Love in the Time of Cholera
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What kind of book is this?
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James
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 02:10PM)
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Dec 05, 2007 09:42PM
Is this a chick book?
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It is a love story. It is a beautiful story of how, in old Columbia, a man waits 50 years to get his true love. So yeah, I guess it could be a chick book!
I don't think it is necessarily a chick book. My book club read it, and we have men in our club that enjoyed it. I saw the book as having two main themes, one of love (multiple kinds of love), and the second of aging. In some ways, these two themes were entwined - that love grows and matures much as people do.
This is NOT a chick book. This is a *very good* book.
Florentino Ariza is such a great character, capable of sublime love and simultaneously ready to satisfy a lady in need or for a visit to the local brothel to satisfy his own. He's my favorite scumbag poet of all time. He's an absurdity at best and I love that. Each page of this book is decorated with pure magic.
Not necessarily a chick book - but definitely appeals more to someone who's a romantic at heart.
I'm so glad I found this discussion thread. I just bought this book (in Costco of all places) and I the only thing that I previously knew about it is that John Cusack often references it in his films (Serendipity, etc).
I read this book with interest from a mature point of view and an eye to the craft of the work itself. As some of the book's other reviewers have noted, the central character is nothing more than a pedophile in his relationship with his ward America. While certainly dispicable, it's a part of life less frowned upon in those times. One doesn't have to approve of a character's behavior to enjoy a book.
whoever is saying this book is a "chick book" is really really reaching. like females are the only gender that falls in love. yes - it is a love story but it is probably one of the best love stories ever written.
For me the style of writing is the thing. I thought Florentino was kind of a DOM, but what can you do--they exist too.
I think this book is classic. It is a beautiful love story, with humor throughout. It spans 50 years and I love how it weaves from the present, then back, then to the present again. Something to really hunker down with .... but if you want something light and easy, don't read it.
A chick book!!!!. This is a nobel prize winner, a masterpiece of colombian literature
Its by far much more a man's book. Exalts and extolls man's capacity for devoted, all-encompassing love (usually scoffed at, doubted, and derided by womenfolk)
It is a story of the power and pain of love. It isn't much of a romance if that's what your "chick book" phrase is meant to mean.
The Author was awarded the Nobel Prize, not the book. He also wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude which was better and less romantic and fully deserving of the Nobel Prize for him too. This book is NOT a "chick" book. Its genre is Magical Realism on par with Salman Rushdie and the more romantically minded Isabel Allende.
This is an amazing book, it's not merely a love story, is full of great details and unbelievable expectations. I strongly recommend it.
wow I can't believe I seem to be alone in completely disliking this book very extremely. I really hated the Florentino character who was seedy slimy and disgusting. I wouldn't touch him with a dead man's arm. I found the 'love' element repulsive and was particularly infuriated by the fact that the author never refers to the town the story is set in. Very annoying. I knew it was Colombia somewhere but still annoying. I have One Hundred Years of Solitude on my reading list so I'm glad to hear its less 'romantic' (ew).
U are not the only one that found this book totally not romantic. I agree..The love element is so inappropriately addressed that it left me with bad image of the whole book. One hundred years of solitude is a totally different book though, that I liked very much.
Ramutza wrote: "U are not the only one that found this book totally not romantic. I agree..The love element is so inappropriately addressed that it left me with bad image of the whole book. One hundred years of so..."Really? Inappropriately addressed? I think this book simply discussed many different kinds of love. Beyond even what is generally considered socially acceptable, perhaps. But I would hardly say inappropriately addressed. Actually, I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that.
Leanne wrote: "wow I can't believe I seem to be alone in completely disliking this book very extremely. I really hated the Florentino character who was seedy slimy and disgusting. I wouldn't touch him with a dead..."I agree that Florentino can come off as pretty greasy. However, mostly I disagree with you. I think one of your problems though, is that you are not used to South American literature. It is very different than literature from other parts of the world. Garcia Marquez, I feel, is one who addresses topics fully. Love in the Time of Cholera was addressing Love in it's near entirety, I think. And a lot of it is Columbian culture. Which, by the way, you want to brace yourself for One Hundred Years. It is very different, and certainly fantastic, but there is some creepy (relative to what most americans are used to) stuff in there. Way more crazy than LitToC in so many ways. Way more hardcore magical realism, for starters.
