Suzanne
Rating:
Review
This must be the most romantic book I've ever read, in the grand sense of the word. García Márquez is full of languid, sultry words to match his languid, sultry settings. Florentino Ariza, the leading man, is born a poet, and grows up to become head of a river boat company and a veritable Don Juan to boot. He has a tremendous number of clandestine love affairs of all sorts throughout his life, yet still longs for his first love, Fermina Daza, who rejected him after years of fevered teenaged courtship from afar. What a romantic idea - and how very much not of our own place and time! No, this time is over a century ago, and the place is an old colonial seaport in the Caribbean, where a person might bring an anaconda into their home to keep out the bats and salamanders (some tradeoff!) and a parrot might sing in French, recite the Mass in Latin, and shout political slogans from an era long since gone by. My only complaint is the small subplot that makes its way into so many of this author's books, of a very old man who has an affair with a very young girl – that storyline takes its ugliest turn ever here. Otherwise, this is my favorite of his many renowned novels.
Best Line:
"All that was needed was shrewd questioning, first of the patient and then of his mother, to conclude once again that the symptoms of love were the same as those of cholera." (pg. 62)
Kim
Rating:
Review
This book is classic GG Marquez. Set in an unnamed South American city by a sea, and during a time where river travel and horse-drawn carriages were ordinary modes of transportation, Florentino Ariza is young and in love with the very feisty Fermina Daza. They begin a flirtation, then a romance through letters and the occasional evening serenade until Fermina's father discovers their epistolary affair. He does not want his daughter to marry beneath her, so to distract her he scuttles her off on an18-month vacation to far away family and friends. When Fermina returns, she has had a change of heart and no longer wants anything to do with Florentino. Enter Dr. Juvenal Urbino, a young man from a good family and a fascination for Fermina. They marry, and lead a seemingly happy life together. Throughout the years, happiness does not often find Florentino, though he takes comfort in helping perfect strangers write beautiful love letters when not hunting his next sexual conquest. The story actually begins with Dr. Urbino's death, which is the open door that Florentino has waited for most of his life. The good doctor dying is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish though, and this story goes where I didn't expect. The author's style of writing and his exquisite way of telling a story is bold and a little sneaky at times, which I loved.
Best Line:
"Florentino Ariza always forgot when he should not have that women, and Prudencia Pitre more than any other, always think about the hidden meanings of questions more than about the questions themselves."
