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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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

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

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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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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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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Eduardo rated it:

(review of isbn 9681315472)

01/03/08

Read in January, 2008

No es el mejor libro de GM, pero en el se siente su ímpetu narrativo, suficiente para hacernos creer esta historia de un Pedro Páramo dichoso que alcanza el amor de su Susana San Juan. A mi gusto éste es el germen de la historia, una vuelta a los 30 años que esperó Pedro Páramo para tener a la única mujer que amó; Florentino Ariza esperó 22 años más, pero a diferencia del desgraciado Pedro, al menos a un paso de la muerte fue amado por su Diosa Coronada.

Frases Memorables:

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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:

(review of isbn 140003468X)

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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Danielle rated it:

(review of isbn 140003468X)

07/28/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in July, 2008

I would like to give this book three and a half stars, because three just seems insulting, but I had problems with it that make four seem too generous.
First, my likes: The writing is really intriguing and well-done. It's definitely not the most beautiful prose I've ever read, but I did like the style. I felt it gave just the right amount of detail (especially little things that weren't crucial to the story, but added depth), and it wasn't ostentatious. Also, I liked all the new vocab words I ...more I would like to give this book three and a half stars, because three just seems insulting, but I had problems with it that make four seem too generous.
First, my likes: The writing is really intriguing and well-done. It's definitely not the most beautiful prose I've ever read, but I did like the style. I felt it gave just the right amount of detail (especially little things that weren't crucial to the story, but added depth), and it wasn't ostentatious. Also, I liked all the new vocab words I picked up from it.
I liked the story. It's poignant and frustrating at the same time. I liked how you got this sense of seeing the characters the way everyone else saw them, and also their more private selves, that even their spouse/lovers didn't know. It made them feel very real, if not especially admirable.
Finally, I really liked the setting of this book. I wish I knew my Carribean history better (truthfully, I don't even know what "country" the book takes place in), but it was interesting to see the prejudices of that time period, as well as the inventions and developments (civic and social) over the course of a lifetime around the turn of the century. I enjoyed that.
As for dislikes, I couldn't get over the fact that even with the resolution at the end, it was all kind of a waste. I don't know, that could have been the point, but I couldn't tell for sure whether Garcia Marquez wanted us to admire Ariza, or pity him, or what. I guess I struggled to come away with a clear message. Not that I like a book to tell me what to make of the story, but this to me didn't offer very many clues as to how the reader was intended to interpert it.
While I liked the vividness of the characters (even Ariza's fleeting love interests), I actually didn't like any of them personally other than Fermina Daza. She seemed like this strong, self-composed, admirable woman, who somehow got stuck with sub-par men hanging on her. By comparison, Urbino and Ariza just seemed like losers. This made me feel like she was settling, rather than being happy for her.
Finally, my greatest complaint is the excessive amount of sexual content. On the plus side, it wasn't nearly as graphic or crude as it could have been, so I didn't really find it offensive, but I did feel a little uncomfortable reading it. Plus, I really had a hard time believing Ariza could keep up that kind of lifestyle for so long and find it some version of fulfilling. I could see him going through a phase of even a few years where he tried to replace Fermina with meaningless, physical love, but that wasn't the attitude Garcia Marquez seemed to have. It had the attitude that this was normal, and rewarding in its own right. I disliked that. And, occassionally it was a little crude for my taste.
One interesting thing about the book, though, is that it really did explore love in its many forms. Both from Ariza's perspective and Fermina Daza, and through all the minor characters, we got an interesting look at what love is, both selfish and selfless, and how it can take you by surprise, or be the one thing that never changes. That aspect of the book was really fascinating, so I can see the usefulness of many of the sexual references for that reason, but still it was a little much.
So, I liked the book and would recommend it, although with a warning that the content is on the adult side. Oh! One of my biggest complaints was the ultra-disgusting pedophile relationship with Ariza and his granddaughter-figure. That made him deserve to be hated....less

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Natalie rated it:

(review of isbn 140003468X)

07/10/08

Read in July, 2008

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

This book was really disappointing. I loved the beginning. It seemed whimsical and full of sweet love. Urbino and Fermina Daza seemed like a sweet and loving old couple and it was made me very sad when Urbino died right away, especially since I thought he would be the main protagonist through the entire novel. And then, the book took such a turn for the worse as I kept progressing further into it. I found that I didn't particularly like any of the characters. They all seemed bitter and hateful a...more This book was really disappointing. I loved the beginning. It seemed whimsical and full of sweet love. Urbino and Fermina Daza seemed like a sweet and loving old couple and it was made me very sad when Urbino died right away, especially since I thought he would be the main protagonist through the entire novel. And then, the book took such a turn for the worse as I kept progressing further into it. I found that I didn't particularly like any of the characters. They all seemed bitter and hateful and stupid. The whole book seemed bitter towards life and love. Sometimes, the right ideals were there, but everyone acted like idiots. One's a cheater, one can't seem to love anyone, and one is just deplorable all around. I guess you could say that the characters were all just being human, but there was so much cheating and wrong-doing going on that it didn't fit into my world of humanity. And, I feel bad if this is the reality of the world and I'm living blindly to it. I'll gladly keep the blinders on.

Also, I don't know if things were lost in the translation of this book to English, but some of the things Florentino Ariza did were just wretched. Primarily I take issue with his having sex with the 14 year old girl (or younger?) who is left in his care when he is 60/70 years old. I know things were different in the past, but this is just gross mostly due to the fact that she was in his care regardless of the age issue. I particularly hated the part when they described him teaching her about sex and how he turned their first time into a game and the text included descriptions of it. "...and a littl ekiss on her papa's delicious dickey-bird." Foul! I also found the way he treated his many lovers to be disrespectful. The idea that he was holding out for his true love is a magical one, but it wasn't realistic. It seemed stalkerish and pathetic. He had many other women come into his life who he could've been happy to spend his life with. But he chose to hold out. Again, a sweet ideal. But, in the process, he affected many other women's lives (down to the eventual suicide of America).

I found myself just reading to be done with it towards the end. I didn't even care if the unrequited love would ever find a way or not. I was pretty much rooting for it not to happen. I admired Fermina Daza for going with her gut all along and it almost seemed like she just gave up at the end. As if she just thought she might love Ariza and felt bad for him and just gave in because she was bored.

I'm looking forward to reading more Marquez because I have heard folks rave about him. I think another story line might suite my tastes better.

**Since posting my review, I've done some reading of other folks' reviews. Seems I'm not the only one in the "didn't like this book" boat. But, I have read some interesting takes on the symbolism and such that I didn't consider from those who are passionate about it. Or rather, how one can read symbolically into it if you want to. And, while I still didn't LIKE this book personally, I am growing to love this book for the simple fact that it is able to shape such different strong opinions and reactions. ...less

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Samilja rated it:

(review of isbn 0394561619)

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:

(review of isbn 140003468X)

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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Saman rated it:

(review of isbn 9643115895)

04/04/08

گابریل گارسیا مارکِز زادهٔ ۶ مارس ۱۹۲۸ در در دهکدهٔ آرکاتاکا درمنطقهٔ سانتامارا در کلمبیا) رمان‌نویس، روزنامه‌نگار، ناشر و فعال سیاسی کلمبیایی است. او بین مردم کشورهای آمریکای لاتین با نام گابو یا گابیتو برای تحبیب) مشهور است و پس از درگیری با رییس دولت کلمبیا و تحت تعقیب قر...more

Love in the Time of Cholera

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