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Review: Love in the Time of Cholera
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beth — Tue, Jul 24 2007
Normally when I read a classic, I like to take the time to examine the meaning, read articles about the hidden depths of the novel, etc. etc. Not this time. For once, I did not even finish a book in time for book club. D'oh!
So yeah, we read Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez for this month's book club. Or should I say, Delia read it. I finished it the day after book club, and as far as I know, no one else finished it. I think this says more about our ability to make time for reading than it does about the book.
Love in the Time of Cholera spans over 50 years in the lives of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. The two were young clandestine sweethearts, until she rejected him. She then married Dr. Juvenal Urbino and Florentino embarks on hundreds of affairs, as he waits for her husband to die so that he can try his hand again. The book revolves around love, what it means to be in love, how many kinds of love there are, how love changes throughout your life.
The book is wordy and dense, but worth the effort. The beginning did not immediately capture me, but a bit further in and I was hooked. Because it is so dense, it is not a quick read (that explains why I couldn't get it finished in a week, right?). There is clearly a lot of symbolism in the book, and I'm sure I didn't catch most of it. As Delia was saying, sickness and birds are obviously two symbols that Garcia Marquez uses repeatedly throughout the book.
I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I will say I was not entirely satisfied with the ending. As one reviewer put it, Florentino Ariza is an anti-hero, and I honestly did not want him to find happiness. Also, some of the women's characterizations were completely unbelievable. Some authors are able to overstep the gender barrier, but I did not find Garcia Marquez to be one of these authors. Various emotions he ascribed to some of the women characters were just too much of a stretch and this tended to pull me back out of the story.
I would recommend this book, and someday I'm sure I'll try to conquer 100 Years of Solitude.
So yeah, we read Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez for this month's book club. Or should I say, Delia read it. I finished it the day after book club, and as far as I know, no one else finished it. I think this says more about our ability to make time for reading than it does about the book.
Love in the Time of Cholera spans over 50 years in the lives of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. The two were young clandestine sweethearts, until she rejected him. She then married Dr. Juvenal Urbino and Florentino embarks on hundreds of affairs, as he waits for her husband to die so that he can try his hand again. The book revolves around love, what it means to be in love, how many kinds of love there are, how love changes throughout your life.
The book is wordy and dense, but worth the effort. The beginning did not immediately capture me, but a bit further in and I was hooked. Because it is so dense, it is not a quick read (that explains why I couldn't get it finished in a week, right?). There is clearly a lot of symbolism in the book, and I'm sure I didn't catch most of it. As Delia was saying, sickness and birds are obviously two symbols that Garcia Marquez uses repeatedly throughout the book.
I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I will say I was not entirely satisfied with the ending. As one reviewer put it, Florentino Ariza is an anti-hero, and I honestly did not want him to find happiness. Also, some of the women's characterizations were completely unbelievable. Some authors are able to overstep the gender barrier, but I did not find Garcia Marquez to be one of these authors. Various emotions he ascribed to some of the women characters were just too much of a stretch and this tended to pull me back out of the story.
I would recommend this book, and someday I'm sure I'll try to conquer 100 Years of Solitude.
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