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Love in the Time of Cholera
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Love in the time of cholera (Starting from March '2013)
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Gist from Goodreads :In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again
Mod
I am sorry guys for I will not be participating in this discussion. Realised this book is not my thing..
OH!!!Planning to start it today
Sherin wrote: "OH!!!Planning to start it today"
You've got a pdf? O.o
I own a copy of the book. :)
I have read this some time back and found it an OK book.
Why did you feel it was just ok?
This book was not able to hold my interest sometimes. Writing style of Marquez is very uncommon, it took some time for me to adjust my rhythm with him. Lot of long narrations that I find irrelevant and un-necessary.You can refer my review here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Oh!HAve you read 100 years of solitude?
I have read it a few years back. I really loved parts of it. I would say I loved some of the other books by him, not so much this one.
Oh!Please post your comments.
Mod
the element of magical realism is at work here too? I cannot imagine a parrot that talks too much and that too coherently, a wind that suddenly destroys landscape and carries of young children. I also cant get into the character of the painter who died and his sweetheart who helped him die.
Love in the times of Cholera will always be special to me. Love re-defined, interpretation of a disturbing kind and yet beautiful. I get emotional just at the mere mention of it.I don't remember the exact sequence of scenes and pages but I remember the ending. Florentino is a restless soul who travels and haunts himself throughout his life. He finally finds peace in his lost and found love.
What is great about this book is how, GGM has portrayed the unconventional true love. How many of us have a chance to find love that was lost? And what if you have spent your whole life searching and looking out for it but never lost hope in the process? And after 50 years, it does happen. Both Florentino and Fermina meet as if they knew it would happen some day. Ah! I can go on and on ...
oh damn ! logged into GR after so long and found love in times of cholera selected as a group read. I would have killed to have the read last oct-nov. nowdays too busy with work so rarely get time to log on net. Its a great book and one of my fav's hope ppl like it :)
“Think of love as a state of grace; not the means to anything but the alpha and omega, an end in itself.”Is there anything called 'true love'? That love, which surpasses all obstacles, even time? Is love all patient, as we find in Florentino Ariza? Or do we fall in love with the person who is around us most of the time? Like Fermina Daza falls in love with Florentino as a school girl. Or when she falls in love with her husband Juvenal Urbino despite early feelings of loathing! She starts depending again on her former flame Florentino after Urbino's death. If love is a thread, it is not necessary that it be used to stitch a particular garb; it can create several attires.
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez raised a few such questions in my mind. Comments welcome...
I'm only half way through the book.Considering the way Fermina Daza treated Florentino Ariza,I don't understand his true-love feeling.
(view spoiler)
May be I'm not romantic enough :) ; but he sounds rather delusional to me.
Is anyone still reading this? Im starting now.
Just finished reading it. The plot is already covered several places so I will skip the basics. What caught me the most was the opposing viewpoints of love that this story encourages us to explore. One of Florentino and Fermina, which despite its young origins, seems to sustain itself as they enter their twilight years. The other, the one bound by marriage, of Fermina and Urbino. Our notion that love has to find salvation in marriage is challenged as sex is introduced merely as a part of life, a natural act for any human. Would we have sympathised with Florentino had he remained a virgin (monk like, say) till Urbino died? Would we declare him a hero then? Most likely. But does his need to be with Fermina even in his seventies reflect only a carnal need? Of course not. This revelation brings to light a lot of possibilities in the way love is defined in popular culture and celebrated through a set number of pre-defined ways. The bold theme of Florentino's sexual exploits juxtaposed against his never ending thoughts for Fermina is perhaps the only evidence the book begs us to think of when we think of love. The timeless nature of its entity which seems to endure the roughest of times but yet finds some salvation eventually. Yes, Florentino is an extremely flawed character. Someone we would despise instantly. But then the question is: So love cannot be fidelity of the heart? Does it *have* to be combined with the body's fidelity too? This book made me think about my own beliefs about love and what being loyal to one's soul mate really means. If marriage is one platform on which love is built (as in the case of Fermina and Urbino) then life is another platform, a larger much larger one, where love runs wild, uncaged, uninhibited. And I might even re-read it some day to check if my belief system has remained the same or if I feel any different about these characters then.
Can someone clarify me here that this site is for reading books or purchasing them ,reading and then just commenting on its review??I'm unable to get the links to read any book here.. :(
Mod
I started the book yesterday. Will not read the other messages till the end of the book, don't want to read spoilers.
Waiting for your comments,Dely :)
Sherin wrote: "Waiting for your comments,Dely :)"I have read only 100 pages but I am liking it so far. The author is able to lead me in another world and I like this. It is hard to put down the book.
I have finished the book and really liked it. Only some parts were a little bit boring and dragging but I liked how Marquez wrote about the multiple kinds of love. There is more than one love story, there are different kinds of love and all are accepted because every character is looking for different things (this also in "true life", everybody looks for something in love that may be different for someone else).There is this all-lifelong romantic love of Florentino for Fermina; the love of Fermina for her husband though it arrives only after the marriage; love at the end of their lives among Fermina and Florentino; all the "quick" loves of Florentino while he was waiting for his lifelong love...
There is no judgment, every kind of love is accepted and well depicted in order to understand its meaning and its nature.
I love Marquez for his compassion. He's merciless sometimes describing the human foibles of his characters, refusing to romanticize or embellish them with the tinsel one sees in movie stars. He shows them and their shortcomings in glaring acuity, but he always does so without condemnation. There's no judgement in his descriptions. How few people do that.
Here we are starting with the first non-Indian group read of 2013 .
Please participate.