Summer wrote: "Leanne wrote: "wow I can't believe I seem to be alone in completely disliking this book very extremely. I really hated the Florentino character who was seedy slimy and disgusting. I wouldn't touch ..."Although, to be fair, I don't know what you're used to, this is just how it appears to me.
To dismiss this great book because Florentino Ariza does not follow 2013, North American norms of good behavior would be a gigantic mistake.It is a deeply romantic and fascinating take on life and love. So many parts of it hit home with me and remain vividly with me--5 years after I read it, mind you.
If you haven't read this book, I cannot possibly recommend it highly enough.
Leanne wrote: "wow I can't believe I seem to be alone in completely disliking this book very extremely. I really hated the Florentino character who was seedy slimy and disgusting. I wouldn't touch him with a dead..."bwaah aha aha ahaha aha
I don't think it is a chick's book. What I found amazing about this book is the complexity of the characters. It's worth reading.
Leanne wrote: "wow I can't believe I seem to be alone in completely disliking this book very extremely. I really hated the Florentino character who was seedy slimy and disgusting. I wouldn't touch him with a dead man's arm...."I wouldn't touch a dead man's arm........ lol.
The first time Fermina Daza really looked at Fiorentino Ariza, she saw a pitiable man, someone she couldn't even love at all. That's how I saw him for the rest of the book, grimy, unhealthy, unrealistic, slightly (very) foolish, and pitiable.
Leanne wrote: "I wouldn't touch him with a dead man's arm...."Somi wrote: "I wouldn't touch a dead man's arm........ lol."
Ha. Not unless he had oodles and oodles of money, right. Let's be real here. :)
One of my favorite books, but hardly "chick lit"! The author is Columbian with all the machismo that might entail, yet the story is of an incredibly pure and enduring romantic love that is unrequited for most of the characters' lives. Whatever the characters' flaws, their love is transcendent.
Have to admit I was kind of hesitant in reading it, was a little put off by the title, but I had read 100 years of solitude and loved it so. One of the best books I have read.
Okay, diving in with a different view. My Book Group read it several years ago, 8/2010. I was the one who had suggested it and when we gathered for the review, I got the "Raspberries". I, myself, only gave it a 2 star rating. I saw the title and thought it appeared interesting. The style was not what I had expected and I guess I am not one for the long, drawn out story unless it tweeks my interest. I admire the ones who loved it because it is quite a classic. Just not the sort that I would jump up and down about. Sorry. But Wuthering Heights was not a favorite for me either.I did however enjoy "The Shadow of the Wind".
It is hella long and slow; that's for sure. But the quality of the writing is superb and the story overall; very memorable and vivid.I don't know any contemporary American author who could write this story.
Feliks wrote: "It is hella long and slow; that's for sure. But the quality of the writing is superb and the story overall; very memorable and vivid.I don't know any contemporary American author who could write ..."
You are right. But culturally, I don't think I understood all of the traditions and details of the story either.
The 'human parts' of it rang true; such as the awkwardness and the way people split and get back together; also the way Daza conducted the many side-relationships he had.I really can't name any other novel which traces all the love affairs a man has over his entire lifetime--and follows them all through to their conclusion. Usually books cover the breadth of just one affair as a single episode and all the others are merely referred to in passing; or in flashback or reflection.
This one goes the distance, really remarkable. Also was startled at the way a completely separate affair with a completely separate male leading character comes in to the story and takes over!
It truly dispenses a lot of hope; the underlying message is that if you don't relinquish your #1 passion; you might conquer any conceivable obstacle which life sets in the way of your getting it. Sound wisdom. Don't give up.
