Love in the Time of Cholera

Rating:
Summary: The Never Ending Love Story
Review: Love in the Time of Cholera

Love in the Time of Cholera, is an excellent book for mature readers. The story begins with a young poetic man named Florentino Ariza who falls in love with a young girl named Fermina Daza. Florentino tries to get her attention by sending her love letters. Fermina ignores them, but when Florentino finally tells her how much he loves her, she falls madly in love with him. Fermina is sent away for a year when her father discovers that she is planning to marry Florentino without his permission. When she returns she realizes that what she thought was love was only an illusion, so she refuses to see Florentino again. Florentino remains faithfully in love with Fermina even when she gets married and starts her own family. They speak to each other for the first time in more than half a century at Fermina's husband's funeral . They begin to talk to each other again, and remember the good times that they used to spend together when they were young. Their friendship grows, and we wonder how long it will take them to realize that that they still love each other even after so many years have gone by.

One of our favorite quotations is on page 82. This is when Fermina's father discovers that his daughter loves Florentino. This quotation shows how Florentino views love: all powerful and worth dying for. When Fermina's father says "Don't force me to shoot you," Florentino replies: "`Shoot me,' . . . `There is no greater glory than to die for love.' "
We feel that Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is a very good writer. He is extremely descriptive, has a feeling about love in every form, is creative, and imaginative throughout the book. He is able to capture the readers' attention with his simple but complex story.

This book may be inappropriate for young readers because of its sexual content. This is one reason why we recommend this book to mature readers. Another reason is that younger people may find the plot excessive. Anyone who enjoys reading about the many forms of love in a descriptive way will find this book a pleasure to read. If some readers find the long plots tedious at times Gabriel Garcia Marquez will compensate for them later on.



Rating:
Summary: Excellent Novel!
Review: Love in the Time of Cholera is an excellent novel, but not like any other love story you'll read. It explores the human emotions tied to love and the suffering some people must go through in order to be with their true love. It also shows the struggles people have with aging and the effects time has on love.
In this novel, the main character Florentino Ariza must wait for the woman he loves, Fermina Daza, for over a half a century. He spends the entire novel waiting for her while she is married to another man, and he has numerous affairs during the time he spends waiting for her. It focuses on the suffering caused by his love for her and the ways he tries to hide his love, mainly by the many affairs he has with other women. It shows the transformation from an immature, childlike love to a mature love of an older age. The characters in the novel also struggle with the idea that there is a point when you become too old to love. Florentino must battle against this theory that is had by others and show Fermina that it's never too late for love.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is very descriptive in his writing and uses phrases that let the reader easily visualize what is taking place. The reader gets a close view at the characters and because of the omniscient narration, they can find out what is happening in the minds of the novel's main characters. The reader should find it easy to relate to the characters and sympathize with them when they fall on hard times. This novel was extremely well written, and I found it extremely entertaining, a novel that I could not put down once I began reading.


Rating:
Summary: Inspirating for all ages
Review: A simple story full of well-presented details, with sound, smell, colours and texture. Even you don`t believe in love, it worth the time and effort to go through it.
I can`t help but comparing Tomas of Unbearable lightness of being with Florentino. Tomas escape love in order to stay with lightness but at the end of his life he can`t get rid of Tereza; Florentino refrain himself from loving other for he believes his love is only for Fermina. They have slept with hundreds of women, good or bad, just for short-lived love and sex, and believe that fidelity is nothing to do with causal sex. I think it is a fantasy of man: The fate/destiny of a man is to have a woman who is his crowned goddness for spiritual love, and hundreds of sex mates for fullfiling of physical needs.
I just can`t accept Florentino, at his 76, fall in 'love' with a little girl only 14 years old and is under his guidance.
There are so many types of love in this book that sometimes you have to stop a while and ask yourself: Is it love? What is love?
I enjoy the book very much though in the middle of it the come and go of Florentino`s lovers are a bit bore and excessive. As a woman, sometimes I can`t quite follow Fermina`s thought because most of the women will not react like her did. She is a crowned goddess created by the author.