Love in the Time of Cholera
Posted on | September 8, 2009 | 10 Comments
I was actually planning to read this book and see the movie after, as I usually do. However, after reading the book, I decided it was enough, and the few glimpses from the movie that I caught on HBO one night told me I was right to stop before I saw it. Why? Don’t know, maybe Gabriel Garcia Marquez is not my kind of writer, maybe i expected too much (as I usually do),maybe the chemistry wasn’t right…
The setting? Many, many years ago (around the 1900′s) in ripped – apart – politically – disorganised – overtook – by- cholera – Columbia (if I am not mistaken) two people find each other and fall in love. Nothing new to that, right? Even in the hardest of times, people have found time for love, and I find that natural. Unfortunately for them, the woman is meant to marry someone else and eventually does so. However, Florentino Ariza, the man who loved her, decided to wait until she would be free for him again. That being about 50 years and about 500 pages for the reader. For Florentino waited alright, but he waited and waited…on my nerves!
The whole book is actually about how he is waiting for her. Because the first part about how they meet and fall in love is merely insignificant. Cholera passes them by, wars, the first flight of man and every imaginable event. Florentino waits. Of course, not by himself. He finds mistresses in the most unthinkable places: widows, 14 year old girls, housewives, whores, poets…the whole lot. There probably wouldn’t be a living female whom he did not try to conquer. All in the wait, of course. Basically, we are forced (actually, I am beginning to think I am a masoquist, since no one was pointing a gun at my head obliging me to keep reading. I realised though that with books like these I tend to wait for amazing, breathtaking endings. Which usually fail to appear.) to wait along with Florentino, witnessing at the same time his many, often disgusting adventures with women. We see the changes in his body, from around 20 years old, when he was young and virile, to the sad age of 70 and something, when, well, his love making is not so…passionate anymore. I could call this a bildungsroman, since he actually evolves in a very strange way during it, growing up, but yet remaining the same boy who wished that a certain girl was his.
Fermina Daza is, on the other hand, a pragmatic. She is cold and decided when it comes to love, she accepts marriage as a friendship rather than a lustful relationship, she is shocked to find Florentino has been waiting and waiting…
I would like to tell you how it ends, to make you skip 400 pages and just find out if they end up tpgether or not. But, as I was saying, apparently this is not the point. The point is to find out how they turn out to be, after 50 years of waiting for each other (mostly on Florentino’s side, with the spicing it up and everything). I know there are people who see more in this book than I do, but I definitely wouldn’t reread it. Or see the movie. I think the book was enough, I don’t need another 2 hours on the same subject. Maybe others enjoyed this book. Maybe there’s something in it that I don’t see.
All in all, for the fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, it is probably a masterpiece. For me it was a ‘must read’ that I would only recommend to people who see more to it than I do.
Enjoy 
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10 Responses to “Love in the Time of Cholera”
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September 9th, 2009 @ 11:10
hei! nici eu nu am vazut tocmai in roz cartea. but hei, nu e o regula
anyways, http://www.casa-romanilor.ch/ccrn/stiri
in caz ca nu stiai.
succesURI!
September 9th, 2009 @ 11:15
Stiam, dar asta fuse in mai
. Oricum, sunt carti mai bune ca asta, definitely 
September 9th, 2009 @ 21:53
ahm?
ce fuse in mai?
September 9th, 2009 @ 22:31
Hmmm, imi pare rau ca ai fost dezamagita. Mie mi-a placut foarte mult cartea, iar sfarsitul e foarte misto! Eh, poate intr-adevar sunt un fac infocat al lui Marquez si am citit prea multe de el ca sa nu-mi mai placa.
September 10th, 2009 @ 10:08
@Delia – in mai fuse o manifestare in Neuchatel despre Bucuresti. Credeam ca asta imi aratai pe site.
@Alina – tu, fata draga, oi avea mai multa rabdare ca mine. Eu simteam ca vreau sa-l dau pe Florentino cu capul de toti peretii.
September 18th, 2009 @ 23:22
Cartea asta e geniala. Desi eu prefer oamenii de actiune
September 18th, 2009 @ 23:24
Asa ziceam si eu…nenea Florentino ala n-are sange-n veioza de se cacaie 400 de pagini sa-i spuna tipei c-o iubeste. Of, rabdarea nu e punctul meu forte
September 21st, 2009 @ 10:05
Cum de-am ratat eu aceasta polemica interesanta. Si eu care credeam ca idealismul masculin impresioneaza duducile mai ceva decat un catelus schiop scheunand in ploaie….
Pai bine mai fetelor, e frumos? Adica asteapta sarmanul 50-60 de ani dupa femeia ce-i e predestinata si voi dati cu pietre in el? Ca nu inteleg. Adica va umeziti batistele cand vine vorba de Solveig sau orice eroina de roman cavaleresc care asteapta inchisa-n casa intoarcerea cate unuia plecat prin cruciade, dar il blamati pe Garcia Marquez ca transpune totul in plin avant de secol IX-XX, suprapunand situatia omului care traieste pentru o idee cu critica ( e drept, antitetica) a unei societati in care valorile morale functionau, de altfel, destul de subred…
Pentru ca pana dadura anii 40 si emanciparea femeii peste omenire, lucrurile functionau dupa principiul “Ramai virgina pan la casatoria cu cine vrea tata, dragostea e un banc prost, si daca iti arde iti gasesti tu ceva confidenti pe parcurs. Si uite-asa esti si cu… si cu sufletu’n rai”. Inutil sa spun ca asa proceda mai toata populatia “emancipata” a vremii. Iar in societatea hispano-catolica treaba asta era litera de lege mai ceva decat Coranul la talibani…
Si pe fundalul asta se suprapune personajul lui nenea Gabriel Garcia, care crede in predestinare ca un tampit, si isi pastreaza principiile “amorului sacru” mai ceva decat Tizian, ce-i drept doar in ceea ce-o priveste pe tanti Fermina (deloc idealista, dar altfel “fata de caracter”) pentru ca altfel o arde destul de dubios tot romanul…
E adevarat ca, la fel ca multe alte scrieri, ale lui nenea Marquez si altora din aceeasi perioada si societate un doctorat in stiinte istorico-sociologico-antropologice nu strica. Dar va rog eu, nu dati cu pietre….
September 21st, 2009 @ 11:50
Imi pare rau, Penelopa a fost menita sa astepte, Florentino asta nu. Barbatii trebuie sa fie aia de actiune, noi suntem programate genetic sa asteptam…:)). O sa mai incerc sa-l citesc pe nenea asta, dar sincer un film in care un nenea trecut de prima tinerete se…ma rog…plimba de la asternut la asternut nu ma atrage de niciun fel. Oh well, macar de ar fi asteptat-o si el pur si sacru. But let’s be serious…
September 23rd, 2009 @ 21:58
salut