Wow. This book was the toughest I've read in a while, and I've had it on my shelf for a while, andI was intimidated. It's been made into a movie too - here's the site to see the trailer and some clips if you're interested in seeing the "greatest love story ever told".
(A bold statement, no?)
Well, I'm not sure I agree w/ the greatest love story ever told (gotta be Romeo & Juliet, sorry Gabe). Cholera was a tremendous book. I loved it. It was about the love story of Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza... and the path of their lives. I wish so bad that I could spoil the ending because it was seriously the best part, and the reason for the title. A satisfying ending to a book is so important to me... and this one delivered big time!!!
One thing I wasn't so crazy about in this book was the tendency for it to go on and on and on and on about something boring... but then, he just jumps in with something ridiculously touching and beautiful, and it catches you off guard and makes it even more powerful. Like this - in the first 40 pages one of the characters, Juvenal Urbino dies (it's on the back cover, relax, I'm not spoiling anything! :) ) He's married to Fermina, and the author goes in to great detail about their deep relationship and love for one another, blah, blah blah...then hits you w/ this:
"He recognized her despite the uproar, through his tears of unrepeatable sorrow at dying without her, he looked at her for the last and final time..." Are you crying? Cause I kind of am. The writing is just so moving.
Another good quote:
"...his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves." p 167
On to Curious Incident of The Dog At Night-time... :)
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