Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
ugh i wanted to love it so baaaaad but i cannot get over the groomer of it all!!! i thought it was gonna end w one of them dying and experiencing actual real pain and snapping to their senses but nope no one ever learns anything and everyone just gets what they want and think they rightfully earned
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Sexual assault
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It has its flaws, but overall the book is excellent
It is unlikely that I will finish a book and give it two stars. So I need to explain. This is the first Gabriel Garcia Marquez book I have read in probably 25 years. The previous one was One Hundred Years of Solitude, and I cannot remember it well except that I thought it was a worthwhile read.
Love in the Time of Cholera is about a tortuous 51 year period where Florentino Ariza is obsessed but rebuffed by Fermina Daza in their youth. She gets married and he keeps obsessing over her for the next 51 years and becoming the man that she would want to marry when her illustrious doctor husband eventually dies. It is beautifully written with turns of phrase so compelling that I would revisit them. It also deals with the ravages of being human, including and particularly about getting old.
The characters are not likeable, and the story is not unlike Proust, who can spend 30 pages on a trivial chain of thought. I asked myself several times whether this is really worth my time. As a whole, it was not.
As for the two stars: During his 51 years of waiting obsessively for the love of his life, Florentino beds 622 women. And those were only the ones the deemed worthy of writing up in detail in his journal. The affairs are sometimes entertaining, the characters are well developed, and for a book this old it is very raunchy. And many times in not a good way.
What is NOT ok however is that he grooms a 14 year old girl that is sent to him by his own family to look after when she goes to secondary school. He grooms her through childlike games to become his lover and plaything. He is 74 at the time, and they become full-blown lovers.
The writer does not glance over this and it is a key part of the story. When Fermina Daza’s husband eventually dies, he stops looking after the 14 year old girl and leaves his staff to take care of her. Her grades drop as she is distressed, he does not let her parents know that she is distressed. She commits suicide towards the end of the book, saving him from what seemed to be at some point a story that will derail his eventual courting of Fermina Daza.
At another point he rapes one of his domestics under his staircase, and pays her to blame a blue-collar worker. She is forced by her parents to marry him.
Maybe this is not intended to be a love story. Maybe it is supposed to be a write-up of raw humanity. It succeeds in doing that. Do I want to read about it? I don’t think so.
The explicit inclusion of something between incest, rape and child molestation as if it is the most natural thing in the world is really just not even remotely ok. Marquez is a great writer. This book however is a serious stain on his life’s work.
Love in the Time of Cholera is about a tortuous 51 year period where Florentino Ariza is obsessed but rebuffed by Fermina Daza in their youth. She gets married and he keeps obsessing over her for the next 51 years and becoming the man that she would want to marry when her illustrious doctor husband eventually dies. It is beautifully written with turns of phrase so compelling that I would revisit them. It also deals with the ravages of being human, including and particularly about getting old.
The characters are not likeable, and the story is not unlike Proust, who can spend 30 pages on a trivial chain of thought. I asked myself several times whether this is really worth my time. As a whole, it was not.
As for the two stars: During his 51 years of waiting obsessively for the love of his life, Florentino beds 622 women. And those were only the ones the deemed worthy of writing up in detail in his journal. The affairs are sometimes entertaining, the characters are well developed, and for a book this old it is very raunchy. And many times in not a good way.
What is NOT ok however is that he grooms a 14 year old girl that is sent to him by his own family to look after when she goes to secondary school. He grooms her through childlike games to become his lover and plaything. He is 74 at the time, and they become full-blown lovers.
The writer does not glance over this and it is a key part of the story. When Fermina Daza’s husband eventually dies, he stops looking after the 14 year old girl and leaves his staff to take care of her. Her grades drop as she is distressed, he does not let her parents know that she is distressed. She commits suicide towards the end of the book, saving him from what seemed to be at some point a story that will derail his eventual courting of Fermina Daza.
At another point he rapes one of his domestics under his staircase, and pays her to blame a blue-collar worker. She is forced by her parents to marry him.
Maybe this is not intended to be a love story. Maybe it is supposed to be a write-up of raw humanity. It succeeds in doing that. Do I want to read about it? I don’t think so.
The explicit inclusion of something between incest, rape and child molestation as if it is the most natural thing in the world is really just not even remotely ok. Marquez is a great writer. This book however is a serious stain on his life’s work.
adventurous
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
An impressive tale that winds its way through themes of love, family, ageing, and gender across decades.
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Disfruté mucho esta historia, aunque a veces sentí que se perdía en tantos detalles antes de llegar al punto central. La construcción de Florentino Ariza y Fermina Daza por separado es brillante, pero cuando finalmente se reencuentran, el cierre se siente un tanto abrupto y peculiar. Aun así, el final tiene una belleza especial que hace que valga la pena.
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i can see how people could love this but i do not
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes