On Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I first became acquainted with Marquez in my Spanish Literature class in college. Of course, the piece I read in that class was in Spanish but this book was not. I read the English translation of one of his most famous works. Someday in the future when I bone up on my Spanish I will read the book in the native Spanish.

To be honest, I felt extremely sorry for the main character Florentino Ariza. He waited, although not that patiently, for fifty-one years, nine months and four days for the love of his life Fermina Daza. I never really understood the love story between Florentino and Fermina.

The two, although Florentino much more than Fermina, fell deeply in love when in their late teen years but Fermina rejected Florentino for Dr. Juvenal Urbino, a man with wealth and power... power that he used to to manipulate Fermina. Instead of maintaining his vow of celibacy until he can have Fermina, Florentino satisfies his basest desires for sexual pleasure with many different women who mean nothing to him. At the end when Urbino dies leaving Florentino free to pursue Fermina his current flame, a young school girl, commits suicide. Her family does not know why but Florentino does.

In the end to Florentino and Fermina marry? No. They continue in another reality of sorts, a relationship hidden on a boat coming and going to various locations. They never get off the boat to admit their relationship to the public and to Fermina's children with Urbino.

At the end I did not want Fermina to settle for Florentino. But... she did.

This was a very interesting book. I don't know that I would recommend this book to everyone but it is a thought provoking book and a worthy read of discerning readers.