Genre: Historical fantasy fiction, