Love in the Time of Cholera

This is a tribute to Gabriel García Márquez who recently passed away on April 17, 2014. Born on March 6, 1927 in Aracataca, Colombia, Márquez received critical acclaim for his works for popularizing magic realism, where magical elements are weaved into otherwise ordinary circumstances. For his works, Márquez received critical and commercial success, earning him the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1892 Nobel Prize in Literature. His famous works include “One Hundred Years of Solitude” (1967), “The Autumn of the Patriarch” (1975), and “Love in the Time of Cholera” (1985).

“Love in the Time of Cholera” (Spanish: El amor en los tiempos del cólera) is a novel by Gabriel García Márquez first published in Spanish in 1985. In the Philippines, Random House Inc. distributes the novel in paperback editions under ISBN 9780307389732 and in hardbound ones under ISBN 9780394561615.

A tale of love and all its complexities, “Love In The Time of Cholera” is not one grand love story in itself, but a multitude of stories of love, sex and the imminent thought of death masterfully pieced together without a hint of bias in any form.

At first glance, the book is the tale of unrequited love. It is a tale of passion and an impetuous man who wants nothing more than to be loved by the woman whom he loves so dearly. However, if one stops there then one is clearly missing the point. In retrospect, “Love In The Time of Cholera”  is something more. It takes the conventional notion of love and then destroys it. It takes love and exhumes it in all forms, thus becoming a pivotal plot point for the various character interactions.

Through Florentino’s recounting of his 622 love affairs, the readers are given a brief glimpse of how love manifests in different situations. His unrequited love for Fermina might be the most evident form of love in the novel. The introduction of Florentino’s carnal affairs was not only there to prove his insatiable passion for Fermina, it also showed that he was lonely without her. It was Márquez’ subtle way of portraying the forms of love through the diverse cast of characters that Florentino meets along the way.

Most of these portrayals of love are personalized through characters that intimately interact with Florentino. In the fifty years, nine months and four days without Fermina, Florentino has to make up for the lost time through engaging with different women. His experience with love and all of its diversity makes Florentino such an enviable man. His first sexual encounter happens on a river boat with a total stranger. This is love in the form of innocence. The other forms of love that are evident in the novel are the marital love between Dr. Juvenal Urbino and Fermina Daza, the platonic love between Florentino Ariza and Leona Cassiani, and the adulterous love between Dr. Juvenal Urbino and Lucretia del Real del Obispo. What makes this book so thought-provoking is the fact that the interactions among the characters actually do matter in the grand scheme of things. The minute details are not just for show. They are essential to the plot and to the whole way of understanding of the novel.

The book’s genius lies in Márquez’s brilliant storytelling, leaving no stone unturned. His careful eye for detail breathes life to the decadent streets of an unnamed city at the height of the cholera epidemic. It is this careful consideration for detail that allows him to seamlessly set the stage for his beloved characters, most of which are notorious for having such lengthy names, with the name Lucretia del Real del Obispo coming to mind.

Another thing so particularly brilliant about Cholera is in spite of the heavy themes of love and death, so prevalent in the novel, is that Márquez manages to casually drop humor at the most opportune moments. The half-tragic, half-comic death of Dr. Juvenal Urbino is one example of the perfect use of humor in the novel.

The book however lacked a certain technique that has been prevalent in most of Márquez’s works and that is his prolific use of magic realism. Magic Realism is just as the name implies; it is a subtle depiction of magic within reality, which is undoubtedly too subtle in the bookwhen compared to “100 Years of Solitude.”  However, maybe this change of pace is what makes “Love in the Time of Cholera” so believable in the eyes of its readers. There is not much of a shock factor and there are no fantastical elements involved, making it downright relatable and very easy to digest.

One cannot argue that it takes a truly magnificent writer to be able to create such a beloved novel. From his elegant prose, the vivid imagery and right down to his clever use of characters, not a single storytelling device should be missed. “Love in the Time of Cholera”  is more than just a novel. It is an experience and once one begins to take it in as a whole one starts to feel a certain form of love, a love that Márquez has specifically reserved for the reader, a love for good literature.

“Love in the Time of Cholera” is a grand celebration of love, the most profound human emotion. It is an unconventional masterpiece that brings to light the reality of love and its entire splendor.

Love is a disease, hence its allusion to cholera. It is as much as a physical manifestation as it is an emotional one. Love is unconventional, it is complex, and one cannot define love without seeing all of its angles. Such is also true for “Love in the Time of Cholera”. At face value, it is the typical romance novel but once one begins to see all its angles, understanding it begins. One then begins to love it, not for a week or for an entire month, but just like the book’s final word, forever.