Name: Love in the Time of Cholera
Rating: 3.82182320441989 (362 reviews)
ISBN: 9781602591059

Gabriel García Márquez

Alice Cullina

Adam Kissel

Love in the Time of Cholera

bella <3

"take advantage of it now, while you are young, and suffer all you can," she said to him, "because these things don't last your whole life." 

he was still too young to know that the heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past. 

she was married forever after at the main altar of the Cathedral, with a Mass at which three bishops officiated, and without a single charitable thought for Florentino Ariza, who at that hour was delirious with fever, dying because of her, lying without shelter on a boat that was not to carry him to forgetting. 

the drama of Florentino Ariza while he was a clerk for the River Company of the Carribbean was that he could not avoid lyricism because he was always thinking about Fermina Daza, and he had never learned to write without thinking about her.

in any case, the german was correct in regard to what he had thought about least, which was that Florentino Ariza wrote everything with so much passion that even official documents seemed to be about love.

This was his world, he said to himself, the sad, oppressive world that God had provided for him, and he was responsible to it.

they were people whose lives were slow, who did not see themselves growing old, or falling sick, or dying, but who disappeared little by little in their own time, turning into memories, mists from other days, until they were absorbed into oblivion. 

El amor en los tiempos del cólera

Johanam Abdalla

El amor en los tiempos del colera, Miguel Garcia Marquez A warm hearted review Escribiré esta revisión del libro en español como lo merece. El amor en los tiempos del Colera es un libro sobre el paso del tiempo, sobre los cambios en uno de los tiempos con más avances en la humanidad pero enfocandose en las cosas que permanecen, el comportamiento humano y el más importante de todos, de acuerdo al autor, el amor. La historia de Fermina y Florentino, ya que despues de todo ellos son los personajes principales (si, hay personajes interesantes apreciendo aqui y alla, incluso personajes constantes como el Dr. Urbino, el primer personaje mencionado en la obra) quienes tuvieron que vivir, disfrutar, sufrir y perdurar hasta el final para poder cumplir con aquello para lo cual Florentino habia esperado toda su vida estar con su ser amado. El amor en esta obra se siente desde todo punto de vista y eso es algo que me conmueve. Se siente en el amor entre familias, padres, madres, tios, criadas que como dice florentina en un punto, aqui parafraseré ya que no encuentro la frase, el amor que se siente por un hijo es más por el tiempo que pasas con ellos al criarlos que por ser hijos, la cual es una frase que describe muy bien este tipo de amor, un amor por conocimiento de la persona y por saber que esta contigo porque así lo propuso el destino. El amor de Florentino a cada una de sus amantes es un amor fugáz, capaz de convertir a los hombres en animales y a las mujeres en seres impropios de su firmeza y delicadeza natural. Florentino en realidad amo, de esta manera, a cada una de ellas confirmando en una de sus frases diciendo "el corazon se puede dividir en tantos cuartos como los de un burdel" y dandoles una parte de si mismo, pero sin descuidar nunca ese lugar especial y el más recondito en su corazón, un camarote presidencial dentro de si que le pertenecia a una sola persona, a su amada Fermina. Fermina y el Dr. Juvenil Urbino se amaron tanto como un esposo puede amar a su compañera de vida, era un amor de compromiso, un amor que en realidad no existia al inicio, ella tan joven y el un personaje estoico y calculador no tenian más razon para casarse que por la sociedad y el compromiso. Ambos estaban dispuestos a hacer los sacrificios necesarios y 50 años despues se encontraron incapaces de vivir el uno sin el otro. A pesar de las visisitudes de la vida, los, pocos e ingenuos, engaños del esposo y el caracter de Fermina, sus valores y la virtud del compromiso los hizo permanecer todos esos años junto a sus dos hijos. Por ultimo, tenemos el plot de la historia, la trama que nos hace movernos de nuestro lugar y buscar un lugar más comodo para saber como terminaran nuestros dos personajes juntos o si terminará en una tragedia como muchos otros autores de ese entonces. Por el amor de Dios, el libro se llama "el amor en los tiempos del colera"!!!, si, hay crisis, traumas y tragedias entre la historia de nuestros personajes, una representación veridica de la vida, pero, al no conocer al autor, esperas que termine en desgracia para ambos. No es así, nuestro autor nos enseña en las ultimas escenas, que no necesariamente son los ultimos dias de nuestros personajes, pero si los ultimos dias en esta historia, nos enseña que el amor incondicional, ese amor romantico, paciente, perdonador, y todo poderoso esta ahi, escondido en medio de las atrocidades que la vida nos envia, muy adentro de un barco rotulado con una bandera amarilla señalando una epidemia adentro, escondido detras de todos nuestras experiencias de vida, de nuestras expectativas e incluso compromisos. Yo pienso que esa es la lección que nos queria dar a conocer el autor, si es que queria dar a conocer alguna (ya de por si un libro entretenido y extramademente gracioso no lo necesitaría) sobre el amor, ya que despues de todo es el amor en los tiempos del colera. Personalmente, uno de los mensajes más fuertes para mi, cada libro increible golpea a cada lector en las tripas y la saca, no el aire, sino pensamientos y reflexiones diferentes,fue el paso del tiempo en los personajes, ir de una juventud inocente y llena de alegrías a una vejez irremediable, lenta y al mismo tiempo inesperada. He estado leyendo y pensando mucho sobre longevidad y este libro me quedo perfecto para estas esperanzas que tengo en la ciencia. Quien tuvo la mejor vida? Fue una vida bien vivida? Importan las cosas minusculas que hacemos o dejamos de hacer al final del viaje? Nuestros personajes, cada uno diferente y tomando caminos totalmente diferentes, Fermina y el Dr. Urbino con la vida tradicional, hijos, carrera y estatus, mientras que Florentino más liberal y comprometido a una sola cosa, su amada Fermina, pero a pesar de todo logrando ser un hombre de respeto al final del viaje sin hijos ni familia a quien dejar nada pero sin remordimientos ya que logro su cometido, estar con su amada al final. Pero que hubiera pasado si ella hubiera muerto antes que el, si el Dr. hubiera vivido hasta los 100 y nunca hubiera estado con su amada. Uno como humano, no puede quedarse con un final feliz y ser feliz, talvez un niño si o en un momento delirante, como cuando mirabamos las peliculas de disney, pero al crecer sabemos que todo ese final no será el final en realidad y que muy pocas personas, si es que alguien, tiene esa suerte de irse de este mundo pensando en las mejores cosas (sin recordarse de todo lo malo que vivio). El libro me ayudo a abrir a los ojos a la clara posibilidad de la muerte, no a la posibilidad de una muerte inminente, que ahora entiendo que en realidad es la más esperada por nosotros los humanos y por la cual pienso que estoy bien, pero a una muerte de años venideros, conociendo que ya falta poco y estando seguro de ello, pero sin saber en realidad cuanto. Eso me da más pavor de lo que creí estar en las condiciones que la vejez trae con esa seguridad e incertidumbre, sin control de lo que pueda pasar. Espero que el estoicismo y la fe ayude en ese tiempo que en definitiva vendra, no importa que. Mientras tanto me dedicaré a ver, contribuir y disfrutar esos cambios del tiempo, pero más importante que eso, me dedicaré a amar, ya que es lo único que no cambia, no importa que colera estemos viviendo en nuestros tiempos.

