LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Penguin Books
1985, 1988
Translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman
Ms. Hen decided to read this again after she read THE UNBEARABLE
LIGHTNESS OF BEING by Milan Kundera because the character in that book reminded
her of the character in this one. If you read Ms. Hen’s post about that, she
decided that Florentino Ariza was less unsavory than Tomas in the Czech novel.
Ms. Hen remembered Florentino Ariza as a romantic soul, and she was reminded
again why she loved this book so much the first time.
Ms. Hen recalled that the last time she read LOVE IN THE
TIME OF CHOLERA was eleven years ago. She was a younger hen back then, and not
that experienced and wise in the ways of literature. She has since received two
degrees in this subject, and she has read countless books since the last time
she read this, and thought about them deeply. She was startled reading this in
the beginning, because she didn’t remember admiring Fermina’s husband Dr.
Urbino that much the first time. During this reading, she found him more
sympathetic at the beginning of the novel, but towards the end, she felt more
compassion for Florentino.
Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza meet when they are young
and have a romantic correspondence. He first sees her at her father’s house when he
is delivering a telegram, and he becomes entranced. They write to each other
for years, until Florentino follows Fermina in the market, she turns to him,
and she tells him that nothing can be between them. From Ms. Hen’s first
reading, she does not recall the moment when that happened in the book. She
always remembered the couple not getting together, and then she marries the
doctor because her father wishes it, and they go their separate ways.
Ms. Hen thinks it’s funny how memory can trick us. She remembered
the story one way, but it unfolded in a different way.
When Fermina rejects Florentino, he becomes a womanizer. Not
right away, but he does eventually. He travels up the river, and a woman bursts
into his cabin on the boat and she seduces him. He doesn’t know who she is, but
he thinks it’s one traveling with a group of women who have a child in a
birdcage. Multiple birdcages spurt up in this novel in different places; many
birds and animals appear, and Ms. Hen enjoyed this.
What she enjoyed most was the mammoth amount of hens,
roosters and chickens that appear in this novel, mostly roosters. She took
the time to count: she calculated there are twenty-nine times one is mentioned
in the book! There are numerous beautiful quotes about chickens, and every time
Ms. Hen read one, her feathers ruffled. One of her favorites is, “In
Valledupar, she realized why the roosters chase the hens.” Another one she
enjoyed is when a widow is talking to Florentino about how old people smell, “‘Now we stink like a henhouse.’"
Ms. Hen remembered when she reread ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF
SOLITUDE, she discovered the book was full of chickens as well. She might have
to read Marquez’s books eventually to find all the chickens that live in his
worlds.
Ms. Hen thinks that this is one of the perfect love stories
of all time. It shows that a person can love someone his whole life, and wait
(in a way) for her forever. Florentino was true in his heart to Fermina Daza,
and he one of the most romantic characters that Ms. Hen has read. Ms. Hen loved
reading this book again; she consumed it hungrily, it was more than she had
remembered, and she was grateful she went back.
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