Love in the Time of Cholera… my thoughts.
People say that Love in the Time of Cholera is a story of unrequited love-Florentino’s intense one-way obsession with Fermina that ultimately transpires after 55 plus years of heart-wrenching longing and devotion. I interpreted it a bit more broadly, as a study of love at all levels- platonic, romantic, crazy, obsessive, etc.
The narration compares love to illness, Cholera in this instance, a disease that deteriorates the body, eats at the soul, and is impossible to cure. It’s a great metaphor that really resonates throughout.
While I was reading, there were many times I found myself in agony over yet another one of Florentino’s affairs (he had 622). I questioned his “love” for Fermina and didn’t understand his reasons for cowering. Why didn’t he just go to her? Then I realized…he was right to find ways to amuse his time. Fermina was happily married, alright maybe happily is too strong of a word, and although she and her husband weren’t affectionate love sick puppies, she did love him deeply. She found comfort in the routine. She was perfectly content. Yet, she never lost a place in her heart for Florentino, which is why she allowed herself to open her old widowed self to the possibility of “forever.”
I thought this was a perfect book to start off book club. There were many points of interpretation, but what I really loved about it was that it divided our group of 20-something single New Yorkers into cynics, romantics and a few in betweens. So, so, SO typical :)
