Love in the Time of Cholera *spoliers*

Sarah_Khan · Post by **Sarah_Khan** » 20 Mar 2016, 11:43

First and foremost, I'm not sure if this book is a classic so I decided to start this topic here in the Romance and Erotic books category.

Love in the Time of Cholera is a book about a man, Florentino, who falls in love with a girl in his teens and for various reasons their love doesn't last that long. Instead of moving on with his life he becomes obsessed with waiting for the girl of his teen years all while having multiple affairs.
I had a hard time liking this book for several reasons. Firstly, I found the fact that two of the main characters both have names that are the same length and that start with the same letter incredibly annoying. I also didn't like that the book has so few chapters and some of the paragraphs are agonizingly long, they last a whole page or so without any pause.
The author has some skill in the way he writes but towards the middle of the book I was getting bored and ready to be done with the novel.
I don't think I've ever read another novel that has left me with so much anger and disappointment as this book did. I found the love story unhealthy. Florentino appeared mentally deranged to me and I could never get the vibe that Fremina actually loved Florentino. To me it seems like she was just fed up and in her old age was just like oh what is there to lose.
Florentino was incredibly selfish throughout the novel and he didn't deserve to get his heart's desire in the end.
I went into this book expecting to read an epic love story and instead what I got was a tale of the life of a crazy, selfish man who has no morals.
I'm interested to hear other opinions on this book, even if you loved it.

MrsCatInTheHat · Post by **MrsCatInTheHat** » 22 Jun 2016, 13:15

It has been a while since I read this one so details are fuzzy. I do remember really enjoying it and going on to read Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude". What I really remember most, though, is that I had the book on an airplane and it sparked the most interesting discussion with the gentleman sitting next to me, about how important it is to understand different cultures.

Aan Granados · Post by **Aan Granados** » 04 Jul 2016, 10:25

I read this book years back and the reason I read it because it was mentioned by Oprah. Personally I didn't like it so much , one of the reasons is because (if I remember correctly) the way the main male character was described seems ugly to me and I can't relate. sorry.