Love in the Time of Cholera

yeah, the story is written over and over, but so it goes. B

Marquez is supposed to one of the greatest writers of the last century, and I have to admit I just don't get why. His novels are agreable enough, but to me they are in the Isabel Allende nice-for-wiling-away-a-long-train-ride class. He says nothing in his books that truly makes me think or sticks in my mind; the proof is I read LITTOC six months ago and can't remember a thing about it!

I had to steal it from a friend library ,
i never read somthing more pleasing ... but the movie i guess killed it !
dont watch the movie before you read it :)

so i saw the movie to this book... is it much different or the same?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by B-Mental

Ok, from my point of view, please don't be offended. The man loved the youthful woman of his dreams, and never stopped loving her... His physical love was something that sustained others. I was slightly turned off by the old man loving a youth, but it was an omen that the woman of his dreams was coming to him. Then of course the beautiful ending, I hope that when I find my love, I raise a flag of cholera, and let no one interrupt it...

I still don't know why fewer people understand the immediate symbolism of this book.

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This was our book club pick this month.

I took his affair with a 14 year old as making a fairly likable character quite a lot less likable. It makes him a perverse and much more complex character. And it also shows him not only as a physical lover, but a man who has emotional love for many in his life, not just Fermina.

Also, the ruminations on old age are the more powerful in contrast with a youth. He worries about his old man's smell with Fermina, but knows that she has noticed it but put it out of her mind. And he remembers America's "diaper" smell.

I enjoyed the book. At first blush, it seems meandering and plot-less. But there is a lot of depth, and the scope of lives that converge, diverge and re-converge is well done. Still, many of the characters remain more caricatures.