As I said earlier: today's women (well, today's American women) are being taught by their foolish magazines and Lifetime Channel for Women cable TV that 'men who refuse to give up' are creepy..their loss!
:p
I read this some years ago and I don't remember the whole plot but I found it an interesting read. Florentino is an original. He falls in love with a beauty when they are quite young but she marries someone else due to family obligations. At first he is like a sad puppy stung by his lost love. And his capacity to love seems tied exclusively to the young lady who wed another. So what remains for him for the next fifty years is simply lust. This he pursues with vigour–the pup becomes a dog.Fifty years pass and he never forgets his one true love. Finally she is widowed and he gently comforts and woos her. Now free to follow her heart, the pair literally sail off into the sunset. The ending was the only issue I had with it. It examines all sides of the triangle, including infidelity. If I recall correctly it starts a bit slowly but well worth the read.
Leanne wrote: "wow I can't believe I seem to be alone in completely disliking this book very extremely. I really hated the Florentino character who was seedy slimy and disgusting. I wouldn't touch him with a dead..."I totally agree with you. I extremely disliked this book as well. Sick and twisted.
Pat wrote: "Okay, diving in with a different view. My Book Group read it several years ago, 8/2010. I was the one who had suggested it and when we gathered for the review, I got the "Raspberries". I, myself, o..."The author of Shadow of the Wind is Spanish from pain, and Love in the times of Cholera was written by a Columbian that lives in Mexico... two different countries, two different styles. Its like comparing Shakespeare to Franzen.
Anita wrote: "One of my favorite books, but hardly "chick lit"! The author is Columbian with all the machismo that might entail, yet the story is of an incredibly pure and enduring romantic love that is unrequit..."El Gabo is not machista by any stretch of the imagination. And for the record there is plenty of machismo in Anglo societies... I agree with everything else you say...
Chuck wrote: "To dismiss this great book because Florentino Ariza does not follow 2013, North American norms of good behavior would be a gigantic mistake.It is a deeply romantic and fascinating take on life an..."
Well said!!!
Mae,Thank You.
Nothing I like less than a novelist whose sympathetic characters are all perfect angels. "El Gabo's" characters inhabit the world of roughly 100 years ago, and are his renderings of HUMAN BEINGS.... It's not realistic to expect them to be just as we HOPE they would be....They've got--you know--flaws!
I read this book years ago and found it very hard to like mostly because the author comes across as unfeeling through his characters. He tells their stories but I never feel he has any personal feeling invested in them. Florentino is vile in many ways, and I didn't see this book as a love story but more as a story of one man's will working on circumstances. The opening is telling, I think. As I recall, the first sentence is, "It was inevitable." Their love is consummated in part because they are quarantined on the river, to be safe from the cholera sweeping the country. I can't think of it as a romance.
Oh my God... you did not get it... For one, there isn't something more romantic as "it is inevitable"... that my friends defines romance.
I think of it this way. Love--love that lasts--is an act of the will. It is beautiful, or "romantic" if you prefer, only with some kind of inner decision on our part.... only if we WILL it to be so.But, of course, love is bound up with lust, which gives the very first spark to the whole thing (probably, right?) but which is anything BUT an act of the will, and can lead us to behave very badly--to do things that are "vile" or "sick and twisted".
I think Garcia-Marquez is a bona fide great novelist, and that means most of all that he's honest about people and about human nature.
In Dr. Urbino, and especially in Florentino Ariza, he paints the whole picture; he doesn't hide the bad
stuff.
As you get older, lust retreats--somewhat. But I think one lesson of this book is that if you're lucky and you learn anything from life, you can actually get better at the "act of the will" or "romantic" part of things. You can keep love--and even the lust that attends it--alive. And that's what, I think, Florentino Ariza believes and acts on--after Dr. Urbino dies.
Mae, I think I very much agree with your take on this book, but with the difference that I think "It was inevitable" mostly because Flonentino never, ever gave up and because Fermina Daza--luckily for him--was willing to take him up on it.
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