Love in the Time of Cholera (Vintage International) | Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Love in the Time of Cholera (Vintage International) | Gabriel Garcia Marquez | For Mercedes, of course...

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Love in the Time o...

	Love in the Time of Cholera (Vintage International) Gabriel Garcia Marquez Vintage Books, 2007 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 458 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A charming, funny, warm, sweet, crumbling fairy tale of a long growing love story

"Love in the time of Cholera" is one of those books I picked up every single time I went to a book store and then put back down. From the title I had just always assumed it would be depressing and I knew it was translated which always eaves the possibility open for an odd book.

For some reason though last week I opened the book. And read the first paragraph. And I was sold.

I was just astonished by the way this man writes. It's so simple, but very complex, funny, warm, touching-it's like being told a story by a great friend. But page 15 I was totally convinced this one of the better books I had ever read and that I had to read everything that Gabriel Garcia Marquez had ever written.

I do have to say though (maybe this is an issue of my generation where everything is so fast and over the top dramatic and emo) I couldn't really see the big romance in this book. Sure, Florentino Ariza apparently had a "love at first sight moment" with Fermina Daza and then they wrote letters for three years but to me that just doesn't seem like a great love story. I had a relationship once that consisted almost completely of emails for about two years and while I can definitely relate to the allure of letters as a mechanism for romantic communication (reading between the lines, misunderstanding-so much room for interpretation!) I'm not sure I would call the early relationship between the two a great love story. Unless you really know each other and pour yourself into your letters (which Fermina definitely wasn't) it's just a way to make small talk that you hope is turning into something else. Or in some cases (not mine) a kind of light weight stalking.

But that changes when about 50 years later Fermina's husband dies and the two reunite, getting to really know one another for the first time. The way the book ends totally convinced me that this is a love story. And what happens between the fifty years is so charming and worth reading about that it made up for my initial doubt.

As I said, my generation seems to demand violent, dramatic, world changing love stories. This one is much more gentle and subtle. But that doesn't mean there aren't moments that would make any girl swoon-like the violin playing and the waltz of the crowned goddess.

There is also a kind of fairy tale aspect to this book that makes reading it such a pleasure. The actual city the story takes place in is never named (though there were clues so maybe I could find out where it was) making it a kind neverwhere, everywhere magical place. A crumbling city decaying into ruined glamour where love rains supreme.

I loved it and I know I'll read it again. And it brought me out of a funk where I couldn't finish any book so for that alone....

Five stars of course.

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For Mercedes, of course...

The words I am about to express: They now have their own crowned goddess.
Leandaro Diaz - Epigraph to "Love in the Time of Cholera"

"Love in the Time of Cholera" (1985) - is one of two best novels by the greatest living writer, 1982 Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Colombian Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1928). It depicts many faces of love - romantic, marital, erotic, and unrequited. It is the novel about love that hits like a lightning, takes over the whole human existence, tortures like a deadly disease, and even all-consuming time has no power over it. The story about poor romantic telegraph operator Florentino Arisa's love for beauty Femina Dasa and his long waiting for her acceptance that lasted fifty one year, nine months and four days is so fascinating, interesting and unusual, that it makes you wonder over and over how it is possible to write like this:

"To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell."

"Love in the Time of Cholera" is dedicated to Mercedes Barcha Pardo, Marquez's wife for 50 years, the crowned goddess of the writer's heart. The novel (among many things) is Marquez's love letter to Mercedes. As 18 years-old law student, he first met Mercedes when she was a 13-years-old girl. Gabriel called Mercedes "the most interesting woman" he ever met. Before he left for college, he proposed to her. She agreed, but said she wanted to finish school. They wouldn't be married for fourteen years but she had always been true to him and waited for him.

The Imagination and vision of the author of "These fantastic creations of magic, metaphor and myth" (according to American critic W.MacPherson) are bewitching. His art of storytelling may be only described as magic and mesmerizing. The beauty and appeal of his language are universal. I should know - I've 're read his novels and stories translated to Russian and English and they always bring joy - no matter when, where and in what language I read them.

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Make it part of your litany!

This is the type of novel that I miss from my college days - the type that your professor would assign - so you surreptitiously approach with willful trepidation: that's what Marquez offers us here. Two characters who are masters of the art of 'willful trepidation'. Fermina Daza shines as the perfect wife of Dr. Urbino, unaware of her husband's infidelities, until the posthumous, mortifying encounters that she faces with the grace of a Victorian lady. Florentino Ariza, her admirer of more than 50 years, engages in 622 affairs that appear egregious in nature, but serve a purpose for the end. Although some may find this difficult to endure, it is well worth the concluding payoff - one that proves that true love does exist.

For several days, I pondered: "Do I classify this as 'literary' or 'page turner'? As an elitist reader, I sparingly label books with the 'literary' label: only ones that I envision my professor and I debating on a sunny afternoon in the courtyard. The 'page turners' are usually labeled as 'bestsellers', not for their depth, but for their voracious plot lines. This book embodied both: translated from Spanish, the vernacular requires full analysis - this is NOT a beach read. However, the surprising turns that Florentino's tortured life endures {while he awaits his *true* love} will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Marquez is a revered author - his work extraordinary. Thrilled with One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera maintained his status quo. Bravo!

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Book review

This is an excellent read- also a second or third purchase of this title as they keep disappearing. Much easier to read than 100 Years of Solitude- which is also excellent and as this book begs for rereading.

perhaps not after a breakup

I lost interest in reading about one man's conquests (of all the lovely little "birds") and one woman's inability to truly care about anyone. Maybe i'm not open-minded enough, but i thought it lacked depth.I found that i kept reading it because i thought that if it was such a popular book, surely something would happen eventually. I finally decided i was wasting time and stopped 1/4 from the end. I did that with "the life of Pi" too.

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