For 51 years 9 Months and 4 days, Floretino Ariza had waited – to consummate a dream of unbridled love of his youth. This is an epoch weaved by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’.
For some – like Dr Juvenal Urbino – unrequited love meets its fate with a whiff of bitter almonds(cyanide) while for the impassioned few it’s a tide of undulating time stretching itself between upheavals of the youth and the fast approaching mortality. Marquez creates layers of unencumbered imagination in this saga of love – which falls astray in its youth only to rediscover the true meaning in crepuscular years. Marquez’s fable revolves around Floretino Ariza and his undying quest for Fermina Daza through which he unravels the depths of passion, character and love. Dr Juvenal Urbino marries Fermina Daza – who chooses a steady life over impassioned love – and thereon begins the wait.
This book is a translucent depiction variegated with vagaries of human mind and complexities manifold. Yet at the heart of it lies simplicity. It’s a saga set in the time of disease, war and change. Marquez does not fear exploring the human cravings for the carnal pleasures through Florentino Ariza’s navigation of life neither does he shy away from probing at the inherent human weaknesses which tend to uproot even the most earnest. Every action or inaction, every step or misstep, every thought or lack of it - guide or misguide Florentino Ariza through his life towards his only desire, only goal and only dream.
‘The trouble is without river navigation, there is no love’ – Florentino Ariza’s uncle had once advised and this would reverberate years later –when on board a ship, underneath a starless sky, his doddering hands would explore and find bony and ragged fingers of Fermina Daza waiting – as if forever.
The book is a celebration of an imaginative brain and a toast to the ability of the author to portray the most complex with such lucidity that you are left gasping for more.
Read it and dare to explore.
