Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Too much love is as bad for this as no love at all.”

-------Florentino Ariza, Love in the Time of Cholera.


How right. For, this book is about everything but love. Or is it? Could it be about chasing the notion of love? The notion which becomes as chronic as the Cholera itself and which leaves its patient a midst a ceaseless mourning?

It seems so to be the case with Florentino Ariza, who, for more than half a century, attires himself as one in mourning of a rejected love while still trying to fight the disease in his own manner, invoking in as much as 622 remedies till he attains the one which can cure him of his illness. And that is when he renounces mourning.

What really strikes the reader while reading the work is that while this book is all about love (notion of love?), there isn’t even a single harmonious love relation between any of the characters portrayed. That brings to mind the question that whether one can term the 622 relations of Florentino as love ones. I am inclined to think otherwise. For how a human can possibly remain at peace with so many love (sexual?) relations when it takes a whole life time to come to terms with even one, as is the case with Fermina Daza. What kind of love would provoke a man aged 70 years to incite the passions of a 14 year old girl and then leave her to agonize and die with same disease which he is now hopeful of finding the cure of for himself? Is it love or another facet of bare human passions which get accelerated at the fear of impending decay?

One may argue that it is love which Fermina and Florentino discover aboard New Fidelity. But in my view it is partially true. For Florentino, it is the cure of his illness in the form of realization of a long held desire, whereas for Fermina, it is the fulfillment of a need of desired companionship whose necessity becomes inevitable in the old age.

Five stars for the work because of Gabriel’s skillfulness in bringing to mind some distressing thoughts in a very subtle manner. He is so dexterous here in the demonstration of human passions in all its nakedness that one cannot help but sail along in whichever direction the narrative takes. His direct and simple expression makes one visualize the work with a reserved abidance as one marvel at his distinct aloofness in the portrayal of his characters: their emotions and passions. His restrain helps the reader to remain unruffled while trying to find the answers for the questions his work invokes.


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