Love in the Time of Cholera

Can someone come up with such mesmerizing fiction infringing upon the terrains of fantasy that just leaves you marveling at the very thought or idea? Unbelievable! The book is absorbing and gripping right from the word go and sustains its charm till the last word.

Love is powerful yet delicate and charming. It is a vital force, an affinity beyond description that forms the core of humanity if not universe. But the way man depicts the emotion and weaves the story, he induces the reader to see it in an entirely different light. There is hardly any manipulation or element of intrigue but an agonizing commitment or conviction derived from the love itself. His ferocious love for the girl of his dreams, a girl with a doe’s gait as the author puts it, only intensifies and unleashes a tale of unbridled emotions, after she heartlessly and unceremoniously dumps him to marry an urbane upscale handsome doctor following an innocent affair of years, to the point where one wonders whether it is the case of insatiability of a bruised ego or settling scores rather than pure love for Florentino Ariza?

For his own self, a poor and rather ordinary looking guy, the man is portrayed as a pure personification and a living example of love. His expression in every artistic form exudes, radiates and dissipates love_ A man with congenital love infused and soaked in his DNA. During the course, drawing all his hope, might and strength from his belief in love and himself, he rises in social stature and achieves enormous success in life secretly convinced and preparing himself for his ultimate encounter with his beloved.

Ironically, the man in hot pursuit of his darling undertaking an audacious journey on the path of love that transcends half a century, despite heaps of patience and tolerance to bank on, earns the reputation of a pervert indulging in various clandestine affairs involving women of all ages, creed and backgrounds. To quote the author on this interesting contradiction and circular behaviour encompassing an array of love, lust and hope on one occasion

‘With her (Angels Alfaro) Florentino Ariza learned what he had already experienced many times without realizing it: that one can be in love with several people at the same time, feel the same sorrow with each, and not betray any of them. Alone in the midst of the crowd on the pier, he said to himself in a flash of anger “My heart has more rooms than a whorehouse.� He wept copious tears at the grief of parting. But as soon as the ship had disappeared over the horizon, the memory of Fermina Daza once again occupied all his space.’

While there is no evident account of unfaithfulness on the part of the lady, the only allusion points as far as her approaching the confession box but retracing her steps before expressing herself, the author takes a position and justifies the case of womenfolk in general when Fermina Daza recalls the words of her deceased husband

‘“We men are the miserable slaves of prejudice� He had once said to her “But when a woman decides to sleep with a man, there is no wall she will not scale, no fortress she will not destroy, no moral consideration she will not ignore at its very root: there is no God worth worrying about.�

The accidental death of her husband finally terminates Fermina Daza’s stable marriage spanning half a century. On the occasion, Florentino Ariza only manages to infuriate and disenchant her further by reiterating his love. Well aware that they are fast approaching the inevitable death, his persistence and perseverance eventually pays when a couple of years later, the lady finally succumbs to an incessant streak of letters and meetings. She finally sets out on a marine trip with the man that paves way for their courtship, bonding and union where the senile, wrinkled, stinking and lifeless bodies least matter – but the only thing that matters is love and passion itself.

One might argue despite all its intangibility and ethereal sensation and existence that connects and bonds hearts, minds and souls, why love has to transform into something physical to wield itself as an ultimate power? But not Florrentino Ariza and even Fermina Daza for that matter who asserts

‘“If we’re going to do it, let’s do it, she said “but let’s do it like grownups�

In the end one just wonders whether it was victory of intrepid love or the victory of an invincible man capable of possessing and manifesting such intense contagious love! A couple of excerpts from the very end sum it up so nicely

‘“Do you mean to say what you say?� he asked

“From the moment I was born� said Florentino Ariza “I have never said anything I did not mean�

………and he was overwhelmed by the belated suspicion that it is life, more than death, that has no limits.

“And how long do you think we can keep up this gooddamn coming and going? He asked

Florentino Ariza had kept his answer ready for fifty three years, seven months, and eleven days and nights.

“Forever�he said.

Gifted with a weird ability to differentiate and sense a woman’s scent upon her hubby’s clothing, while Fermina Daza was able to unearth rare infidelities during the course of a marriage that droned on, for the sake of the humanity in general and mankind in particular, one hopes that such blessings of nature remain exclusive.

Before I drone on and on, for I am getting addicted to the narrations and pulverizing works of the man, let me ask your recommendations for the next read from Gabriel Garcia Marquez?

Any fans out there?