Love in the Time of Cholera - [short] Book Review

May has been the longest and the shortest month simultaneously. It has been busy, still is — I have assignments piling up, begging me to get to them before their deadlines. It has also gotten warmer. I don’t personally like summer; it’s too hot, and you’re either tired or are perspiring or both. Regardless, I made my way to the library and decided to pick Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera for my next read.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Márquez tells the story of an unrequited love between Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza that continues for a period of more than half a century. However, Fermina Daza ends up marrying Dr. Juvenal Urbino after rejecting Florentino Ariza. Whereas her admirer waits for her mutual love and interest in him for “fifty three years, seven months and eleven days”. Yes, he keeps count.

Before I indulge you in this brief review of the novel, I must warn you that I did not really enjoy reading this book. The reasons are many but let’s begin with the sole good aspect of the text. As my first Márquez novel, I was pleased with the profoundly eloquent writing. Yes, the novel is slow paced and I believe it is rightfully so because the novel spans over a period of half a century. Not only do we watch the characters grow old and wither away, but somehow we ourselves are not the same towards the end of the novel as we were when we started reading it. We have aged and matured and learnt introspectively. And this takes place with any book you pick up — you have no idea initially what is happening, and once you have figured out the contents of the text, you have now become enlightened. This is what I love most about books — you will most likely be surprised at how they are crafted and what they contain.

However, I cannot say the same thing about what goes on in the novel. Certainly, the idea of solely loving one person your entire life sounds beautiful, but that is where the problem lies. Florentino Ariza falls in love with other women he meets along the way after Fermina Daza’s marriage. One can argue that he doesn’t romantically love them but loves them platonically. I believe Florentino loved them but of course not as intensely as he loves Fermina. As a person who does not understand the relation between sex and affection, I did struggle with this novel. I do grasp the surface meaning of the circumstances but fail to understand how Florentino would go on to fornicate with hundreds of women and feel “less lonely”. Perhaps I don’t understand this concept due to my sexual orientation. I would nevertheless like to learn the mystery behind the correlation between loneliness and sex.

Since we are on the topic of sex, there were a few things that disturbed me about the male protagonist of the novel, Florentino Ariza. Not only did he sexually assault his maid, but he was also in a sexual relationship with a minor. And the said minor, América, commits suicide towards the end of the novel for failing her classes and the reason is not given however it is clear that it is because of Florentino, who at first groomed her and then stopped being sexually involved with her after confessing he will be getting married. América had fallen in love with him and this is not her fault entirely, but Florentino is someone who groomed her and she believed he loved her. And he did love her as mentioned in the novel, but perhaps not romantically, or at least deeply.

While others may find Florentino’s burning and patient passion for Fermina heartwarming, I found it very disturbing. He constantly pursued her despite her clearly not being interested, which came off quite obsessive. Additionally, him purchasing the restaurant mirror at any cost in which he caught her reflection once is not romantic but creepy and disturbing — a stalker-ish act.

While the pair do end up together after more than half a century, I felt that Fermina’s love for Florentino was written fleetly in the last chapter that was shoved in our faces in the last 40 pages, which made me consider her feelings to be artificial. It felt too surreal; maybe that is what Márquez wanted to imply, that love at an old age may sound odd but it is not “indecent”.

Love in the Time of Cholera is a novel about unrequited love amid a plague that is taking people’s lives. Though the characters do not contract cholera, the pain of being in an unrequited love for so long — especially in the case of Florentino — could be perceived as being in a love disease. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed reading this one, but I will be checking out more of Márquez’s works because I simply loved his writing style.

tw/ sexual assault, sex with a minor, pedophilia, brief mention of suicide