Many of us have heard of or maybe have seen the motion picture based on this book. I strongly believe that those who have seen the movie should read the book, the movie greatly pales in comparison.
This book was written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author of 100 years old solitude (also another amazing book); this book has also won a nobel prize.
Taking place at the dawn of the century in the Carribean; this book is about two young people who fall in love; Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. There love is innocent and passionate; they mostly communicate through letters left in secret hiding areas for each other to find. Yet, there love is forbidden by Fermina's overbearing father who wants her to marry a man with a high social standing, someone wealthy; unlike Florentino who works at a post office. They are separated and Fermina decides to marry Dr. Urbino; and although in the beginning she does not love him, she learns to and they end up having children and a happy marraige despite the lack of passion and romance. Florentino however never forgets his first love and drowns his sorrow in 622 affairs (mostly with widows); and although he does not wait for fermina in the bodily sense; he never falls in love with another woman. He is bent on waiting until Dr. Urbino dies; he is positive that once he dies, he and Fermina will be reunited.
The imagery in this book is spectacular; you can almost smell the jasmine, and feel the warm air of the Carribean. There are moments in this book that will shock you, moments that will make you cry, and some genuine moments that will make you laugh. This book is one in a million.
The movie is not horrible; but I felt like it concentrated more on the 622 sexual affairs that Florentino had instead of the love and passion between him and Fermina. Also, the movie left out alot of the events in the book. It could have been better.
I recommend this book for anyone over the age of 16 as there are some very, uhm shall I say....descriptive "scenes" throughout the book.
I give it two thumbs up!
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Here are some well known quotes from the book:
"To him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. He had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell." -- Narrator
"He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves." -- Narrator
"Please allow me to wipe the slate clean. Age has no reality except in the physical world. The essence of a human being is resistant to the passage of time. Our inner lives are eternal, which is to say that our spirits remain as youthful and vigorous as when we were in full bloom. Think of love as a state of grace, not the means to anything, but the alpha and omega. An end in itself. " -- Florentino Ariza
"Shoot me. There is no greater glory than to die for love." -- Floretino Ariza
"Fermina," he said, "I have waited for this opportunity for more than half a century, to repeat to you once again my vow of eternal fidelity and everlasting love." -- Florentino Ariza
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