Love in the Time of Cholera (1988)(El amor en los tiempos del colera, 1985)
434 pages
by: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Nobel Prize for Literature (1982)
"He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers gave birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves."
I highly recommend this book to those who are enthusiasts of the concept of unrequited love. Some find it boring but it wasn't for me. Probably one would find it as too detailed. It is indeed filled with vivid descriptions, which is likely of GGM. I wasn't surprised that it became a bestseller in NBS and Powerbooks last March. I can't help but be moved by this dramatical and lyrical masterpiece.
This is about lovers, Fermina and Florentino, who fell in love at young age. However, young Fermina had to marry a well-off doctor. It might seem common but the lines were so touching. Florentino here is romantic that after the husband of Fermina died, after 622 affairs and at the age when death could loom anytime, he declared his love for her once again - a love he knew had always been there and meant to last forever.
My favorite part, however, was not about them. I was moved more by Florention's last love affair with America, a young girl who loved him with all of her heart and soul - love that was innocent and genuine. Unaware of the truth that the man she loved could never reciprocate the feeling, she served him sincerely and leaving the old Florentino guilty. When America died while Florentino was in a cruise with the love of his life, Fermina, he ignored the news of her death because he knew that was the only way to keep him alive. It was when they were about to go back that he remembered the dreadful death of America and he locked himself up in the bathroom and cried - it was then he realized how much he loved her.
*This is the book featured in the movie Serendipity - the way Jonathan (John Cusack) could retrieve Sara's (Kate Beckinsale) number.*
This is about lovers, Fermina and Florentino, who fell in love at young age. However, young Fermina had to marry a well-off doctor. It might seem common but the lines were so touching. Florentino here is romantic that after the husband of Fermina died, after 622 affairs and at the age when death could loom anytime, he declared his love for her once again - a love he knew had always been there and meant to last forever.
My favorite part, however, was not about them. I was moved more by Florention's last love affair with America, a young girl who loved him with all of her heart and soul - love that was innocent and genuine. Unaware of the truth that the man she loved could never reciprocate the feeling, she served him sincerely and leaving the old Florentino guilty. When America died while Florentino was in a cruise with the love of his life, Fermina, he ignored the news of her death because he knew that was the only way to keep him alive. It was when they were about to go back that he remembered the dreadful death of America and he locked himself up in the bathroom and cried - it was then he realized how much he loved her.
*This is the book featured in the movie Serendipity - the way Jonathan (John Cusack) could retrieve Sara's (Kate Beckinsale) number.*
"Together they had overcome the daily incomprehension, the instantaneous hatred, the reciprocal hastiness, and fabulous flashes of glory in the conjugal conspiracy. It was time when they both loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity."
1 comments:
I'm not big on love stories, and I rather disliked all the love story part of this book--that said, I enjoyed all the other parts as well... the mom's character is particularly remarkable.
All in all, I prefer One Hundred Years of Solitude instead, and Chronicles of a Death Foretold (simply because you get a taste of GGM in a relatively small dose hehe)
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