   In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is heartbroken, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs—yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again.

Bárbara Borba

The way the story is told is more enjoyable than the story itself. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's writing is beautiful. This book is more about obsession than about love, but there's something about love in it as well. And I liked the ending a lot.

"A love story of astonishing power." - Newsweek The International Bestseller and modern literary classic by Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again.

Jennifer

No idea why Oprah loves this book so much. Is it because of the three really well-written sex scenes? This was easy to put down. Fermina should be singing "why you so obsessed with me" to Florentino. His whole obsession with her since problematic and unacceptable by today's standards (and law). At a certain point I felt like I was reading Lolita all over again. This man is ridiculous. Is Oprah kidding me with this "best love story" crap?? It gets good again when you're 45% through then loses me. Then there's a plot twist at 67% but then I got bored again. The last 10% of the book was actually romantic in a geriatric way but then it ended and I rolled my eyes. The main characters all kind of suck in their own way but the author makes it sound good with his exquisite writing. Other reviews sum it up perfectly but overall...mehhhhhh.

Long winded at times, but thoroughly enjoyed the writing.

Edward

Katerina

I enjoyed Márquez's style of writing a lot. His lack of dialogues and his beautiful sense of telling a story got me hooked. He has the ability to transfer you completely to a place you've never been to and somehow you feel like you already know its little corners and its various smells a few pages. But most of all, he succeeds in taking you with him and you feel like you've time travelled, back to where love happened in the time of cholera. Really beautiful.

