Love in the Time of Cholera,   ISBN:9780141037455

Customer Rating: 

I really enjoyed reading this book. I have read many of Don Gabriel's books, but this one was special. If you want to learn about the Latin American experience and psyche, this book is for you. He delves into many of the painful truths of Latin America and ultimately we discover that it all comes back to the undying power of Love. That is love of life! Read it and you too will enjoy the journey of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza's love all captured by the brilliant story teller that is Don Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. Salud!

Customer Rating: 

For all of the hype attributed to this story, I was looking forward to a timeless story of romance and passion. However, I was truly disappointed. The character of Florentino Ariza is pathetic and a pedophile. I could not get over his overtly selfish and lecherous behavior to be swept up by his obsession with Fermina Daza.

Customer Rating: 

Personally, I'm not a big fan of death, the elderly (because of its association with death), and classical novels (My anti-cliche tendencies). Yet after the first twenty pages, i found myself hooked. If you need a book with Imagery and no ambiguity about the setting, this is the book for you. I'm a theatre geek, and Maequez's imagery is genious. Almost every page, i could set up a scene and reenact it for you. From his mango tree to the office, it's impossible to read this book and not feel a sense of omnipresence. Also i don't like reading long novels, because i don't have time or they don't attract me, i usually read short stories with plithy. Yet, i found myself, procrastinating my math homework to read this book. Also, I don't like deaths, but Marquez doesn't make death seem like this gloomy thing, he kind of describes the deaths in the books as a poem or some romantic song. It sounds eccentric but when Dr. Urbino died, it wasn't like "How sad", it was like some slow song you hear on your way home.
Also, i just got out of a rough relationship, and reading this book gave me some weird hope in the male species. Florentino Azina is so adorable, and this love he's had for so long. It sounds cheesy but if you read it, Marquez phrases it so well. To all those ladies, who are in "I hate men" mode, this is the book for you. It's really pretty.
I haven't finished but after this, i'm going to read other Marquez books, because he's so good at writing romantic novels.

Customer Rating: 

This should be a UNIQUE review because I didn't bother to look at the other reviews.

The most POIGNANT thing to say about Love in the Time of Cholera is that OLD AGE is a constant, HEAVY theme throughout the book. (In fact it makes it a little difficult to get through.)

This book is wonderful in regard to the RICH Caribbean history it ties into the story. The best part of this story is simply the setup and the description of the locations and cultural ins and outs.

As for the characters...
They are described with a lot of detail, however not in a way that makes it easy to sympathize with them. In fact it was difficult to understand their motives (Fermina Daza will irritate you with how stubborn she is, and Florentino Ariza will seem pathetic, absolutely wasting the good years of his life on a stubborn woman who hasn't a thought of him!)

I DON'T think of this as a love story. (Love is a beautiful, amazing thing!) Fermina Daza never seems to be in love. She "settles" with her husband (Dr. Juvenal Urbino) and you never see her express love to her children. Florentino Ariza doesn't embody love - he has an OBSESSION for Fermina Daza.

So... Don't pick up this book if you are looking for a "love" story. Pick it up if you want to read a descriptive Caribbean tale. No one else could write this like Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Customer Rating: 

Let's face it. All book reviews are subjective to some extent. Once you get past the empirical facts: number of pages, name of author, general storyline and structure, etc., a response to a book is a combination of your prior reading, your life experience, your personality, your tastes, interests, philosophy, relationships, temperment, yea I could go on. You will love _Love in the Time of Cholera_ book if you possess the following:

a. A normal attention span not compromised by the age of hyperdrive information.
b. Have the ability to connect various themes of life, love, society, truth, morality, religion, human frailty, contraction, selfishness, desperation, confusion, and all the rest.
c. Can feel comfortable entering the world of a book that takes place in another place and time with "period-piece" technologies, perspectives, rituals, geographies, topographies, world-views, religious practice, cultural practices, etc.
d. Know that you are an imperfect being as is everyone else (As Orwell wrote"; "It is the job of men not to be saints."
e. Believe that love is an essence in the Platonic sense of primary things (not as in Platonic Love) and that it is the force that dominates the human world, whether it be the world of work, politics, family, the self, community, society, and that without it, there would be no purpose to anything we do, and, furthermore, know that your belief may not be a fact, but know that it doesn't matter whether it is or not.
f. Appreciate writing that seems to have been processed by the author from some exquisite literary and spiritual place--Seems because it might not be so, but it doesn't matter if it isn't.
g. Have the time to actually read and think about what you've read.
h. Understand that all times are the times of cholera (The original Spanish title uses the plural of time).
I guess I could add to the list, but if you haven't checked off at least a few of these, this novel won't be the best you've ever read, so go read something else. You probably think I'm nuts, and I don't care. I get along pretty well.