Love in the Time of Cholera

A wonderful and poignant exploration on the themes of love in all its facets. But also an exploration of obsession, pity, jealousy and other things which masquerade as love. Such a rich and varied narrative that it is difficult to even know where to begin when writing this. To summarize the book, very briefly, it tells the story about two people who were once in love, but then live separately lives only to rekindle their love in their last years.

Florentino Ariza, one of the protaganists, is both passionate to a creepy degree and impassionate to a creepy degree. He commits himself to loving his teenage sweetheart until they get together in their fifties/sixties, but he also sleeps around with seemingly little care of the pain he causes; and with little remorse for what he realizes to have caused. Obviously, a protaganist need not be likeable, and the shifting relationships are used to illustrate many aspects of love. Or at least something which could be mistaken for love It also serves as a contrast to Fermina Daza's and Dr. Juvenal Urbino’s marriage, where again, it can be asked, What is love?

The flow of the narrative was particularly enjoyable; feeling like a stream-of-conciousness style at times. This worked especially well when Florentino Ariza was drifting between one relationship and another, where a proper conclusion wouldn't really make sense with what Florentino Ariza was doing. However, I probably liked it the most in the first chapter, where Dr. Juvenal Urbino’s activities seem to meander all over the places before landing on the set up for the end of the book.

Note: I read the Danish translation.