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Love in the Time of Cholera - No Spoilers
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Lori, Super Mod
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Feb 01, 2009 04:19PM
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I just finished it but I'm still digesting the story because it was my first time reading it.. I really enjoyed it but I cannot put my finger on exactly why just yet..
When you figure it out Leah, please let me know. I read this last month and did not care for it at all. I feel that I must have missed some essential part, since so many people think so highly of it.
I'm going to be passing on this one - I'm not sure this book is my cup of tea.
I read this book last year and really enjoyed the story.
I made it past the 100 page mark before setting it aside in the early summer. Didn't feel like I had been captured. I may revisit it thanks to the monthly read, but I'm not sure yet.
I started it yesterday...not really sure how I feel about it yet...
I picked it up yesterday afternoon. I'm about 3/4 of the way thu. I love how visual the book is.
I read this book awhile ago and liked it. It was strange though, because it took me forever to get through it. I agree with Leah, I liked something about it but can't figure out what. lol
There are some books that are just visual smorgasbords. I think that Love in the Time of Cholera is one such book. It can take a while to get though just because there is so much imagery to take in. It's not the kind of book you read if you want to get swept along in a fast paced story. It's the kind of book you read when you just want to take your time and enjoy the sumptuousness of the world of the story itself.
I expected the book to be hard for me to get into, but I am really liking it. I find it hard to put down. I feel like it is always promising to reveal secrets, but in the process of revealing one, it hints at several others that lie behind it. I am quite taken by the characters, who could be cliches, but instead through bizarre details and interesting contradictions become fascinating. The quiet ironies in the story appeal to me as well.
Leah wrote: "I just finished it but I'm still digesting the story because it was my first time reading it.. I really enjoyed it but I cannot put my finger on exactly why just yet.. "Never has the razor thin line between "true love" and "restraining order required" ever been so masterfully detailed as in this extraordinary novel. I'm not sure if this is the reason you really enjoyed it, Leah, but it's one of the reasons that elevated it to the very top of my own personal greatest novels of all time list.
Jill wrote: "There are some books that are just visual smorgasbords. I think that Love in the Time of Cholera is one such book. It can take a while to get though just because there is so much imagery to take in..."I loved how you described this book, because that's how I felt reading it. I read this book over a year ago in Spanish and it was beautifully written. I'm not sure if it loses something in the translation.
I think Roy that you are close to what I liked. I think that I also really understood Fermina Daza too and how she made me remember how there are different kinds of love out there and you see a few examples in this story.. I get how its not for everyone though
Leah wrote: "I get how its not for everyone though"Yes. It is not exactly plot driven.
I just finished it. I'm still taking it all in
I don't know what to make of this book. I was reading during my break at work and I was totally thinking, "I'm so giving up on this book." But now I'm about 115 pages in and while I can still see myself not finishing, there is this weird pull to keep going.It is a beautifully written story but at the same time my mind sometimes wanders off during the longer paragraphs.
thats kind of how I felt. I kept reading and was like why? but by the time I finished it I was happy I'd read it because I ended up really liking it. I wouldn't call it one of my favorite books but I enjoyed reading it and I'm glad I finished it.
I'm hoping it pans out well. Two of my friends on Facebook have already told me how great this book is, I want to give it a fair shot.
Jill wrote: "There are some books that are just visual smorgasbords. I think that Love in the Time of Cholera is one such book. It can take a while to get though just because there is so much imagery to take in..."I just read to page 9 and I can already see this.
"He almost always ate lunch at home and had a ten-minute siesta on the terrace in the patio, hearing in his sleep the songs of the servant girls under the leaves of the mango trees, the cries of vendors on the street, the uproar of oil and motors from the bay whose exhaust fumes fluttered through the house on hot afternoons like an angel condemned to putrefaction."
My body might be in the snowy NC mountains, but my mind was instantly in--Colombia?--on a hot afternoon, experiencing all of this. Beautiful imagery.
It was very visual I thinl that's how I finished it in 2 days!
I have been struggling with Emma for another book club and decided to start this one to see if it grabbed me. I love the language already! As much as it's a dense book it feels so much lighter than Austen, maybe it's the setting. Can't wait to read more.
i wish hed have more chapters tobreak it up - i know its petty but so much info to take in, i needed a mental break now and then instead of running on endlessley!
