Where
did the summer go? Do you happen to know?
"Love
in the Time of Cholera" is one of the best I've read this summer. The plot
is reminiscent of the Great Gatsby. The formula is simple: (He) Florentino
Ariza is poor. Fermina Daza, the love of his life, marries the most enviable groom
of the city, a Doctor, Juvenal Urbino.
If
the Great Gatsby reaches his dream in American way, that is, he tries to become
richer than the husband of his dream-woman, Florentino Ariza walks to his goal
in Colombian way. What is this Colombian way? You will learn if you read the
brilliant Marquez.
Symptoms of love are similar to the symptoms of
cholera and it is easy to take one for the other, especially in the beginning. Why
cholera and love go through the novel as a dotted line? I did not dive into
deep meditation on this. Wikipedia explains it well (Love as an emotional and physical disease). Maybe Fermina Daza wrongly
diagnosed her feelings when marrying the Doctor. Two men are antipodes - one is the rational, the most respected
man, an active struggler against cholera in his hometown, the other one is a
knight of love, far from being “comme il faut” though.
The charming part of the novel is Colombia, sweltering, humid and dangerous country where
mules wander through the mountain passes, malicious parrots hide in huge trees and
old steamers creep on the rivers hiding lovers under the cholera flag.
