Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I am a fan of Marquez, and magic realism in general, but this one didn’t have the same pull as some of his other works. I loved the first bit; I love the ending, but the middle was kind of…meh. I got the sense that Marquez had to write SOMETHING to keep the plot going, but it all seemed more like a vehicle to get to the (amazing) ending.
[Some spoilers ahead]
The thing I liked best about the first couple chapters was the “ah-ha” moment when you realize the book is not about Dr. Urbino Juvenal. Marquez makes a masterful twist at the end of chapter one when our supposed protagonist dies and the story wildly changes perspectives. He had me there; he lost me shortly after that.
The reason? It’s tedious to describe what someone does with their life for 50 years, no matter how artful the writing. In this case, Marquez describes two lives–that of the illustrious Fermina Daza and that of the hopelessly romantic FLorentino Ariza. In their youth, they had something like a romance (although it mostly involved writing an excessive number of love letters to one another), but Ms. Daza eventually rejected Ariza and made a sensible marriage to Dr. Urbino Juvenal. What follows, is a tedious catalogue of both Daza’s life and Ariza’s–their tiny adventures, his multiple lovers (they all blend together for me), her little trips to Europe. By the time the book caught up to Dr. Urbino’s death, the only thing I could think was, “Finally! Now we can move forward with the plot).
The ending is the big pay-off of this book. If you stick with it, it’s worth it (or you could just read the first 50 pages and the last). The ending beautifully and tragically describes elderly love–the smells, the feel, the objections from younger generations, the realization that one’s body doesn’t behave like it once did. It’s a moving portrayal of two young souls in elderly bodies. THIS is the story to me. THIS is where Marquez’ writing comes alive. If only it hadn’t taken 300 pages to get there.
Author: KateBitters
Kate Bitters is a Minneapolis-based author and freelance writer. She is the author of Elmer Left, Ten Thousand Lines, and He Found Me. One of her proudest/nerdiest moments was when Neil Gaiman read one of her short stories on stage at the Fitzgerald Theater.