I struggled a lot (and am still struggling) with what to write as my review of this book. I read several reviews to get an idea of what people around me thought of the book, and got all ranges, so I decided I could be honest. It made me laugh to see the wide variety of reviews, ranging from "a dazzling romance" to "a rape story." I understood where the author of the second was coming from, but I could not relate the dazzling romance reviewer. It is so far from a dazzling romance, in my opinion.
I can admit that Marquez has a beautiful way of writing and weaving a story, even one as horrible as this one. While I cannot appreciate the story, I can appreciate the writing. I'm encouraged to read another of his, probably [book:One Hundred Years of Solitude|320] because many people said this was their favorite.
The writing was great. The characters were horrible. I agree with someone who said Juvenal Urbino was their favorite character, but he dies in the first chapter, which makes the rest of the book rather hard. Fermina Daza isn't necessarily a horrible character, but she isn't a fun one. She didn't have any depth to me. Her story, or her life, is wrapped around the two men who spent their life trying to please her. She makes that a rather difficult thing to achieve. She strikes me as a foolish, whimsical girl too caught up in herself and her dreams.
Florentino Ariza. Where do I even start with him? He is absolutely despicable. There is not even an inkling of admiration in me for him. Our first encounter is of him professing his undying love for a newly widowed woman who is obviously grieving, and he does not get any better.
My first issue with him is that he (like many other men in literature) has no reason to love Fermina Daza as much as he does. He sees her and immediately becomes obsessed. He does everything in his power to make her love him, just because she looks pretty, I guess. I find that one of the most annoying cliches or tropes there can be in literature or movies. Guy sees girl, guy never speaks to girl but becomes obsessed anyway because of her beauty. Guy does whatever he can to make girl fall in love, and when she inevitably doesn't he acts like the world is this cruel and unfair place and his life is now ruined.
Anyway. After she marries someone else, his life because a pursuit of physical pleasure. The back of my book describes this well: "... he whiles away the years in 622 affairs - yet he reserves his heart for Fermina." What. How is that reserving your heart? 622 is an absurd amount. Oh, and let's not forget that one of these affairs is with a 14 year old girl. When he's in his 70s. Then when he and Fermina Daza do finally fall in love (which is a whole different issue I have with this silly tale), he has the nerve to tell her "I remained a virgin for you." YOU SIT ON A THRONE OF LIES.
Yeah, so they do end up together, after 50 some years, and I guess that is supposed to mean that true love cannot be erased by love, but I shake my head at that. It seems to me that Fermina Daza just takes pity on him and lets him have what he's wanted all this time.
Needless to say, I did not like this book. Maybe if I spend more time thinking about it, and perhaps continue to read other reviews or scholarly articles, I might grow to understand the beauty in this book, but for now, I am content to never read or speak of it again.
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