Jon wrote: "i wish hed have more chapters tobreak it up - i know its petty but so much info to take in, i needed a mental break now and then instead of running on endlessley! "I just stop when I have to. But you have to admit, it's a lot easier to cover a lot of ground that way. You don't realize how much you've read.
yes thats true cos normally its a case of just to the end of this chapter lol
I am about 3/4 of the way through and for me it is a slow read.A bit like a chewy steak, it's not quite as tasty I'd hoped it would be but I keep cutting off slices and at the end I'll be glad I've finished if not totally satisfied.
I feel the Magical Realism is a misnomer for the genre. For me magical is a book like 'Shadow of the Wind' when I think of 'Love' the adjective that springs to mind is petty.
Esther, I totally agree with the chewy steak analogy. I wouldn't have thought it up on my own but it's dead on how I feel.
yes it is rather a chewy steak - great analogy, perhaps we should create a new shelf! i had same feelings and also agree i dont think is magical realsm, i had it listed as that by default as Marquez almost invented it with 100 years of solitude. But youre right i dont think anything in LITC could be described as fantastical goings on in an unexpected way right in the middle of an otherwise real story.
I will be starting this book tomorrow. Like when I saw Dracula as group read for Oct I needed other people's comments to motivate me to read this. I had started it years ago and not gotten into it but with the comments (particularly on spoiler page) it puts a context so I want to see what people are talking about.
To me the book is one of those which are slightly daunting by their length, but that when you are about a hundred pages from the end you want to slow it up, make it last because in only a hundred pages you will have to leave the story, the world it has conjured up. Too soon. Much too soon.
Roy wrote: Never has the razor thin line between "true love" and "restraining order required" ever been so masterfully detailed as in this extraordinary novel.I think I leaned toward thinking that it was closer to the latter than the former. I felt a little creeped out a lot of the time.
It is beautifully written, exquisitely visual.
But can anyone explain to me the significance of the guy that died in the first chapter? Did he ever come up again and I just missed it? I found that very frustrating.
Hi Lisa, i just realised i briefly posted something here riddled with spoilers in response to your question about the first chapter - have reposted in spoilers
I have started this today, for the second time. I hope I will get into it more this time. I am going to give it my all this time!!
This is taking me forever to read, but I'm still enjoying it! Just about a hundred pages to go...
I love what Jill said above: "...take your time and enjoy the sumptuousness of the world of the story itself." So true! And I like the book's central idea that love is like cholera, a disease that strikes and overtakes one. A strange and beautiful story. 
I really enjoyed this one. As others have said his writing is very dense and rich, that is what I loved about it. The characters and world are so unique.
Why did Evelyn feel the need to post this here. Has absolutely nothing to do with the topic or book. Evelyn there is a thread to promote your stuff.
I think that looks like spam. It's the only message she's posted. Lori?
I am loving this book so far. The language makes me want to climb right inside the book.
I was sure I was going to like this book ... but I was wrong ... I finished it and that's all I can say. It just wasn't my kind of book I guess.
My husband Angel Javier read it in the original Spanish version. He's a fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. AJ tells me that the hypnotizing imagery of Love in the Time of Cholera transported him to XX century Colombia.
Andrea wrote: "My husband Angel Javier read it in the original Spanish version. He's a fan of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. AJ tells me that the hypnotizing imagery of Love in the Time of Cholera transported him to X..."Late 19th to early 20th century, if I recall correctly. The automobile starts to gain in popularity towards the later years of the characters' lives.
There is a lot of beautiful imagery in this book. Like Jill said, it can take you a while to get through. Description is definitely a heavy component of the novel.The fault lies with me for not liking this book, I feel. Florentino Ariza felt too similar to Edward Cullen(I know Cholera was published 20 years earlier), and I'm drawn more to fast paced plot driven pieces.
The book reads as half love story, half memoir, and a beautiful book to sink into when you have time to absorb the rich imagery.
I like Marquez' short fiction, but I'm not sure I'll pick up another novel of his. The book is beautiful, but I can't imagine re-reading.
