Love in the Time of Cholera

So here it is, as promised - a real book! Not one I've read fifty million times, not one I'm just going to rave about, but something I hope to review. Properly. This was my first encounter with Gabriel Garcia Marquez and, to be honest, I only chose LTC because it was mentioned in a really stupid film I once saw ("Serendipity", for the curious out there).

So were they right? Was it the wonderful read I was expecting? My answer to this is the fantastically eloquent 'ish'. Sort of. But not really. I mean, on the one hand, the language was beautiful and the imagery very powerful (though it's always hard to tell how much of that is down to the translation), but on the other, I never felt in sympathy with the novel.

The character I came closest to indentifying with was probably Fermina Daza, as she seemed to have the most common sense. The problem I had with it really was, I think, a temperamental incompatibility. I am not the kind of person about whom he was writing. I would not fall in love with someone at first sight and remain true to them for the rest of my life, without knowing anything of their character. I would certainly not be ill because I loved them so much.

My views of love are probably best expressed by Shakespeare "Men have died, from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love." Every character in this novel seems to disagree, all of them falling ill all over the place, from broken hearts or unbroken hearts or...

I was also unconvinced by the structure of the novel. He starts near the end, then works his way through until her matches up with it and carries on. This made the rest of the novel feel like backstory or an elaborate preamble to the end, when in fact it forms the bulk of the story, so I found myself wanting to skip most of the novel. I didn't, but it was a close call.

I did enjoy large sections of the novel and got caught up in the story more than once, but I also often ended up irritated with all of the characters, which affected my opinion of it. If you don't mind that kind of romantic melodrama, you'll probably enjoy it. If you do, I wouldn't bother.