“I have read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's famous novel 'Love in the time of cholera' two times. The first time and as I read through the very first pages I knew by then that I am about to read a (good) book, with all the meanings that word could carry. The last ten pages were marvelous since they truly depicted the last touches of an artist on his masterpiece. When I finished reading the book for the very first time, I felt with a great content for three obvious reasons (at least for myself): first, because Marquez's style of writing is utterly unique and rich. Second, the characters were numerous and various yet each one was described with sufficient details in a way that created a lane of similarities and contradictories between the characters of the novel, which greatly depicts the very true human nature. Third, it was because I finally finished a book that I've always heard about and had always wanted to read and I couldn't wait for that moment when I flipped through the last pages of the book while saying to myself 'yes, and finally you make it true. Now and since you've read the book you shall be one of its BIG fans'.
Few days passed since I finished reading the book and I spent some time in an approach to re-draw the characters, sequence of events, symbols and ideas. For example, how would the characters in the novel would truly look like if they were real? Furthermore, the scent of the atmosphere back then, the colour of the skies, people's outfits in Colombia at the late 19th and early 20th century.
I decided to read the book for a second time as I imagined myself walking down a street downtown, enjoying a dazzled look printed on an aristocratic old woman's face who've just seen the so called new 'automobile' for the first time in her life without the slightest idea that soon it would replace her eye-accustomed fancy carriages made of highly expensive wood; imported from so far place as Lebanon, with its silver and gold embroideries, and associated with the white or black huge horses having long smooth silky hair, and a conceitedly erected tails pulling them across the town.
Nearly twenty-five characters did play various major and minor roles in the novel beginning with Jeremiah de saint Amour who did suicide refusing the certainty of aging and death. Then and moving on by Fermina Daza's childhood, her relation with her father and her image about him that was to be greatly distorted many years later after his death. Furthermore, the novel tells of how an enormous, pure and innocent love initiated between Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. The novel put a spot light on the sincerity of the institution of marriage in a Christian (Catholic) community. As for an example, the relation between Fermina Daza and her husband Dr. Juvenal Urbino throughout their live with each other, after his death and how did the seventy year old Fermina Daza realise that her life; the life that she had always wanted to live was just at its beginning!
Garcia Marquez who is also known as "Gabo" in his native country had achieved significant critical acclaim and wide spread commercial success, most notably for popularising a literary style labeled as (magical realism), which use magical elements and events in order to explain real experiences.
In love in the time of Cholera, two main ideas arose to the surfaces which were: the true nature of love, and man's inevitable struggle against time and aging. G. Marquez based his novel on three concrete foundations which were: the date upon which the sequences of the novel happened at the late 19th and the early 20th century at a period that was preceded by a devastating civil war that tore the country into ruins associated with the Cholera epidemic.
Second, his characters are greatly described with such details that allow the reader to imagine/draw them in a way that would contribute in establishing a bond or a some sort of a connection that I would refer to as a (tunnel); having the author's ideas, symbols and messages at one end and the readers at the other and allowing a smooth and direct interaction or fusion in a nearly efficient way. Yet, with the readers continuous growing desire to know more… here in my opinion lays Garcia Marquez's genuineness.
As you approach to the book's end a question will always remain…A sort of love such as the one Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza had to each other; could it be found in real life and especially nowadays? Another thing which was; could it be possible for a man's love such as Florentino Ariza's to wait for over a half-a-century till he has the chance to re-unite with his one and only?
Last but not least, I would like to state that "Love in the time of Cholera" is a truly rich, mesmerizing piece of art; as well as an enormous add to a long series of literary works attributed to an internationally respected, genuine and Noble prize novelist: G. Garcia Marquez.”
