Love In The Time Of Cholera: A Review

“one can be in love with several people at the same time, feel the same sorrow with each, and not betray any of them.” As many would think and at the very first instance would form conclusions about the person being discussed, right from him being a Casanova to the futility of his statement when the infidelity was discovered. Well then, let me tell you that this comes straight from a person, the about eighty year old Florentino Ariza, the protagonist of this story. Set in the backdrop of 20^th century, when civil wars were a common place and people died more due to epidemics than due to wars.

Florentino’s unrequited love for Fermina Daza forms the theme of the story that is followed by a rather incomprehensible determination in the wake of which one may wonder at the viability of it. Both of them, in their adolescence fell for each other but Fermina, owing to a temperament that marked her character throughout, soon describes it as a major infatuation and decides to move on and marry Dr. Juvenal Urbino instead. Juvenal Urbino, a popular doctor and a descendent to one of the known families in the town, unlike Florentino, who was an illegitimate child of a commoner. What, however marks the potency of the story is Florentino’s decision…He decides to take revenge? No..He decides to do something to Fermina’s husband so that then she would come back to him? No again..He decides to marry another woman? Well, no again…So what does he decide to do? He decides to wait..Wait for however long it takes; wait for the destiny to turn in his favour; wait without an assurance that it will not be futile; just a belief that one day Fermina will be his, even if it meant eternity. And eternity it was, for after fifty one years, when Juvenal succumbs to an accident does he decide to propose Fermina again.

The fifty years that entailed were not an easy passage of time, for Fermina, maybe since she had a family to grow up with but for Florentino, it involved many repercussions. He succumbed to the physical needs that came as he grew up and which implicated many sexual partners. Inspite of the special chemistry that he shared with each of them, was the intriguing fact that he always preserved his love and sanctity for Fermina, that he never thought of hurting any of his accomplices. An excerpt from the book reads when Fermina Daza was overwhelmed “A century ago, life screwed that poor man and me because we were too young, and now they want to do the same thing because we are too old”. A beautiful story that is remarkably woven around characters that are devoid of any malice, when fate plays a role that extends over a period of fifty years and that is expected to evolve and serve its purpose, in all its notoriety, by every eccentric character but does it succeed? Well, it is for you to find out. The narration is one that you enjoy, meanwhile feeling that lurch in the heart. It is undoubtedly one of the finest works of the Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez and hopefully you will also relish it in all its charm.