Review on: Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
Rating: 3.5/5
Let me just say, I did not expect for the book to turn out the way it did. In fact, I thought this book was some kind of autobiography before I picked it up in an airport bookstore en route to the province. I’ve heard about this book before, and a lot of people said it was good. Well, with a catchy title like this, I cannot imagine otherwise.
So this book is a love story, and as you are reading the book, you are living it.
Imagine you’re a boy who has fallen in love with the perfect girl. To make it even more dramatic, your love is some kind of forbidden secret, and the girl you love is someone who lives in a world completely different from yours. Everything seems to be going smoothly (despite the secrecy) and later on you become engaged (though only the two of you know). You’ve made all the preparations for the house she’ll one day live in, the lives you’ll someday live, and everything else for the perfection that seems to love you back. And suddenly, one day, she tells you that she doesn’t love you anymore and asks you to forget everything the two of you have ever done. What makes the pain even worse is that she later on marries someone prestigious and popular, the man who is completely opposite you in family background and character.
Next, imagine you are a girl lost in your own little world, until the day someone tells you they like you. The whole story seems like a dream and you find yourself attracted to this boy. The secrecy, the hidden place you keep your letters and imagining your seemingly perfect love story unfolding like a book. It is like one big game, especially when you find yourself secretly engaged to him. After that, everything else you see and feel seems like a dream, and you prepare yourself for the married life. Then one fateful day, you discover that your husband-to-be is not just different from the guy you remembered him to be, he’s someone you can’t bear to spend the rest of your life with. Later, you find yourself somewhat attracted to this famous guy and find yourself marrying him.
Fast forward to around 51 years later when fate appears after the girl’s husband’s death and they are forced to again confront their feelings from before. Florentino the boy, has filled his somewhat empty life with trysts, yet continue to longs for his perfect woman. Fermina the girl, has had a somewhat fulfilling married life though she has always carried with her the feeling of guilt towards the boy she had rejected. Watch as the love story from their teen years catches up with them and we wait to see if Florentino’s half a century of devotion proves fruitful, while we watch Fermina confront her past and face the future.
