Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - Die Liebe in den Zeiten der Cholera

Being a classic I thought I would find some redeeming quality to it but I could not. Between the grooming of a child and then discarding her resulting in her suicide and the complete distain the main character has for everyone and everything except for his obsession, I had a heard time with it.

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erebus53's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

This book is a meandering account, not unlike the riverboats owned by the main character. It frustrates me that in several places I felt like I was rehearing exact paragraphs from earlier in the story, because they seldom felt thematically resonant, but rather... recycled.

I liked the bit that recounted the incident with the escaped parrot. There is also a lot of discussion of the mortality of human beings, gerontolophobia, the nature of sex and love, there is further musing on the deforestation of Colombia and the pointless hunting of indigenous fauna, which appears to also be a parallel between the tendency of the young to not indulge in self-care to sustain their health and prolong their strength and fitness.... yet.

This is a story that feels like it's supposed to be romantic, but really it just comes across as the exploits of a man's fostering a lifelong obsession with a woman who turned him down when she was 18.

cw: rape that is celebrated by the recipients of the unsolicited attention (more than once)
cw: physical relationship between a custodian and ward.

..ugh.. yeah let's just not.

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jacecar50's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No

4.0

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gabriella_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

Was anyone going to tell me there’s a

pedophilic relationship

in this or was I supposed to find out on my own? Genuinely left a disgusting taste in my mouth reading this.

And why was there so much casual racism and bigoted language throughout the book? It was physically painful in a book that otherwise had a gripping prose (but was problematic, I smell misogyny).

I don’t want to rate this because I feel so conflicted.

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cubehead27's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective relaxing sad tense

4.5

For the most part I absolutely loved it, but the América Vicuña subplot was extremely unpleasant and very hard to read. Very much not a fan of that bit.

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