Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I've mentioned before I don't fancy love stories because they're mostly so predictable,... Same goes for this one. Although I didn't thoroughly enjoy it, I didn't find it a bore either. This love story, set in the late 19th century, is one that is hardly believable, at least not to me.

This is about a story of a hopeless romantic's unrequited love. The pace is slow, melancholy and at times, pretty draggy. But it manages to capture the essence of love very vividly through the characters' thoughts, emotions and actions. I mean, if to feel strongly for someone, irregardless of what she thinks (whom by the way, said "It is as if he were not a person, but only a shadow", rejected him and married a wealthy man instead) or does (like rejecting him when he came up to her after 3 years of being away from each other), for 51 years, 9 months and 4 days, is not love, then I don't know what is. He did though, try to forget Fermina Daza, by sleeping with 622 women (yep he did!), only to realise, he thought of her even more. Fermina Daza the female protagonist, was everything to him.

Florentino's placid exterior that hints mystery is the opposite of Fermina's haughtiness which hides her insecurity. Well, I guess, opposites do attract. See, the thing is, I think deep inside Fermina does love Florentino, and what she feels for her husband, Dr. Urbino, is out of urm...shall I say, 'habit'? "Over the years, they both reached the same wise conclusion by different paths: it was not possible to live together any other way, or love in any other way, and nothing in this world was more difficult than love."

However, whether or not she loves Florentino, really didn't matter to him. All that mattered was, she was with him and that they're together. She is well aware of it, as she said it very plainly, "He is ugly and sad, but he is all love..."

This is my first time tasting Marquez's masterpiece....I can't say I don't like it. It was okay for me. But I was told to try 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'.

Well. Okay! :)