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From Publishers Weekly
The ironic vision and luminous evocation of South America that have distinguished Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize-winning fiction since his landmark work, One Hundred Years of Solitude, persist in this turn-of-the-century chronicle of a unique love triangle. It is a fully mature novel in scope and perspective, flawlessly translated, as rich in ideas as in humanity. The illustrious and meticulous Dr. Juvenal Urbino and his proud, stately wife Fermina Daza, respectively past 80 and 70, are in the autumn of their solid marriage as the drama opens on the suicide of the doctor's chess partner. Jeremiah de Saint-Amour, a disabled photographer of children, chooses death over the indignities of old age, revealing in a letter a clandestine love affair, on the "fringes of a closed society's prejudices." This scenario not only heralds Urbino's demise soon afterwhen he falls out of a mango tree in an attempt to catch an escaped parrotbut brilliantly presages the novel's central themes, which are as concerned with the renewing capacity of age as with an anatomy of love. We meet Florentino Ariza, more antihero than hero, a mock Don Juan with an undertaker's demeanor, at once pathetic, grotesque and endearing, when he seizes the memorably unseemly occasion of Urbino's funeral to reiterate to Fermina the vow of love he first uttered more than 50 years before. With the fine detailing of a Victorian novel, the narrative plunges backward in time to reenact their earlier, youthful courtship of furtive letters and glances, frustrated when Fermina, in the light of awaking maturity, realizes Florentino is an adolescent obsession, and rejects him. With his uncanny ability to unearth the extraordinary in the commonplace, Garcia Marquez smoothly interweaves Fermina's and Florentino's subsequent histories. Enmeshed in a bizarre string of affairs with ill-fated widows while vicariously conducting the liaisons of others via love poems composed on request, Florentino feverishly tries to fill the void of his unrequited passion. Meanwhile, Fermina's marriage suffers vicissitudes but endures, affirming that marital love can be as much the product of art as is romantic love. When circumstances both comic and mystical offer Fermina and Florentino a second chance, during a time in their lives that is often regarded as promising only inevitable degeneration toward death, Garcia Marquez beautifully reveals true love's soil not in the convention of marriage but in the simple, timeless rituals that are its cement. 100,000 first printing; first serial to the New Yorker; BOMC main selection.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
While delivering a message to her father, Florentino Ariza spots the barely pubescent Fermina Daza and immediately falls in love. What follows is the story of a passion that extends over 50 years, as Fermina is courted solely by letter, decisively rejects her suitor when he first speaks, and then joins the urbane Dr. Juvenal Urbino, much above her station, in a marriage initially loveless but ultimately remarkable in its strength. Florentino remains faithful in his fashion; paralleling the tale of the marriage is that of his numerous liaisons, all ultimately without the depth of love he again declares at Urbino's death. In substance and style not as fantastical, as mythologizing, as the previous works, this is a compelling exploration of the myths we make of love. Highly recommended. Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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First Sentence
IT WAS INEVITABLE: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
IT WAS INEVITABLE: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book,
By Angie (Perth, WA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Love in the Time of Cholera (Paperback)
This book is one of the most beautiful I have ever read. Every page is like poetry.Takes patience at first of course, but definitely worth it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good story,
By Sharon McCarthy (Paddington) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Love in the Time of Cholera (Oprah's Book Club) (Paperback)
If you're one for a good story, such as ones found in WATER FOR ELEPHANTS or the ever-popular A TOUR OF SOUTHERN HOMES AND GARDENS, then LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA will be just the thing for you. A word of warning, though, as Marquez's novel will not immediately appeal to you if you're not prepared for the unusual style and mixture of realism and magic. For some this can be jarring. Personally, I found it refreshing. Set in the caribbean, this story shows us the many facets that love can take, and reveals to us the human heart with all its hope and despair. Unlike ONE HUNDRED YEARS by Marquez, this is a much shorter and less complicated book. If you're new to this author, this would be the book to start with. Would also recommend the novel KITE RUNNER if you haven't read that one yet.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A way with life,
By James Monroe (Sterling) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Love in the Time of Cholera (Oprah's Book Club) (Paperback)
Marquez has a way with words like no other writer. And a way with a plot. Now, you're not going to zip right through this book in one night, and it is not a short read by any means, but what you put into it, you get out.This is a timeless epic story that is as applicable today as it was when it was written. Set in the Caribbean in the mid-nineteenth century the book explores the many faces of love, or not. It's not surprising that today so many historical novels are making their way to the fore. PILLARS OF THE EARTH is another one---very long and historical----that reminds me of LOVE IN THE TIME. Would also recommend the novels KITE RUNNER and MIDDLESEX for other great reads.
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