O Amor Nos Tempos Do Colera

olha. vou ser sincera: eu compreendo quem não gostou e concordo com muitas das ressalvas, mas tirando certos desconfortos, eu gostei.

diversos foram os pensamentos que me passaram enquanto eu lia essa obra, e eu acho que são descrições certas de diferentes e existentes tipos de amor. sinceramente, eu acho que é muito mais profundo e honesto do que as pessoas realmente enxergam.

eu tenho planos de reler essa obra mais para frente, e talvez as minhas opiniões possam mudar. mas, hoje? eu gostei mesmo.

olha. vou ser sincera: eu compreendo quem não gostou e concordo com muitas das ressalvas, mas tirando certos desconfortos, eu gostei.

diversos foram os pensamentos que me passaram enquanto eu lia essa obra, e eu acho que são descrições certas de diferentes e existentes tipos de amor. sinceramente, eu acho que é muito mais profundo e honesto do que as pessoas realmente enxergam.

eu tenho planos de reler essa obra mais para frente, e talvez as minhas opiniões possam mudar. mas, hoje? eu gostei mesmo.

Repulsively accurate depictions of love and neglect to love, diabolical characters and the sweetest ending. So beautiful. 

Made me rethink romantic relationships that’s for sure. 

Ines Camacho Rodrigues Dias Ferreira

Jim Hagan

In many ways this is really excellent, and deals profoundly with realities such as obsession and human folly. There is some beautiful prose, and impressive symbolic threads which surprise, but mostly I would say the value in this book lies in its (maybe indirect?) insight into the human condition. Much like Wuthering Heights (which I saw another reviewer here compare it to as a negative - I love both) it can be startling, haunting, and alien. In my opinion that quality of alienness allows access to oftentimes hidden areas of experience & thought.

Cody Degen

** spoiler alert **
           Absolute banger but this is absolutely not a love story, Florentino is a monster

Winona 

(I accidentally deleted the book from my shelf, so my original review got deleted.)

Stalking for love? Check.
Rape apologia? Check.
Paedophilia? Check.
Happy ending for a stalker-cum-rapist-cum-paedophile? Check.
All of this wrapped up in a bow of pretty prose which makes people think this awful book is a compelling and powerful story of eternal love? Check.
Hotel? Trivago.

Dimitris Papastergiou

I liked it. It's a well written novel with an interesting story that's about a deeply disturbed man obsessed with a girl who lives her own life while he waits for her to give in in his lust for her.

The book's title is what I didn't like, because it's misleading, it should have been "Sex in the Time of Cholera", or "Obsession in the Time of Cholera".

It's a story about a problematic nymphomaniac psycho rapist who stalks a woman for a lifetime, until finally she gives in because she's too old and apparently she tried everything to get rid of him but he's just not gonna go away so she finally says yes in the end.

Warning: Spoiler from now on:

Here's a summary for ya: 

Boy likes girl.
Girl says no.
Boy says no means yes.
Girl says a thousand times no for 50 years.
Boy fucks everything that moves for 50 years.
Boy continues to stalk and want girl as they grow up.
Man becomes a creepy stalker with issues.
Woman still says no.
Man becomes a peeping Tom.
Woman gets married with kids.
Man still wants woman and doesn't move on.
Woman's husband dies and man goes to funeral to tell her he still loves her.
Woman says you're fucked up, go away, no.
Man still fucks everything that moves.
Man becomes a guardian of a 14 year old girl which he basically then rapes when he's like 60 and she commits suicide.
Man goes back to his obsession with woman .
Woman says no.
Man continues to be a creep with women and we read his sex diary basically while he fucks 622 women or somewhere along those numbers.
Woman still says no.
Man pushes harder and acts like a child since he was 15 and woman finally says YES.
Man and woman have sex and he can't get it up on the first night and he blames her.
Man says his whole life she was the only thing that he ever wanted and loved.
Woman asks if he did anything with other women all these years.
Man says no I'm a virgin.
*Cue laughter*

That's All Folks!

Love In The Time Of Cholera

Michael Springer

The well respected doctor Juvenal Urbino has died in an unfortunate accident involving a ladder and a parrot. His widowed wife, Fermina Daza, is past the age of eighty. On the day of her husband's funeral, Florentino Ariza renews his offer of marriage that was last made when the two of them were very young. She rejects him outright. 
 
Florentino hasn't been in love with another woman throughout all of this time, despite 600-some women he has made love to since that first proposal: he has been waiting for Fermina to be his; he's been waiting and waiting for Fermina's husband to die. Now, following this new rejection, Florentino dedicates himself to finally winning the woman who he has loved all his life.
 
