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Summary: Love's redeeming properties : a classic tale
Review: Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Love In The Time Of Cholera" is an impassioned tale of an unrequited love that survived five decades of personal and social change to reap the rewards of patience when the object of this love is set free finally by a death that is at once comic and tragic. It has the majestic sweep of a grand love story that defies obstacles of social class and opportunity to triumph in the twilight years of its protagonists. More than that, this beautifully lyrical novel examines the nature of love, its transformative and redeeming properties but also its cruelly blinding effect on other human emotions. Florentino's love for Fermina is obsessive in much the way her sudden rejection is impulsive and incomprehensible. Fermina's marriage to the socially eminent Dr Urbino may have been based on different considerations but is the end result not also love, a oneness and unity of being fostered by conflict, domination and acquiescence. Hard to say. Florentino's singlemindedness in his pursuit of Fermina may invoke admiration for its constancy but is it also not at the same time a deception, a falsehood in the light of his many one-off sexual encounters and his failure to recognise true love until he has conquered. GGM's grandiosely lyrical prose is filled with colours, smells, fauna, flora, spectacular buildings, open marketplaces, etc, all of which conspire to shroud love and passion from the taint of cholera and disease. The novel also examines the workings of social class, racial prejudice, pride and deceipt to stirring effect. "Love In The Time Of Cholera" reads like a classic. Its slightly erractic sense of chronology is a little unsettling but the redeeming quality of love it so exquisitely evokes simply melts your heart. Think of Fermina's recurring tears when she reminisces on the murder of an old couple who had been lovers for over 40 years, or of Florentino's final capitulation and recognition of his feelings (is that also love ?) for somebody other than Fermina. That love springs eternal on release from love's bondage is a double irony that resonates throughout this great novel. A "must" for serious readers. Not to be missed.
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Summary: highly aesthetic experience
Review: Many times when I read, I read for content. The cover of the book doesn't matter so much, I'm not especially affected by the typeset....and that sort of thing. When I read this novel around thirteen years ago I remember being so caught up in the romance of the story.....it's a beautiful love story. But not only that, there was something extra special about reading the book itself. The subtle color of the pages and the way they were kind of rough on the edges. Lamplight making it a glowing, cozy experience. It is a really lovely book. The writing. And the book itself is pleasing, aesthetically. Somehow that seemed to make reading it an even richer experience. I would very highly recommend this novel, and I would definitely suggest the hardback edition.
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Summary: Do yourself a favor...read this book!
Review: A beautiful and epic novel about love. Marquez's writing allows the reader to use his/her senses throughout the story. I have read many books but this is one of the few that truly affected me. This happens to be one of my all-time favorite books. Highly recommended!!
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Summary: stages of life and love
Review: I highly reccomend this book. Marquez takes us through the various stages of love and maturity. The initial infatuation stage, where the attachement is formed, as the hormones are most active. Then the long seperation. Both characters fulfill their biological duties differently, though in both cases, it is hard to say if it was really love. Finally, the much awaited reunion, where both characters, mellowed by experience, are able to appropriately finish what they started. A love beyond the pitfalls of what is traditionally called love. A true, a real, and a spiritual love. This is a great love story. A great life story, whose philosophical undertones may not be readily visible depending on your own disposition. I can't say enough about it. Marquez is truly gifted. I'm looking forward to reading his other works.
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Summary: Different kinds of love through life
Review: One really good thing about vacations is that one gets time to read really, really good books during that time. "Love in the Time of Cholera" is one of those gems. If anyone ever wanted to truly understand "marriage love" the first chapter of this book is explaining it better than any manual or marriage cancelor out there. After reading the first chapter, I just had to keep going, because I was absolutely intrigued with the storytelling and common wisdom of the wonderful writer like Marquez. I recommend this book for everyone!
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Summary: One of his best
Review: True love exists. Set in the traditional and magical humid towns of Colombia, this tale of love develops for fifty years. There is almost no magical realism here, but magic of a higher sort: the magic of a true and desperate love. The novel is not tragic nor edulcorated: it is witty and funny. Florentino Ariza is a rather poor young man deeply in love with Fermina Daza, a well-to-do miss. She likes him, but decids to marry a prosperous physician, who is a good but rather dull man. Florentino never gets married, since he is always hoping that, somehow, Fermina will be one day by his side. In the long meantime, he has sex with hundreds of women, but never finds a love to replace Fermina in his heart. Parallel to the unfulfilled love affair, we are told the story of many times when cholera hits the town, with the drama of that disease compared to what Florentino feels for Fermina. The novel is long but you'll read quickly. It is one of the best stories of love there are, and Garcia Marquez is at his best here, along with "Chronicle of a death foretold" and "One hundred years of solitude".
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Summary: The Second Best
Review: ....because the best is 100 year of solitude. If you have already read that one, you should continue with this one. Just read it, you wont be dissapointed. It belongs to one of the best novels from Gabo.
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Summary: ooohhh...how divine!
Review: Oh, this book... I fell in love. IT was truly the greatest book I have ever read. It was brilliant, inspiring, elegant, delightful. THe diction and the language, the characters... I recomend it so passionatly I would purchase the book FOR you to inspire you to read it. It was delicious!
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Summary: Briefly....
Review: I first read this novel in 1992 and contracted a disease much more severe than cholera - an overwhelming desire to find a book that could have the same effect on me. I have yet to find a cure. Quite simply, Love in the Time of Cholera is the best novel I have ever read and has left me with a longing that can never be satisfied - to experience it for the first time again....
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Summary: Unrequited Love
Review: Unrequited love. Simply put, that is what this love story is about, but this story is lost if put simply. complex and woven, taking place over 5 decades, this story enraptures the reader with the account of two men and the strong willed woman they both fall in love with, in the process taking us to a different world in a different era, namely the Caribbean at the turn of the century. If you ever wonder why Gabriel Garcia Marquez won the Nobel prize for literature in 1982, do yourself a favor, but this book.
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