Spring Break
'Love in the Time of Cholera,' a timeless romance, Marquez is at his greatest
Frank Ard - U. South Alabama
Issue date: 3/5/09 Section: Verve
(UWIRE) "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is an iconic example of fiction at its finest, its most powerful, emotional and fantastic.
This book is set in an unnamed Caribbean city in the late 19th century, and a portion of the plot, especially later in the book, takes place in the riverboat docks where one of the main characters, Florentino Ariza, begins his career as a telegraph operator and eventually works his way to working side-by-side with his uncle in operating a riverboat company.
The attention to the rivers, its shifts and changes, and likewise the changes in technology throughout the century, act as a backdrop that magnifies the main theme of the book: Unrequited love.
Many forms of love are at play in this book: The familial love of Florentino and his uncle and Florentino and his mother, who is a great influence on his life; the capitulated love between Fermina Daza and Juvenal Urbino; and, perhaps most importantly, the young and ultimately agonizing love that develops between Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza.
It is the latter love that encompasses the entirety of the novel. As adolescents, the quirky yet idealistic Ariza falls madly in love with the beautiful and headstrong Daza, daughter to an up-and-coming member of the city's high social class. Incidentally, Ariza is a member of the lower social tier.
This may sound like the beginnings of the tale of young love that has been told and retold many times, but Marquez doesn't go the formulaic route with this novel; he doesn't tell the tale one might expect to hear, instead he takes the reader on an unexpected and delightfully agonizing journey of a longing that lasts over half a century.
Daza and Ariza spend months in secret contact as her father tries to keep them apart, and eventually after a trip through the country, Daza comes to the surprising realization that she doesn't care for Ariza.
As one might expect, Ariza is crushed, but it is here that the novel goes into unexpected territory. Ariza makes a vow of eternal love for Daza that he keeps, even as Daza goes on to marry the young doctor, Urbino.
This book is set in an unnamed Caribbean city in the late 19th century, and a portion of the plot, especially later in the book, takes place in the riverboat docks where one of the main characters, Florentino Ariza, begins his career as a telegraph operator and eventually works his way to working side-by-side with his uncle in operating a riverboat company.
The attention to the rivers, its shifts and changes, and likewise the changes in technology throughout the century, act as a backdrop that magnifies the main theme of the book: Unrequited love.
Many forms of love are at play in this book: The familial love of Florentino and his uncle and Florentino and his mother, who is a great influence on his life; the capitulated love between Fermina Daza and Juvenal Urbino; and, perhaps most importantly, the young and ultimately agonizing love that develops between Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza.
It is the latter love that encompasses the entirety of the novel. As adolescents, the quirky yet idealistic Ariza falls madly in love with the beautiful and headstrong Daza, daughter to an up-and-coming member of the city's high social class. Incidentally, Ariza is a member of the lower social tier.
This may sound like the beginnings of the tale of young love that has been told and retold many times, but Marquez doesn't go the formulaic route with this novel; he doesn't tell the tale one might expect to hear, instead he takes the reader on an unexpected and delightfully agonizing journey of a longing that lasts over half a century.
Daza and Ariza spend months in secret contact as her father tries to keep them apart, and eventually after a trip through the country, Daza comes to the surprising realization that she doesn't care for Ariza.
As one might expect, Ariza is crushed, but it is here that the novel goes into unexpected territory. Ariza makes a vow of eternal love for Daza that he keeps, even as Daza goes on to marry the young doctor, Urbino.
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