A review by gracefullypunk
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

5.0

I was surprised by this book, expecting it to be more like 100 Years of Solitude, full of magical realism and historical allegories. Instead, it was a not-so-straightforward love story, comparing love to cholera and showing that all consuming love isn't necessarily pretty. I love Garcia Marquez's writing style, the way he fits words and makes comparisons that most wouldn't even consider. He makes near-heartless truths seem eloquent: "Life in the world, which had caused her so much uncertainty before she was familiar with it, was nothing more than a system of atavistic contracts, banal ceremonies, preordained words, with which people entertained each other in society in order not to commit murder." The women in his books are most definitely not helpless, which I find interesting in a Columbian writer. At the end, I just couldn't stop reading.