Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

25 reviews

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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snowleopard4's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25


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squidinkydink's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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taylormoore6's review against another edition

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

1.75

I was delighted by the beautiful, descriptive prose when I first began reading. It reminded me of House of the Spirits and I resolved to keep reading, hoping for a similar payoff as House of the Spirits even though nothing was really happening in the story. I regret that decision. Yes the writing is beautiful, but what’s the point of this book? Nearly every character is a horrible person. The casual and rampant anti-blackness, misogyny, sexual assault and pedophilia really soured the reading experience and took me out of the story at multiple points. I know the story begins in the 1800s (it was written in 1985 though, so I don’t get it), but none of the above furthered the plot or made any wider point. It almost felt like glorifying these aspects of the story. This is the kind of classic that make me feel like a lot of classics are outdated and not worth the time spent reading them. Honestly one of the worst books I’ve read this year. 

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jstrehse's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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pulita's review against another edition

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  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

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romanticwaterlily's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Love the prose, hated the male protag. This isn't a love story, at least not between the two leads. Extremely funny, would have loved it if the misogyny and downright obsession of the main character was explored as anything but a positive attribute of love though. 

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satsukiq's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No

3.0

florentino ariza the worst man ever

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amkclaes's review against another edition

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challenging funny reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

this is an absolutely beautifully written book about a completely disturbing, obsessional love - it's about love, sure, but the way that love can find many forms and require different things from one another, and the pitfalls of "love" that removes you from reality. Florentino is a sad, creepy character, he only finds relationships with vulnerable, lonely women as he pines for the one high society woman that rejected him. Fermina is a totally average rich woman, that García Márquez uses to comment on the obliviousness, the pettiness, and even the casual racism of that class, while also, through her relationship with Urbino, showing how society traps women and the pros and cons that marriage can have for a woman in her position. the book is so subtle and insightful when portraying human relationships and social structures, it's all in a gesture or a look, and the descriptions are stunning. 
i have to say the storyline with the young girl perplexed me. maybe i'm making excuses for the author, but to me Florentino is such an antipathetic character, and he's at his absolute lowest base state, and to me that storyline shows the true harm he inflicts on the world through his self absorption. he makes his raggedy old self the center of this child's life,
and ultimately drives her to her death
because he is unable to extract himself from his lifelong obsession with Fermina and confront the reality of his life, that it has passed by and that he is old now.
one task of authors is to reflect our society, it its ugliness too, and he does that brilliantly

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strabbyfieldz's review

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emotional lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

i would've adored this book were it not for the bit about América Vicuña and all the other uncomfortable or wrong elements like the racism (I could be wrong but man, some of the descriptions of the Black characters felt anti-Black and also one of the main protags was like fairly racist???). Regardless of messaging or whatever with América, it felt pointless, uncomfortable as heck and rendered the touching(??) love story of the main protagonists much less easy to root for freely. 

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