Love in the Time of Cholera (Oprah's Book Club)

Product Details

Author : Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780307389732
Edition : Reprint
Number of Pages : 368
Product Group : Book
Publication Date : 2007-10-05
Publisher : Vintage
Release Date : 2007-10-05

ASIN : 0307389731

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Customer Reviews

What is all the hype about? (2008-01-03)

I sit here and wonder, is there something wrong with me, or all the other people? Where are all those awesome reviews coming from? Did people really love this story so much, or are they just "hype followers" who cannot think for themselves. So many give this book great reviews, but I just don't understand why. It's VERY SLOW and way too descriptive,not to mention unrealistic. If books are usually better than movies, then I definitely don't want to see this movie.

Good story (2007-11-29)

If you're one for a good story, such as ones found in WATER FOR ELEPHANTS or the ever-popular A TOUR OF SOUTHERN HOMES AND GARDENS, then LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA will be just the thing for you. A word of warning, though, as Marquez's novel will not immediately appeal to you if you're not prepared for the unusual style and mixture of realism and magic. For some this can be jarring. Personally, I found it refreshing. Set in the caribbean, this story shows us the many facets that love can take, and reveals to us the human heart with all its hope and despair. Unlike ONE HUNDRED YEARS by Marquez, this is a much shorter and less complicated book. If you're new to this author, this would be the book to start with. Would also recommend the novel KITE RUNNER if you haven't read that one yet.

A way with life (2007-11-28)

Marquez has a way with words like no other writer. And a way with a plot. Now, you're not going to zip right through this book in one night, and it is not a short read by any means, but what you put into it, you get out. This is a timeless epic story that is as applicable today as it was when it was written. Set in the Caribbean in the mid-nineteenth century the book explores the many faces of love, or not. It's not surprising that today so many historical novels are making their way to the fore. PILLARS OF THE EARTH is another one---very long and historical----that reminds me of LOVE IN THE TIME. Would also recommend the novels KITE RUNNER and MIDDLESEX for other great reads.

There's a movie made of this? (2007-11-27)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera is an epic love story, notable as much for its romanticism as for its unflinching gaze towards the vagaries of love's many faces. For those who scoff at or discard the literary love story, paradoxically, this is the book for you. Set in the seductive Caribbean during the mid-nineteenth century, Marquez's novel explores love in all its manifestations, from the vertigo of idolatry to the dirty dishes of marriage, and his portraits resonate exquisitely for anyone who has nursed this human inkling. Marquez never cheapens love nor falsifies it; on the contrary, he sees love's glory, or lack thereof, with an unerring eye. His portrait of marriage between his two protagonists, Dr. Juvenal Urbino and Fermina Daza, includes such observations such as "The problem with marriage is that it ends every night after making love, and it must be rebuilt every morning before breakfast." Interestingly, Marquez reveals an astute viewpoint towards the female predicament in marriage: Fermina Daza realizes she is nothing more to her husband than "a deluxe servant;" she feels she is trapped in his "holy service." Nor is Marquez oblivious to the bland atrocities committed by a husband: Dr. Juvenal Urbino proclaims meals prepared "without love;" he never deigns to pick anything up, turn out a light, or close a door. Marquez is a man who observes without bias the diurnal stalemate of a marriage lived daily. He concludes that "nothing in this world was more difficult than love." Marquez does not limit himself to the domestic pitfalls of marriage. Florentino Ariza, another man who figures prominently in this incognito Caribbean city, has loved Fermina Daza inexorably for fifty-three years, seven months, and eleven days. His love is fervent and never falters. Yet, before one chalks his devotion to an unlikely romanticism, the love Florentino Ariza fosters towards Fermina Daza is not idealized. Notwithstanding the hundreds of women he frenetically possesses during his admirable wait for Fermina Daza's widowhood, he is hardly a hero of unblemished character. At a very advanced age, he exploits his position as guardian of a 14-year old girl for physical love. Ultimately, when Florentino Ariza is granted the holy audience of Fermina Daza, he abandons the girl, who commits suicide. Towards the novel's conclusion, Florentino Ariza is very old, a victim of festering bed sores and unfettered constipation. Marquez's omniscient eye (or nose) describes the stench of the two elderly lovers as a "henhouse." Despite, or perhaps because of, these prosaic details, the reader does not doubt the authenticity of the feelings presented. Love, in Marquez's lush, grand novel, is made truer because of, not despite, its human frailties. Would also recommend the book ------THE WOMAN WHO CUT OFF HER LEG by Slavin for a FUNNY read that's nothing like this one.

Incredibly Delicate Tale told perfectly (2007-11-24)

READ THIS BOOK BEFORE YOU SEE THE MOVIEReviews of Love in the Time of Cholera the movie have been mixed at best. This is not surprising because of the nature of the book. Contrary to the better known Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera is a book written on a simple scale with a simple plot where the magic has been folded into the plot line instead of flower in the details as it does in hundred years. This is not a visually centric book, and if one sense is really the most important, it is smell. The magic of this book, and the realism that it exposes centers around what it means to love. This is a subtle book filled majestically with suggestive emotion and dripping with suppressed comedy and tragedy. In a sense it is a meditation of repression, not of sexuality contra Freud, but of love via sexuality.This book is incredible for two reasons, first, it is some beautifully written as to have a momentum separates from the slowly progressing plot, second, the ending succeeds to apply purpose to the whole book by mediating the relationship between magic and realism, love and sex. Anyone who is a true fan of quality literature will not fail to realize that this is a novel of such incredible subtle scope as to make its translation into the world of film no more than a facile joke, the movie follows the story, is pretty. The novel mediates a relationship between two of the most misunderstood aspects of human nature.

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