Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A confession: the only reason I read Love in the Time of Cholera almost ten years ago was that a nice young man who, for a short while, seemed very interested in my company recommended it.

Our parents had been friends forever, and a few months after a family get-together where we had gotten acquainted, he called me because he was traveling to San Francisco on a business trip. Thinking nothing of it, I was more than happy to meet him in the city and show him around for an entire day. Naturally, as happens when anyone spends time with me, we talked about books and he emphatically recommended Love in the Time of Cholera as one of the best books he ever read. This was not the first time I had heard someone say this to me, so I decided to go for it.

I feel terribly guilty for saying this, but here it is: I didn’t particularly care for the book one way or another. Yes, I know it’s one of the most important works of literature in the twentieth century. Yes, I know it represents the pinnacle of art and culture of an entire continent. According to Publisher’s Weekly:

“The ironic vision and luminous evocation of South America that have distinguished Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize-winning fiction since his landmark work, One Hundred Years of Solitude, persist in this turn-of-the-century chronicle of a unique love triangle. It is a fully mature novel in scope and perspective, flawlessly translated, as rich in ideas as in humanity.”

Now, not only am I going to Hell for my apathy toward Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I’m also going to be demoted an additional circle because I didn’t realize at the time that the guy liked me. I was never really very good at figuring stuff like that out (thankfully, I don’t have to anymore), but I’m sure my completely friend-ly attitude toward him must have been confusing. He did seem much happier at the beginning of the day than at the end, and now that I think about it, he never talked to me again.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

tags: books book reviews magical realism Gabriel Garcia Marquez