Book Review: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
“What’s your favorite book?”
For the last few years, my answer to this difficult question has been Love in the Time of Cholera, which I read in college. Recently, I realized that I could no longer precisely remember why I had loved the book so much. I’ve read so many wonderful books recently that I needed to verify that this was still my favorite. Upon re-reading this intense love story infused with magical realism, I was reminded of my younger, naïvely romantic self. I see why this book spoke so directly to me then, but I also see how much I’ve changed. Though I still found the book to be beautifully written, I can no longer say that it is my favorite book. I say this joyfully, with gratitude for my own growth and for my increasing love for reading.
Love in the Time of Cholera tells the story of an epic love triangle, set in a fictional city in Márquez’s home country of Colombia in the late 1800s / early 1900s. Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall in love in their early twenties, but a combination of uncontrollable and unforeseen circumstances prevent them from getting married. Instead, Fermina Daza is married to Dr. Juvenal Urbino, a wealthy and prominent doctor. Márquez’s novel almost spans the entirety of Florentino and Fermina’s long lives, describing both of them through the many ways they grow and change. I admired the way he built up their characters, each with a core identity that remains preserved amid the many changes of heart, belief, appearance, and social standing. Telling such an extended narrative allows the author to weigh in on such a wide spectrum of human emotion — from the heartbreak of a headstrong yet mercurial youth to the profound wisdom of an old soul.
Márquez’s descriptions are sometimes long-winded but invariably captivating. He uses many natural symbols like birds, trees, rivers, flowers, diseases, etc. to capture the feelings of his dynamic characters. The moments of magical realism ask the reader to suspend rational belief; the reader does this only to realize that the illogical occurrence points to a deep aspect of humanity that rings true. Sometimes, I did find the pace of the narrative to feel a little slow, as I was impatient to see the lovers reunited. But what better way to empathize with the impatience that the characters, particularly Florentino, must have felt? Through this novel, Márquez describes the multitude of difficulties in love, sometimes to the point of despair or cynicism. However, upon finishing the novel, the reader feels that the novel maintains a throughline of hope that is redemptive.
When I first read this book, my own understanding of love was much more like that of a young Florentino Ariza: naïve and self-assured. This time, I approached the book with much less certainty and much more curiosity about what love is. In this sense, I felt like I got a lot more out of the experience. But when it comes to enjoyment and thematic relevance, I feel confident in retiring this book from the pedestal of “my favorite book” to the perhaps more important shelf of “books I’ve loved.”
