenal. The two "loves" are very different, and the problem is that the marriage and their relationship is so much better illuminated than whatever existed between Fermina and Florentino. Admittedly, the relationship between Florentino and Fermina became much more understandable and relatable when they reconnected during their twilight years.

The only time that I really disliked Florentino's character was in the incident with America. I can overlook the pedophilia, but I can't overlook that he took advantage of someone he was supposed to care about. I can't overlook his abuse of power and I can't overlook his lack of empathy for her. What really "got my goat" was his total lack of remorse when his own horrible actions caused her death.

All in all, I thought this was a beautifully written book with a horribly boring plot. Its worth reading just for the prose, but if I were going to recommend a GGM book it wouldn't be this one, it would be 100 Years of Solitude....less

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Robkeely rated it:

(review of isbn 140003468X)

05/25/08

Read in May, 2008

recommended to Robkeely by: Andrea Hatch

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

It seems Latin authors imagine all the scenerios and possibilities of love with the same loving ferver popular north america's Tom Clancy imagine different modes of military exploits.

This book is as romantic as the title implies and for 300 pages love consumes the protagonists at various times with the afflicition akin to a pandemic. Florentino falls for Fermina with all the madness associated with adolencent love only to be rebuffed by the adolescent fickleness of Fermina. Fermina is later ...more It seems Latin authors imagine all the scenerios and possibilities of love with the same loving ferver popular north america's Tom Clancy imagine different modes of military exploits.

This book is as romantic as the title implies and for 300 pages love consumes the protagonists at various times with the afflicition akin to a pandemic. Florentino falls for Fermina with all the madness associated with adolencent love only to be rebuffed by the adolescent fickleness of Fermina. Fermina is later courted by the distinguished and pragmatic Urbino; and for much of the book Urbino and Florentino act as foils to eachother despite never actually having much in the ways of direct interaction.

I don't know exactly what magic realism is but the character devopment seems to fit. Urbino maintains a very real marriage with Fermina, complete with senceless dischord, patriarchy and a battle of wills balanced by the pragmatic security their marriage offers them socially and financially. Florentino's love is much more magical, managing to maintain the emotional fury of the adolescent well into his late 70's, carrying on 632 *significant* affairs (among countless trivial lusts) all the while maintaining the secrecy the average 16 would dream for. While the characters remain relatively static in the virtues, the story is still gripping for its interplay and the relentless crush of the pursuit of each Character's goals; I myself will likely remain in awe of the subtle beauty of the first 36 pages.

Is the book as beautiful or imaginative as I had hoped? Not really. The language likely lost its luster in translation and in the end, its a love triangle not entirely unlike so many others. Nonetheless, the salient quality of the characters in this book earn it's great reputation.

Parting Shots:

I wish I could have read more of the words that characterized Florentino's writting.

I loved both Florentino and Urbino as very likable characters (even Florentino liked Urbino) up until the revelation of Urbino's extreme patriarchical character and Florentino's final pedaphillic affair. What?

How do people feel about extremely ambiguous endings? I was interested by the amount of foreshadowing built into the last 10 pages (running out of wood, Fermina's headache) that went no where. Did Gabriel simply want to fodder the readers' attempt to imagine his or her own favorite ending?

I feel like at some levels Urbino's and Fermina's marriage was rather endearingly portrayed, though I wonder if those more romatically incline than me would agree.

I'll never look widows the same way.
...less

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Kathaileen rated it:

Love in the Time of Cholera

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