The thought of reading a story by Marquez or writing about his fiction! Gabriel Garcia Marquez was the first novelist whose fiction I got attached to in a vortex of surrealism and fantasy. 100 Years of Solitude kept me on the hook for a long time and before I could come out of the power of this possessive novel, Love in the Time of Cholera hit me like a Caribbean storm. Unlike his other novels like Chronicle of a death foretold or No one writes to the Colonel, Marquez loads this novel with love and humor. What is life without Love and Humor? The central character, Florentino Ariza deserves to be flogged for his licentiousness and lust. But true to his narrative, the novelist does not suggest that Ariza’s love for Fermina Daza has been in any way tainted because of his affairs with countless women. Dr Juvenal Urbino falls off the ladder trying to get his parrot out of the Mango tree and Fermina Daza becomes a widow. This presents an opportunity for Florentino Ariza; now a shipping tycoon, to revive his proposal to Fermina Daza. After initial hesitation she accepts the proposal and their love of decades, blossoms to be consummated at last. Meanwhile the novelist takes us on a Caribbean ride giving us glimpses of serenades, secret passages in houses, Aunt Escolastica’s efforts to attach the two lovers by smuggling letters. The countless loves of Florentino Ariza from Rosalba to America Vicuna also permeate the novel. There is not one love in the novel’s world. There are different loves in different spheres. It is love that moves the world and it is love that has no end. Some of the word images like, she had to let down her draw bridge for his ship to move in, remain transfixed. The “Hero” as such is consistently debunked in the novel. Florentino Ariza cannot let a woman go without casting his net. But he also has a horrible habit of shitting in his pants and takes enemas to relieve himself.
The steamboat Captain carrying the aged couple who are really struggling to get close to each other, announces that the boat cannot dock because there is Cholera in the towns on the coast. Florentino Ariza asks him to keep going. When the Captain asks him how long they can keep going because there is Cholera all along the coast, Florentino Ariza says, “Forever.” The title is considered to be a play on the meaning of the word Cholera which means a disease but also a rage or passion. This Colombian cock tail of Love, Passion, Irony and humor loaded with a distinct flavor of the land that only Marquez can infuse, is sure to bewitch you for a long time. (To be continued)