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A review by thaurisil
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
2.0
The book starts in Colombia, on the last day of Juvenal Urbino's life. He is an elderly eminent physician, and he falls to his death from a ladder. We then go back in time with Fermina Daza, his wife, who, as a young girl, exchanged forbidden letters with Florentino Ariza, a boy infatuated with her. They never talk, but through their letters plan marriage. Fermina eventually breaks up with him and marries Juvenal, a rich charming doctor who has got it all going for him. Over the years, Juvenal and Fermina become the couple if the town, heading social initiatives and gaining honour from all sides, while each grows steadily more dependent on the other. Florentino, determined to eventually win Fermina back, keeps himself single, rises to the top of the River Company of the Caribbean, but sleeps with hundreds of women. Fifty years after they broke up, Juvenal dies, and Florentino renews his courtship. The book ends with the two on a boat, in love, planning to sail "forever".
At one point, Fermina complains about a play, "My God, this is longer than sorrow!" That sums up my feelings about the book. I'll concede it is lyrical, and beautifully written and translated. But just as Florentino's hyperbolical lyricism doesn't cut any ice with Fermina, so does Marquez's flowing prose and exaggerated magical realism tire me out. Florentino Ariza's whole character tires me out. I preferred Juvenal Urbino. His love wasn't passionate, but it was steady, reliable, and real. At one point, Marquez described how on waking up every morning, Juvenal would make noises as he dressed to annoy Fermina, and Fermina would pretend to sleep, though both knew she was awake, until she gave in and bitterly complained. Marquez explained this petty domestic quarrel as something both of them needed. That was insightful and so true – many old couples have trivial arguments, some of which blow up pretty big, and nobody likes them, but sometimes they become such a major part of the relationship that each party feels lost without them. None of this was found in Florentino's passion for Fermina, which in its undying intensity appeared unreal.
Interestingly, Florentino is a sex maniac. In the fifty years that he can't have Fermina, he has sex with over 200 women, and Marquez details his exploits. His final affair is with a 14 year old girl placed under his care who commits suicide when he loses interest in her for Fermina. He's not your typical pure, faithful lover. Why would Marquez create such a character? Possibly, he's trying to make Florentino more real. A man with so much passion for a woman he can't have can't bear that unfulfilled passion for 50 years, he needs an outlet for it, and Florentino's is in his other women. Or Marquez might be making a statement that the true measure of love is not sex, which would explain why Juvenal also has an affair too, and that society's and Fermina's belief that sex with another woman makes you unfaithful creates unnecessary tension. Or perhaps Marquez is implying that it is possible to love many women and yet love one woman more than the rest of them, and by showing that Florentino cares for many women yet desires Fermina most of all he emphasizes Florentino overwhelming passion for Fermina.
At one point, Fermina complains about a play, "My God, this is longer than sorrow!" That sums up my feelings about the book. I'll concede it is lyrical, and beautifully written and translated. But just as Florentino's hyperbolical lyricism doesn't cut any ice with Fermina, so does Marquez's flowing prose and exaggerated magical realism tire me out. Florentino Ariza's whole character tires me out. I preferred Juvenal Urbino. His love wasn't passionate, but it was steady, reliable, and real. At one point, Marquez described how on waking up every morning, Juvenal would make noises as he dressed to annoy Fermina, and Fermina would pretend to sleep, though both knew she was awake, until she gave in and bitterly complained. Marquez explained this petty domestic quarrel as something both of them needed. That was insightful and so true – many old couples have trivial arguments, some of which blow up pretty big, and nobody likes them, but sometimes they become such a major part of the relationship that each party feels lost without them. None of this was found in Florentino's passion for Fermina, which in its undying intensity appeared unreal.
Interestingly, Florentino is a sex maniac. In the fifty years that he can't have Fermina, he has sex with over 200 women, and Marquez details his exploits. His final affair is with a 14 year old girl placed under his care who commits suicide when he loses interest in her for Fermina. He's not your typical pure, faithful lover. Why would Marquez create such a character? Possibly, he's trying to make Florentino more real. A man with so much passion for a woman he can't have can't bear that unfulfilled passion for 50 years, he needs an outlet for it, and Florentino's is in his other women. Or Marquez might be making a statement that the true measure of love is not sex, which would explain why Juvenal also has an affair too, and that society's and Fermina's belief that sex with another woman makes you unfaithful creates unnecessary tension. Or perhaps Marquez is implying that it is possible to love many women and yet love one woman more than the rest of them, and by showing that Florentino cares for many women yet desires Fermina most of all he emphasizes Florentino overwhelming passion for Fermina.