LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA : A Review and An Opinion
'An Amazing celebration of the many kinds of love between men and women' THE TIMES.
'The most important writer of fiction in any language' BILL CLINTON
Gabriel García Márquez - a novel prize for literature winner is one of the most profound and prolific modern writers whose works I have ever read and I can say for certainty that he is unmatched in his way of telling us this story 'Love in the Time of Cholera'.
'Love in the Time of Cholera' is a brilliant and extremely rich book. It has that uniqueness, a unknown something very rare I find in only Gabriel Garcia's stories. And I am not talking only about the magic realism in his stories.
The richness in language, the narrative power, the story and all its appeal is something very rich. I find this book and 'One Hundred Years Of Solitude' by the same author as one of the most greatest novels I have and will ever read. No hyperbole.
If you have the slightest doubt of me making an exaggeration, go and read both of these books and then say.
To start with this is not a guiding and motivatory and what to do and imbibe in your life kind of story. Nor is it your conventional 'boy meets girl', romantic, cheesy or heartbreaking love story.
But yes! this is a story of love. Of unrequited love of more than half a century or how it has different connotations to different people. Some say it is the greatest love story ever told. And I fail to understand that, if this is a love story and only a love story or 'A great story' in fact.
This a fable and an epic, the story of these lovers in the millenium and the utter confusion of their minds and their lives.
About the book 'Newsweek' had a comment, mentioned in the prologue that "Admirers of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' will find it hard to believe that García Márquez can have written an even better novel."
I myself refused to believe that. But after reading both of these I am in a dilemma as to which is a better novel.
I am sorry as to pitting both of these books against one another one cannot arrive at a decision. As both of them, have a bit of a similar background but both have fundamentally different stories.
Yes! This book will talk of love and talk of love not as the infatuatory or liking another person kind, of cheesy coincidences or tragedies or etc. etc. i.e the general view or what we know if it.
But of love as a force, an enigma, and also a disease which affects Florentino Ariza when he was still a boy and who never learns to forget it and come out of it, for 'forever' (also the last word in the novel).
As the 15 year old boy who falls in love and the becomes horribly sick, a short while after, of presumed cholera in the time of cholera.
"the symptoms of love were the same as those of cholera."
The book starts with the life of Dr. Juvenal Urbino and his wife Fermina Daza.
It then moves to the time when Fermina and Florentino were star-crossed lovers in their youth. It tells how Florentino Ariza fell for Fermina when he first saw her in the sewing room of her home on his way to deliver a telegram to her father.
It tells the story of how they remain strangers yet lovers writing letters to one another, after Fermina accepted Florentino's first letter under the almond tree with yellow leaves falling between them and thus.
When after a time, her father finds out he takes her on a journey to her mother's relatives for a time of more than one year in a hope that she will forget him but, their correspondence continues with the help of Fermina's cousin Hildebranda and a dozen of telegraph operators.
On returning to her city, after a few days when Florentino approached to surprise her from behind following her in the market, where Fermina was buying different ink's to astound Florentino with her wit and then was with a candy seller getting different types of candies and Fermina Daza behind her,
..
... heard amidst all the tumult:
"This is not the place for a crowned goddess."
But now, instead of the commotion of love, she felt an abyss of disenchantment. And then she realized the intensity of her mistake. "No,please." she said to him "Forget it."
The reader is in for a shock. Why did she think their love was a illusion? What made her think of him as 'My God, poor man!' ? Why did Fermina Daza erased Florentino Ariza from her life with the wave of her hand? What went wrong? What did she realise in a sudden?
These questions haunted me till the very last pages as to what went wrong.
The story then moves to Fermina getting married to Dr. Juvenal Urbino and their lives. The book then tells us their stories including that of Florentino as to what drives him and his life.
The scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.
Untill the day, Fifty-one years, nine months and four days later after Fermina had rebuffed romantic Florentino Ariza's advances.
What happens? Did Florentino Ariza get his love back ? How does their lives get on till the end? Can their young love find new life in the twilight of their lives ? How does the unrequited love of Fifty - one years, nine months and four days turn out in the end?
Answers you will find in the book and not only in the book but in your heart- (a metaphor we use for describing or senses and mind which I think is and it is basically our brain) -after reading it.
The story will amuse you, rebuff you and make you happy after you've been sad but it doesn't demand pity it demands attention to its richness and touching narrative.
All I can say is READ THIS BOOK or any of García Màrquez's and you will fall for his works.
MY-SPACE:
Maybe, I turn into a hopeless romantic (in a literary sense) when I write and I don't want to be confronted for all of the cheesy or corny stuff, if any.
So, Thank you for your time and for reading this.
P.S- Any questions, suggestions, reviews, criticism, comments are welcome and will be held in regard.
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