Peculiar man, forever in love, waiting the death of a husband

For some time now I have been haunted by the thought of writing a review for a book I read some time ago. But the summer weather conditions, more precisely the stubborn sun, determined me to set a protective blanket over my brain. In a less sophisticated language: it was hot and I was lazy. But as the weather cools and the imminent arrival of October (joy of joys, faculty will commence once more, the final year…), a pang in my head begins to make its presence felt.... the pang of opinion. So with ardent fingers I translate the pang into words and rise from the pain my female body has chosen to inflict on me today, to bring you love. “Love in the time of cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, of course.


Now as I mentioned, I am not a fan of anything glorying love and such, but I was aware of a movie with the same name. The movie I had not seen, but I did know of Shakira's contribution to the soundtrack (back then when she wasn't howling at the moon) and was rather charmed by it. Plus, I knew that the author received some worldwide recognition for his writings (some small thing called the Nobel Prize for Literature) and thus decided to buy the book (the penguin offer of 3 books by this author at 70 lei may have had an effect over my decision). I can't say I love the man but I can't say I don't. His books have that rare capacity to annoy and fascinate at the same time. You curse him, you criticize him, you laugh with him, and you can't forget the book. Now the particular subject of my scrutiny is called "Love in the time of cholera" and it begins with...


"It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of unrequited love"


The book is just about that: the love of Florentino Ariza for Fermina Daza. And it goes like this... They were young. He loved her. She loved him. Her father did not approve. He takes her away from him. Love still persists. She comes back. She sees him. He still loves her. She changes her mind. She marries a doctor. He vows eternal love for her. The doctor dies and the question that rises is: “But can young love find new life in the twilight of their lives?" (end quote from the back cover of the penguin edition). I'll let you find the answer though it rather disappointed me.
But the book does posses a certain degree of charm, the main characters for instance. Fermina Daza is a middle class girl of great beauty and strength of character, with no mother and an over-ambitious father. She marries the doctor out of pride and stubbornness. What more can I say, a woman after my own heart. And Florentino Daza was "very thin, with Indian hair plastered down with scented pomade and eyeglasses for myopia, which added to his forlorn appearance. Aside from his effective vision, he suffered from chronic constipation, which forced him to take enemas throughout his life.” Now at this point I started laughing. The book itself is written in this spirit: a beautiful image, classic if not a cliché, then an element of realism, shocking yet so bitterly true.


On a technical level: the narration is presented at a third person, nice images, nice language, nice construction of sentences (somewhat elaborate) all in a subtle sense of irony.


All in all, the book is nice and captivating, even though you come towards the end of the book and realize that nothing really happened. We go through the lives of the two characters, Fermina Daza's marriage and Florentino Ariza's little black book of "distractions” and that consist of 95 % of the book. And the conclusion of this love affair? Read and see.


Your humble and yawning servant,
Myself.