Love in The Time Of Cholera

Love in The Time Of Cholera
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Penguin
This highly acclaimed Latin classic has long since been a source of curiosity to me. Written lovingly and with great care for the characters, Marquez weaves a tale of unrequited love spanning half a century between Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daze.
Following the accidental death of the prominent doctor Dr Juvenal Urbino, Florentino seizes his chance to re-declare his love to the doctor’s widow. As teenagers, Fermina rejects Florentino’s love choosing instead to marry the famous doctor. Spurned but not disheartened, Florentino takes refuge in the arms of numerous lovers while secretly continuing to love Fermina from a distance. In their seventies, and after the death of Dr Urbino, Florentino hopes to kindle in Fermina the passion he had long since held for her.
The long drawn-out sentences coupled with a lack of pronouns, makes reading Love at the Time of Cholera, an arduous task. Florentino with his refusal to move forward borders on pathetic. His insipid moaning and scampering into the arms of other women, is both tedious and sad. The story redeems itself only in the last pages when the two main characters set off on a river cruise. Having to endure the 400 previous pages, the last scenes came too late to leave any lasting favourable impressions. 2stars