Rarely is there a book that evokes such romanticism as Gabriel Garcia’s exquisite “Love in the time of Cholera.” I am a firm believer that books come across your way and choose you. All the books I have read that have had a significant influence on me have come out of some unpredictable place, where I never intended on reading them in the first place.
I never go to a bookstore looking for a certain book; I wait for one to choose me. Before I briefly review this masterpiece let me share the story with you. Many years ago I saw a film “Serendipity” starring John Cusak and (holds breath) Kate Beckinsdale (sigh).
This movie tells the story of Johnathon Trager who on a wintery New York evening meets the beautiful, Sara Thomas, where they discover instant chemistry. Despite Johnathon’s insistence to meet again, Sara decides to leave it up to fate, and as they walk down a crowded New York street, Sara takes a book from her bag and writes her name and phone number in the front jacket of the book. She will then sell it at a used book store, with the idea that if they are meant to meet again Jonathon will find the book in years to come.
The book that she writes in is Gabriel Garcia Marquez's “Love in the time of Cholera.”
Not satisfied in going to an Angus and Robertson and picking up a new copy I decided that I would visit the occasional second hand book shop to see what I could find. After visiting one in Brighton with a friend I asked at the counter for a copy and was told that they didn’t have one. A few weeks later I was given a copy as a gift by that same friend. This began quite a journey as I laboured through Garcia’s beautiful prose.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, my hero...
Love in the Time of Cholera was published three years after Marquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. This stunning piece of fiction tells the story of how, as teenagers, a young idealistic poet Florentino Ariza and the beautiful Fermina Daza fall in love. Their love however is forbidden by Fermina’s father and he does all that he can to separate them until finally he succeeds. Many years later Fermina then marries successful wealthy doctor, Dr Juvenal Urbino but Florentino is convinced that he and Fermina will one day be together again. After fifty one years, nine months and four days, Florentino gets his chance to win back the love of his life after the unexpected death of Dr Juvenal Urbino. In a breathtaking scene Florentino declares his love in the expert below:
After the funeral, when everyone else has left, Florentino steps forward with his hat over his heart. ''Fermina,'' he declares, ''I have waited for this opportunity for more than half a century, to repeat to you once again my vow of eternal fidelity and everlasting love.'' Shocked and furious, Fermina orders him out of the house. ''And don't show your face again for the years of life that are left to you. . . . I hope there are very few of them.''
Set in a young Caribbean town in the 1800’s this book originally written in Spanish, is not for the faint hearted. This is literature at its best, like reading a romance love story version of Lord of the Rings. I recommend that you take some time to read this beautiful love story. Whether you think romance is ridiculous or required reading, Marquez delivers what every author lies in bed dreaming of – revolutionary well written prose.
Please see below this excerpt, which for the record, is my favourite passage of fiction.
“To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell.”
Despite your thoughts on love, romance, its varying levels of intensity, and its place in modern day relationships, this book will at least get you believing that love just might last a lifetime.
If this is your next book, find a copy that has that old book smell.
Enjoy,
A.
Trailer for the movie Serendipity....book apperas at 0:90 .
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