Love in the Time of Cholera [Paperback]

This is truly one of the most spiritually uplifting books I have ever come across. Garcia's usual breathtaking scope, covering a lifetime in what seems like amazing detail, carries the reader through the book with the feeling he or she is in a dream. Once I started the book I found myself constantly thinking about it when I was doing other things and as with many of Garcia's books the reader almost feels a sense of loss when the end is reached.
A calm, poetic journey through the tortures and joys of love that is almost a life-affirming experience, even for the most hardened cynic...

In this beautiful love story about two people over seventy Marquez explores a kind of love that may seem indecent in the eyes of some, but is in fact portrayed as the most beautiful and pure kind, "when they can expect nothing more from life". This book does not described a cliché about two young people falling in love and marrying despite the opposition of some antagonist or other, but is in fact a story after the story. The most important thing is not the winning of the maiden's heart but what happens after the maiden's heart has been won.

The author shows love as has rarely been portrayed in books before: the inevitable flaws in a marriage, the lurking infidelity, the squabbles over futilities, the pain of rejection and unrequited love, the perseverance of the heart. No perfection here, but human love with all its flaws, fears and misgivings.

Described in such detail as to bring characters to life, with passages that are hilarious as well as heartbreaking, this book is such a compelling read that you hardly notice the scarceness of dialogue and chapters. Marquez's style is very readable and comprehensive, full of rich descriptions through which you can not only see and hear what is happening in the story, but also feel, smell and taste it.

After you finish reading you may feel as if the heartwarming ending is nothing but the beginning, filling you with hope and wisdom, and may even look at love through different eyes.

However romantic this may seem, there is one catch that adds further depth to Marquez's work: the protagonist, the lovesick Florentino Ariza for whom the author creates a role of love victim, may be just the opposite. His duplicitous character is a source of constant discomfort to the reader. On of one hand we may appraise him for his perseverance and pity him for his need to be loved, on the other you are confronted with his perverse behavior: taking on an incredible amount of lovers whom he often lies to, including his 60 year younger relative placed under his guardianship by her family. Is he to be pitied, is he to sympathized with or is he to be loathed?

A note on Everyman's Classic edition: This edition contains an enthusiastic introduction by Nicholas Shakespeare, and although it's interesting to read, I recommend that you read this after you have finished the novel. The introduction gives away a large part of the story, and some of his comments are better understood once you have read the book.

Marquez's 'LITTOC' is the story of the love that arises between two teenagers, Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza. Over the course of the next half century, their lives follow different paths, and the love that has come into being takes on a life of its own: sometimes growing, sometimes fading, sometimes lying abandoned. As their lives proceed separately, Marquez tells the story of this love.
Those that complained that the book was slow, or that nothing happened, have a point in as far as Fermina and Florentino's lives are largely unremarkable and nothing particularly of note happens to either of them. However, this book is not their stories, but that of the love that they have brought into being, and every episode from their lives is told not with the effect on them in mind, but of the effect on this love. I thought that the idea of love as being the hero of a book was brilliantly realised, and very cleverly done. Every episode from their lives is told only to emphasise how it changes what could have existed between them, and not how it changes them as people. This makes for an admittedly slow read, but for me is the chief joy of the book. Although 'LITTOC' is in some ways a melancholy book, chiefly because of the large amount of time that passes (similarly in '100 Years of Solitude'), it is ultimately uplifting because it is about love and, despite all the pain that goes with it, you can't help feeling that Marquez thinks that love is a good thing.
Fans of magical realism should be aware that, despite being Marquez' trademark, it is largely absent in this book. It is very different in style to '100 Years of Solitude', and fans of one may not necessarily like the other. It is a slow paced book, largely lacking in traditional action. Readers looking for that should definitely go elsewhere. As far as I am concerned, it is one of the best books about love (as opposed to one merely including it) that I have ever read, and I strongly recommend others to give it a try.