“They called each other tú again…”

Love in a Time of Cholera or (El Amor en Los Tiempos de Cholera)- by Gabriel García Márquez

Garcia Marquez manages to create a touching and uplifting story about two lovers who manage to resume their affair after more than 50 years apart. It is in this unrealistic plot device, but the very suspension of the rules of reality, set in such a believable setting of turn of the century Colombia, is what makes Marquez’s narrative so compelling.

It is not often that a character’s complete life is followed so completely, and non-linearly. Despite this method of storytelling, and the tremendous and subtle foreshadowing, each new revelation is still a pleasure, and surprise, to read. I am reminded somewhat of the tone of Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things, although perhaps this is just a stylistic element common is brilliant post-colonial fiction.

Marquez’s characterization is brilliant and believable, but is also a liability, as the introduction to the novel is, in retrospect, somewhat slow, as we seem to build attachments to characters who are not central to the books main narrative. This is acceptable, but throws the reader off somewhat.

Much like the character of Florentino Ariza, one gets the impression that Marquez is also an old man attempting to impart some of old ages wisdom on his readers, what little he may gleam from years of love. Through his three main characters, we are treated to ruminations on love and life, and although he occasionally offers us a troubling account of rape or religion, his insights in living are touching and valuable.

Pg. 207. Fermina Daza, referring to her first-born son. “…she discovered with great delight that one does not love one’s children just because they are one’s children but because of the friendship formed while raising them”

Pg. 209. Dr. Juvenal Urbino’s take on marriage. “…matrimony: an absurd invention that could only exist by the infinite grace of God. It was against all scientific reason for two people who hardly knew each other, with no ties at all between them, with different characters, different upbringings, and even different genders, to suddenly find themselves committed to living together, to sleep in the same bed, to sharing the same destinies that perhaps were fated to go in opposite directions. He would say: “The problem with marriage is that it ends every nights after making love, and it must be rebuilt every morning before breakfast.”….The only possible bond was something as improbable and fickle as love,…”

Pg. 211. Fermina Daza on Life, Public and Private. “Life in the world, which hard caused her so much uncertainty before she was familiar with it, was nothing more than a system of atavistic contracts, banal ceremonies, preordained words, with which people entertained each other in society in order not to commit murder…. “The problem in public life is learning to overcome terror; the problem in married life is learning to overcome boredom.”…she understood that her adversaries were not convulsed with hatred but paralyzed by fear. Instead of frightening them even more, as she was already doing, she had the compassion to help them learn to know her.”

“…think of love as a state of grace: not the means to anything but the alpha and omega, an end in itself.”

Marquez is also an astute cultural critic and historian, encapsulating the spirit of Colombian nationalism, its triumphs as well as its failures. He points out, almost humorously, how the high fashion of Europe, such as expensive shoes made in the style of the empresses, were rejected in the Caribbean as they were identical to those worn by poor black women in the house. He also crafts an interesting passage where Dr. Urbino and his new wife discuss the simplification of the human organism, which she claims “…has too many things on it.” It should be more simple, he says, and less vulnerable to assault, clarifying “It’s something only God can do, of course, but in any event it would be good to have it established in theoretical terms.” He also succeeds in conveying the deep importance of El Libertador to the national identity, as well as cultural institutions such as poetry, music, and politics. In telling the story non-linearly, we are able to experience broad shifts in culture over decades, as depicted in the changing public attitudes to a Chinese winning the poetry contest. At first, no one believe such a man could truly have been the poet, while later generations could not believe that such a poem was considered good enough for its authorship to have been in question. These cultural changes are subtly hinted at all through the novel, as the old regime is slowly dismantled with the rise of anti-aristocratic populists movements, magazines such as Justice, which attacked “families with long last names,” etc.

“I do not believe in God, but I am afraid of Him.” –Florentino Ariza. This character is essential a loser, living out his whole life waiting for a childhood love. He never marries, has numerous illicit affairs, and inadvertently not only gains wealth through naivety, but causes to the death of several women he loved without realizing it. Regardless, we come to care about Florentino, and this is no small feat. “Unfaithful but not disloyal.” Florentino’s musketeer motto, one which maybe we all are more likely to invert. “…Florentine Ariza learned what he had already experienced many times without realizing it: that one can be in love with several people at the same time, feel the same sorrow with each, and not betray any of them.”


“They can all go to hell,” she said. “If we widows have any advantage, it is that there is no one left to give us orders.” –Fermina Daza.

A book filled with much happiness and melancholy, one whose characters, if judged by the standards of the real world, would no doubt be condemned, and yet, one can’t help but be delighted when the two long lost lover’s are reunited, in control of there lives, and sailing into the sunset, so to speak, away from family, restrictive social norms, and even the fear of death itself. “That poor old couple…” Fermina keeps musing. Well, not them.