Love In The Time Of Cholera (#32)

Like I need more holiday stress or feel more behind... but here I am three books behind post-wise... I guess I should stop reading so fast... or if I am being more truthful... read longer books so that I have time to catch  up blogging about them.

This latest is yet another Oprah book club selection.  I know I seem robotic at times... running to the bookstore with the masses to the get the latest book I'm told I have to read by the Queen.  Though it probably doesn't seem that way, I am selective.  For instance, earlier this year when she picked The Road that particular book had been on my radar and I was wanting to finally something by Cormac McCarthy, so I did it.

Similarly, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has been one of those authors I have been meaning to read for years and years now.  I must have been mad at O when she picked Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude a few years back... so when she selected Love In The Time Of Cholera, especially just ahead of the movie version, I figured what the heck!  (Though the reviews of the movie have been very iffy and, with plenty of alternative entertainment options, we've literally not been out to see a movie in well over a year!)

Here's the very basics (no spoilers!) of the plot... nothing you wouldn't read on the back cover (not that I'm looking, of course!) or in the movie trailer.  As children, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall in love... mostly via love letters and glances from afar... fast-forward several years, Fermina ultimately marries another man... and while Florentino does move on with his life... he never gets over his love for Fermina and waits fifty-one years, nine months, and four days for another shot of love with her!

Ah, the stuff of literary romance ... capital "R" Romance... or else just someone in serious need of a therapist to tell him to get over it!   For me, it was more the former.  Granted I can be a cynic at times, but I did get caught up with it. 

It's not a book to be read quickly. Garcia Marquez's lush prose slows you down, but in a good way.  I only managed to knock it out in under 2 weeks since I read it while Todd was in Asia and had quite a bit of extra "alone" time. 

Originally published in 1985, it very much reads like a "classic."  Although I doubt that high schoolers (maybe college lit classes?) will ever be reading this one in our uber-politically correct/"save the children" world.  As I mentioned, while Florentino pines for his Fermina he is certainly not celibate.  While not graphic, there are many passages revolving around his sexual conquests... or should I say "love making," since the story takes place in a steamy/tropical Caribbean port city (inspired by Cartegna, Columbia where "Gabo" spent part of his youth).

I will likely return to Garcia Marquez... when?  Well, that's the reader's dilemma... so many books, so little time!

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 346 pages (Total Pages: 10556 pages) 

Comments

[Scot]

The first time I heard of this book was in the movie SERENDIPITY - remember the book she wrote her name and phone number in? - then my new neighbor, the english professor, moved in. She had the book on her shelves and during her housewarming party told me I HAD to read it. I thought it was just so-so. Not the type of book I would usually read. I haven't seen the movie, probably won't until it comes out on DVD. I do like Javier Bardem movies.
If you haven't seen the movie SERENDIPITY you ought to. It has a good cast, a great soundtrack, and oh yeah, many references to this book.