This is a vast simplification, leaving out most of the details that make this more than just some mushy love story. What it ends up being -- and this will also be a gross simplification -- is a meditation on love and the myriad ways it is expressed; death and the ways death is entwined with life; and old age, especially the ways old age alters our perceptions of love and death. If I attempt to take these vague themes and mold them into a solid interpretation of what I believe Marquez means by them, I'm sure some Goodreads Marquezians will then pick up these solid interpretations and drub me about the head and neck with them for misunderstanding everything. So, I'm probably better off just mentioning these broad themes, leaving them in a liquid form, and moving on. 
 
This was my first Marquez, and I've had the book on my shelf for several years. Since buying it, the book has grown larger and more intimidating, pushing smaller paperbacks from the shelf. Whenever I took the book out to attempt reading it, the letters would move closer together until the entire novel was one tremendous, unconquerable word. This time around, I refused to be intimidated by the magnitude of Marquez's stature in fiction, or the reviews from friends who told me 100 Years of Solitude was impossible to read and they'd given up. I refused to let my copy continue to thwart my attempts. I stared at that goddamned word until it shattered into a million fragments, and then I read them each. In order. 
 
Despite the magnitude of my struggles to BEGIN the book, it was a lot of fun, and was as rewarding as a real classic ought to be. In some ways, this book reminded me of my favorite aspects of John Irving's novels: It's full of hilarious, strange and seemingly unnecessary details that eventually weave themselves into a rich tapestry where almost everything is integral. Through these details, the world takes on a level of depth that is hard to achieve in any kind of writing. And, this book has a larger number of "perfect scenes" than just about any book I can think of: scenes that are burned into your memory because of how genuinely they surprised your expectations, and how memorable the imagery of the scenes were. 
 
Honestly, I was surprised by how subtle the elements of magical realism are. I was expecting a sense of non-reality -- or maybe something that felt like mythic reality -- to be an integral part of this book. Instead, the few "magical" events seem more like the embellishments of an enthousiastic narrator who thinks he can pull a fast one on his listener. 
 
If only I could do half-stars. This is a 4.5. I can't give it five stars because the ending isn't quite perfect, and some sections drag. Minor complaints like these wouldn't bring down a book that had genuinely altered the face of fiction, or that did something totally unique. But this was just an exceedingly well-written novel; it's not tied for the bestest thing ever. Go ahead, Marquezians, bring it.

Lyn 

3.5
Lo había abandonado pero ahora mismo (ya habiendolo terminado) no sé porque lo hice.

And this is why I am wary of reading books written by men. Why is this book glorified and Lolita condemned?? Perverts, all of them. Next time, more cholera and less love. 

Jovana Gjekanovikj 

'One of the greatest love stories I have ever read. It is so beautifully written.' - Oprah Winfrey Fifty-one years, nine months and four days ago, Florentino's adoring love was rejected by the beautiful Fermina. While she became the model wife to a wealthy doctor, poor Florentino pined for her, and has done so ever since, never finding love or peace as he yearns for the day he can woo her again. When Fermina's husband is killed falling from a mango tree, Florentino seizes his chance to declare his enduring love. But can young love find new life in the twiglight of their lives? Now a major film - in cinemas March 2008

Gavin

Less soppy than I expected. Ending is great.

Joana da Silva

Livro de Junho para o #UmaDúziaDeLivros. 
Não sei porque demorei tanto tempo a pegar neste livro, foi uma viagem fantástica.

Andrew Louis

(Chose to read it expecting more more cholera than love)

Gisela Ayala 

One: it took me forever to finish this book so it’s not as captivating as I thought it would be.
Two: while the writing may be beautiful and there are truly beautiful quotes scattered through out the book, I did not like the plot of this book. Perhaps yes, it was a different time, perhaps I have to read it in that context but no. I’m sorry no. 
The main guy is creepy and basically stalks the girl through y the first part of the book. They don’t know each other except by letters. Then when she finally meets him she’s doesn’t like him and he’s devastated and doesn’t want to leave her alone. CREEPY. 

There’s a bunch of other creepy stuff that happens in this book that the main guy does. I’ll say it. He’s toxic and not my favorite.

Lilian M

I was unable to finish the book.
But its a good book.

Jaymie Lemke

As I was making my way through this book, I decided to remove all of this author's books from my "To Be Read" shelf. I had a really difficult time reading this book. Perhaps I'm just dim-witted enough to not want to work that hard at getting through a book. Hasta Luego.

Amy Bley

This book was saved by the last 20-30 pages. Good god he took a long time getting there.

Love in the Time of Cholera

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