Saturday, January 14, 2012

Book No.13

Welcome back to The Book Club!

After a bit of a fizzier in 2011, we're ready to make 2012 a year full to the brim of great reads, to nourish the mind and of course the imagination!

The first book off the shelf this year is ::

Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera is a brilliantly crafted, beautifully written story of love and the love-sick. Spurned as a young man, Florentino Ariza has a half century of waiting to fill before a chance to redeclare his love for Fermina Daze comes, when her husband is killed retrieving a parrot from a mango tree. Funny, poignant and heartfelt - enduring and unrequited love have rarely been more movingly expressed.

Sink your teeth into this one my literature loving fiends. Be sure to comment and keep your fellow bookworms enthralled with your insights, views and or next reading suggestions!

2 comments:

  1. This book was a long read, but a read that was so very worth it. A story of innocent, flighty, lust-filled, unrequited, of convenience, pining and enduring love. At first I wasn't sure what to expect and thought it may be one of those books I'd have to endure. I was wrong. I actually found myself looking forward to meeting with Florentino Ariza and seeing where his love story was going every night before I went to sleep. The end is insatiable and so very romantic, it's almost as if you can feel the emotion emanating from the pages. And as a reader having taken the journey with the protagonist, you can appreciate and feel the beauty in the conclusion so much more.
    I found so many usable quotes in this book aswell. Rather applicable to my life at the time of reading it, but ones that can be shared and carried through time aswell. I guess that is a sign of a good book - words, quotes and a story you can carry with you and use when the appropriate time arises.
    This will be a book I will pick up in years to come, interested to see what resonates with me then and how I see the love story from a once visited, and now with more life experience perspective.
    What did you all think?
    I'm so glad we're touching on some of literatures great reads.
    I also can't wait to have a Book Club meeting finally organised!

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  2. READER BEWARE: SPOILER ALERTS

    I'm a long time member, first time blogger.

    I finally had the commitment to contribute to The Book Club and what better book to start with then, Love in the Time of Cholera.
    I have to admit, it took me a while to get into 'Cholera', but I persevered and towards the end I was intrigued to discover how
    Florentino Ariza would pursue Fermina Daza.

    I had an immediate dislike to Fermina Daza. She quickly abandoned the idea of marrying Florentino Ariza and her decision, influenced by her father, to marry Dr Juvenal Urbino, felt to me, that it was one of convenience - which I think all will agree. Her marriage to Urbino set her up for security, but not for love.
    As Fermina Daza's character developed, I eventually started to feel sad for her. Her stubbornness to not forgive, resulting in her becoming a lonely woman. She never seemed to be at peace with herself or her husband.

    'I have waited for this opportunity for more then half a century, to repeat to you once again my vow of eternal fidelity and everlasting love' - Florentino Ariza Pg 50
    Ah Florentino Ariza, what a romantic. He's infatuation with Fermina Daza becomes, like the title insinuates, a disease. His obsession with Fermina takes over his life. His determination to win Fermina’s heart, at first to me felt like he was living a wasted life, in the hope that maybe one day, Fermina would finally be his.

    Following Florentino’s journey through life and becoming consumed with his sexual rendezvous with various women was fun to read.
    Although, did anyone else feel that he started becoming selfish in who he would choose to seduce? A married woman ended up being murdered by her husband and the child who he had guardianship for, committed suicide. He was quick to feed his own addictions, but
    took the innocent with him.

    The ending of the book, is exactly what I hoped for! I felt like I was sitting on the ship, waiting to be sailed beyond the horizon, holding my lovers hand, finally at peace and in love. Ah, if only all us ladies could be so lucky!

    I totally agree with Chloe, there are quotes that I can relate to in the book, one of my faves:
    (pg 165) ‘…human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves’

    A definite read for those who are romantics and a book I hope to pick up again - one day.

    Wendy
    Worcester, UK

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