Love in the Time of Cholera (Oprah's Book Club)

One of THE best novels of ALL times! Read it thrice!

The story of a love affair between Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza, first through love letters exchanged by passionate youths, and over fifty years later through the companionship of mature love. But the story is also a meditation of love (like the Lovers' Companion he always thought to write)in its various forms: unrequited love (Florentino for Fermina); marital love...more

The story of a love affair between Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza, first through love letters exchanged by passionate youths, and over fifty years later through the companionship of mature love. But the story is also a meditation of love (like the Lovers' Companion he always thought to write)in its various forms: unrequited love (Florentino for Fermina); marital love (Fermina and Juvenal); platonic love (Florentino and Leona); angry love (Florentino and the poet who makes him so furious); jealous love (the adulterous wife killed because of her affair with Florentino); young love (Florentino and Fermina in the beginning); dangerous love (the mental patient and Florentino); adulterous love (Juvenal and his affair, Florentino and many of his women); love from afar (Florentino and Fermina); elderly love (Florentino and Fermina, Fermina and Juvenal; the cyanide suicide); May-December love (Florentino and his ward); the relationship between sex, age, society, art, death and love (pretty much the whole book). The story ends symbolically with a river journey into eternity.   hide

***Spoiler Alert*** An epic tale of love and decay, Márquez portrays a vibrant and complex society in an unnamed city in the Caribbean. For me the strength of the novel is in Márquez’s vivid descriptions and his ability to set the scene. The novel is unusual in many ways: In structure: it begins with a lengthy scene in which one of the three main characters, Dr. Urbino officiates...more

***Spoiler Alert*** An epic tale of love and decay, Márquez portrays a vibrant and complex society in an unnamed city in the Caribbean. For me the strength of the novel is in Márquez’s vivid descriptions and his ability to set the scene. The novel is unusual in many ways: In structure: it begins with a lengthy scene in which one of the three main characters, Dr. Urbino officiates over the investigation of the death by suicide of a man with whom he played chess followed by a visit to the man’s mistress. Neither the man nor his mistress is mentioned except in passing in the rest of the novel which is mainly told in flashbacks starting some fifty years previously. The novel ends with a surreal everlasting voyage. The novel centers on a 53-year obsessive love by Florentino Ariza for Fermina Daza, but after Daza marries Dr. Urbino, Ariza has and keeps detailed notes in 25 notebooks of 622 long-term sexual liaisons and “countless fleeting adventures.” On at least two occasions Ariza’s affairs lead directly to the death of two of his liaisons, one by murder, one by suicide. Despite all this activity with an incredible assortment of girls and women, Ariza has a reputation as a loner and or is thought to be gay in a city where everyone knows everything about what everyone does, sometimes before they do it. Ariza truly is a shadow as well as a curious hero of love. Clearly for Márquez faithfulness in love has nothing to do with sex. Fermina Daza is a similarly curious heroine of love. She breaks off her original engagement to Ariza in an instant on a seeming whim in the marketplace arcade. She leaves her husband for nearly two years when he admits to an affair rather than denying it in the face of the evidence as she had hoped. With Ariza, she again prefers the barefaced lie that he is a virgin to the more objective truth. For Márquez love is a sickness, like cholera from which you are unlikely to recover. However it does evolve as we age and decay and that is the story of our lives.   hide

Great love story. I wish I could have read it in Spanish - I know some of the meaning was lost in translation.

My favourite romantic story of all time.

Horrible...not at all sure why this book received awards and Oprah loves it. I hated it and had to force myself to finish it.

YUCK! This book sucked...I had a hard time reading it and I NEVER have a hard time finishing a book. Not worth the paper it was printed on!!!