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Summary: when true love happens
Review: for all those needing to believe that true love can happen, love in the time of cholera is certainly a must. such elegant prose, and lush liquid wonder. you drown in its pages, and wish that you had a real life florentino ariza. his adamantine love endured for so long that one would wonder if he was not half-insane, only to realize that when true love happens, of course one is left with no other choice but to endure. love requires nothing less than one's whole self. if otherwise, it is not love. books of this magnificence are so rare. years later from the first time i read it, i still cannot bring myself to pick up my copy and read again. the first time was so achingly beautiful--- i know it will remain unmatched. as i have learned, in love you do not look for your heart's demi-half, you look for the entire of yours.
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Summary: Love For Every Occasion
Review: I am not the biggest fan of love stories. Saying that, let me tell you that this is one of the finest novels written, and an admittedly beautiful love story to boot. The novel is full of interesting characters, simple beauty, and fascinating locales. One need read no further than this book to understand why Garcia Marquez received the Nobel Prize, though I would suggest reading "One Hundred Years of Solitude", "The General in His Labyrinth", and "Chronicle of a Death Foretold". When I read this, I pained for Florentino Ariza; as the novel unfolds, you understand his heartache more and more. This novel has one of the most cathartic conclusions of anything I've read. Definitely a must read.
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Summary: love and faith set your sole free
Review: G.G.Marques, as always manages to capture the most basic, profound human escence. His characters go through everything we go through, and even when he turns to the magucal, it remains more realistic than most things we come across in life. when his characters suffer we suffer with them, we hope they win when that's what they want, and we hope they lose, when they choose a wrong path. Although Marquez shows us, that in love - there are no losers. And the everlasting massage of this book - no rejection can resist longlasting-never-ending-true love.
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Summary: All I have to say is...
Review: This is the greatest love story ever written!
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Summary: Can I give it more than 5 stars?
Review: First off, I read a lot. And, I'm a guy. So lot's of Ross Macdonald, Carl Hiassen guy kinds of books. I approached a book about love somewhat hesitantly. But WOW! What a book this was. I'm going to have to think about a while, but it may be the best book I've ever read. I was talking to a friend and telling him to read it but I couldn't clearly articulate what made it so great. The language is wonderful, the plot meanders slowly like every Carribean country I've ever been to, and the characters are rich and developed like family. I didn't want it to end, so I bought 100 Years of Solitude. I think I saw every kind of love I've ever felt somewhere in the book. (And some I haven't) I can't say it strongly enough. Buy and read this book, then give it to someone you love.
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Summary: Magical Look at Love
Review: Read the other readers' reviews for plot details. I couldn't say it any better. I just want to add that this would make a wonderful gift for that special someone you love madly and profoundly.In my opinion, GGM's best work!
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Summary: A book for hopeless romantics
Review: If you swoon at the thought of hopeless, tortured romances, then you must read this book! Florentino Ariza's long (half a century!), passionate, and tortured love for the haughty, oppressed Fermina Daza is the stuff of masochists. When the lady of his heart goes and marries another man, Florentino spends his life pining over her. Despite his finding solace in hundreds upon hundreds of sexual encounters, his heart remains true to her. Everything he does, he does with the hope of one day regaining her love. His rise as president of the local shipping company, his redecorating his childhood home, his devotion to the arts -- it's all for her. So strong is his love for her, that his tortured passion resembles the symptoms of the dreaded cholera, the disease that repeatedly ravaged this Caribbean town. And of course, there is also Fermina's husband, the illustrious Dr. Urbino. As the most respected, most innovative doctor in the region, he is beloved by all..... except his wife, who married him more out of convenience than anything else, after she realized that the poor Florentino could offer her very little. So will Florentino get his woman after waiting over 50 years for her? This sad, tragic, often humorous tale is, for me, Garcia Marquez's best novel... a must-read for both fans of the author and hopeless romantics alike.
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Summary: Para llenar los huecos del corazon
Review: This breathtaking novel shows us once again the Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a writer of extraordinary talent. When I first read One Hundred Years of Solitude, I knew that I had fallen in love with his wonderful rich prose. Love in the Time of Cholera is yet another milestone in Gabo's great literary career. I won't go into a detailed summary of this novel since there are many wonderful ones already. I just wanted to say how incredible this novel is. This is one of the few novels that travels with me everywhere I go and that I can never get tired of reading. This eternal story about the shades of love and the paradoxes of the heart will always be one of my favorites...I recommend it to everyone! I promise that if you read this, you will immediately want to read more Gabo.
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Summary: The ultimate love story
Review: The true meaning of love is amply explained in this beautiful, magical story. Florentino Ariza, a slight, plain young man with a gift for poetry, falls deeply in love with a lovely rich girl, Fermina Daza. Undaunted by the trifling detail that his beloved decides to marry a richer, classier guy than him, Florentino retreats and waits for the moment he can be with the love of his life again. In the meantime he builds a fortune and nails anything that wears a skirt, even his adolescent ward later in the story, when he is an old man, but always in the utmost secrecy for fear Fermina might find out about his philandering and feel betrayed. But hard-hearted Fermina doesn't have time or the inclination to pay attention to her former beau's comings and goings, busy as she is trying to make a success of her marriage to Dr. Urbino, who, in spite of some occasional flaws, is as kind and generous a husband as anyone could ask for. In some respects, Fermina's marriage is very much like Florentino's liasons with different women, none of them really loves their partners, or at least they don't feel the corny, stars-in-your-eyes kind of love that is seen in movies and the like, but they build a kind of relationship with their partners that is more precious than those romantic notions of love. Florentino's relationships with his mistresses is remarkable, they aren't just lovers, they also share confidences and great friendships in most cases. The characters are well defined and endearing, I specially liked sensible, smart Leona, and the storyline, although it may confuse other readers accustomed to more linear prose (hey, this is Garcia Marquez), is engrossing and draws the reader into it. I felt the ending was missing something, I don't know what, but overall I liked it very much. I would give it six stars if it was possible.
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Summary: Breathtaking read!
Review: Unbelievable. I have never read a book quite like this, nor an author whose writing is so... (for lack of a better word) lush. Most of the book is narrative, and the few spoken sentences stand out starkly. As the book was reccommended to be by someone I barely knew (to whom I'm still grateful!), let me just pass it on to all you folks out there... this is one book you can't miss.
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