Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

If Juvenal is Cedric Diggory, Florentino is Harry Potter. Of course Fermina picks Juvenal Urbino over Florentino. Florentino writes emo love songs for her on his guitar and passes notes to her day in and day out, but she won't even accept his Facebook friend request. She's head cheerleader/drama club starlet/sexy Academic Team captain. (In fact, we think Love in the Time of Cholera would make a riveting high school drama.) He's a skinny, awkward looking teenager who's pining after Fermina, the hottest girl in your class. Just in case you need a little extra convincing, though, allow us to make a suggestion. Worried you won't be interested in a novel that's all about love and sex? Nah, we didn't think so. What is Love in the Time of Cholera About and Why Should I Care? And everything in between.Īs for the love affair between Florentino and Fermina, which is it? Romantic or obsessive? Sweet or scary? Selfless or selfish? That's hard to say, but we think it might be best expressed in Facebook terms: 'It's Complicated.' Thus, Love in the Time of Cholera contains not only one central love triangle, but also a myriad of other illustrations of what love can be: young and old, faithful and unfaithful, respectable and shameful, sexual and chaste. The Nobel Prize-winning author is a big fan of ambiguity, so instead of resolving our idea of love, he tends to complicate it. You might think of this book, published in 1985, as García Márquez's 350-page response to the question, 'What is love?' Like all of his works, though, Gabo's fourth novel fails to provide us with easy answers or clear-cut definitions. His behavior is sort of sweet…but then again, it's kind of stalkerish. Sure, Florentino's enduring passion for Fermina can be seen as romantic…but it's also a little obsessive. Is this novel really just a racy, exotic melodrama, or is something else going on here? Consider that Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez (or Gabo, for short) has warned readers of Love in the Time of Cholera 'to be careful not to fall into my trap.' Just like the main characters Florentino and Fermina, it's easy for us to get swept up in this story of forbidden love and lose track of its dark underside.

You'll find plenty of reviews along the lines of: 'OMG, this book is sooooo romantic!' After all, what could be sweeter than the story of love at first sight? What could be more erotic than smoldering glances, nocturnal serenades, and passionate love letters, all set in a steamy sub-tropical setting? Look up what many critics have said about Love in the Time of Cholera, and you might think you're about to read a sappy romance novel.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez