Customer Rating:  
Summary: More like: Love in the Time of Don't-bother-a
Comment: I gave this book 2 stars, because I reserve 1 star for the books that I stop reading before even getting to the end. This one I actually finished, even though it took me 10 months to get through the entire thing. I only read it when I was on travel for work, because I didn't have any desire to pick it up otherwise.
In the book, the plot didn't move much past the description on the book jacket, and the lack of plot movement is what made it uninteresting to read. The prose is very descriptive, but that also has a tendency to slow down the book as well.
But my biggest complaint after finishing the book is how much time was spent on describing the indignity of old age, and contemplating impending death, and giving each other enemas, and what it is like for a couple in their seventies to make love, and describing the wrinkly bodies, and the "smell of old age." I do realize that I will reach a time when this is my reality, but I really didn't want to read about it. I apologize for bringing it up right now, but since it is my biggest complaint, I felt the need to mention it.
Other than that, I found that the main character's obsession with Fermina Daza to be more creepy and sad than romantic, which causes the book to be a failure in the "love story" department.
So don't even bother with this one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: On the fence
Comment: I don't know what to say. I didn't exactly love the book, but neither did i hate it. The love story itself is weird, irrational, shallow and totally forgettable.
The main protagonist, the young Florentino Ariza, a man of questionable lineage and reputation, falls in love with Fermina Daza, the daughter of an ambitious mule trader, Lorenzo Daza. Fermina accepts Florentino's proposal of love, but soon breaks it when she realizes that she doesn't truly love the man as much as pity him. Florentino is heartbroken, but respects her decision. Upon her father's direction, Fermina marries a wellborn and illustrious Physician, Dr Juvenal Urbino. Florentino decides to bide his time until the Doctor dies. And how? He goes flitting from one woman to another for 50 plus years. Nice. In the course of 50 years, he's raped by an unknown woman, he himself rapes a maid, seduces innumerable widows, even a 14 year old girl(somebody sic the CDC on him, please) who kills herself when he chucks her for his long-standing love, causes a woman to be murdered by her husband, gains a reputation of being queer and climbs up the social ladder, all with the determination to win Fermina intact. Fermina is fairly happy with her marriage and makes her peace with life despite many misgivings and disappointments. When Dr Urbino dies at the age of 82, Florentino returns to try once more.
Although the author beats the point of a die-hard romantic sustaining 50 years of hardship for love to death, the book manages to keep the reader engrossed. The writing style is evocative and colorful, and has a lovely rhythmic cadence, i give the author that. I loved the descriptions of the carribean summers, the local customs and culture, the river cruises and the ravages of the cholera epidemic. I'll remember the lingering scent of jasmines and roses, camellias and gardenias, the tropical heat, the books of poetry, the blades of fans, the manatees, the yawning alligators, the almond trees, the buzzards, the river boats, the meandering Magdalena river, et al. But love? Sorry, i do not even remotely associate the book with love. Florentino is not even human, much less a romantic hero, Fermina is self-centered, Dr Urbino is pedestrian- none of the characters are worthy of worship. They are all weird. Be warned that there is plenty of profanity. Kinky stuff as well(two people enjoying giving enemas to each other?).
If one more person tells me that this is a magical story of unrequited love and sheer tenacity, i'm going to straddle him/her with an year's worth of the most boring literature.
Customer Rating:
Summary: not worth the time or money
Comment: ugh. stupid oprah. should've read the one-star reviews first before purchasing it at the time. forced myself to read it in hopes there'd be some sort of enlightenment, but to no avail. read about fifty pages and quit.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Written, Plot-less Yawn
Comment: It took me two weeks to read this book. I can't remember the last time it took me two weeks to a read a book, probably because it has never happened. I usually read a book in a day or two, three at most. This novel has no plot. Nothing happens. While I appreciate Marquez's eloquent prose, revealing ideas and timeless characters, nothing ever happens. I kept waiting, and reading, and waiting....all the way to the end.
I hope I do not come across as a bitter cynic because I know the underlying plot is supposed to be about love, and I do believe in love. I think love can conquer all and is worth waiting for, but I did not believe that either of those characters were truly in love. Their "love" seemed juvenile and not real, even at the end.
I do not wish to discourage anyone from reading this book and would like to say that I do not regret reading it and I am glad that I did. Marquez is an exceptional writer and reading his words were a joy, except all the elements that typically make a novel were absent. I encourage everyone to read it and form their own opinion, because that is the only one that matters.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This is not a love story.
Comment: This book is gross. I don't understand where the love story is. The guy is an obsessed pervert and the supposed romantic ending has nothing to do with love at all. There are so many disturbing images from this book that still haunt me.
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