Love in the Time of Cholera

Gabriel García Márquez (Gabo) has worked magic again with his prose. This book tells of different kinds of love, the main one being a love being held for 51 years, 9 months and 4 days.
Gabo in an interview apparently suggested that 'readers' should beware of his trap. The man tells his story with fantastic ideas and descriptions, talking about serious love while introducing absurd situations which just make you wonder if the author is serious about his characters.

The book has some memorable quotes - it is one of those books that I should have read with a pen and exercise book, but that was difficult because I was reading in bed a lot. My favourite " The most important thing in a good marriage is not happiness, but stability"

These are not young healthy happy people experiencing love, all sorts of people including a woman who spent her last days in an asylum "reciting senile verses of such outrageous obscenity that they were forced to isolate her so that she would not drive the rest of the madwomen crazy.."

There is a lot of death, and decay in the book - the aging process is described (from forty) and there is a lot of satire when you least expect.. the mantilla worn by those who are widows and those who long to be widows!!!

The characters are not perfect, they have some 'dark' sides and you do not expect them to find happiness. 

It was disgusting to read of Ariza's grooming and sexual encounters with a 12 year old girl. I searched the internet to understand what this part of the story was about and I am shocked that the Gabo afficionadoes describe this is a great love story, etc without dealing with this part of the story. A film from his recent book about a ninety year old man who wants a 14 year old virgin has caused protest in Mexico

If this is part of the trap which Gabo establishes, then it is an amazing trap.. what if you are engaged with a character until you find out something bad about them, do you then feel disgusted with them and want to close the book or do you continue reading?

Gabo's descriptions are vivid, even of the absurd which seem so real and integrated and well not absurd, the casual reference to a ghost who lures the river boats, Ariza's love/sexual 'conquests', Dr Urbino's parrot, the bowel problems which 'look like cholera' , love letters.

This is worth the time spent reading, I could only imagine what the original Spanish version was like.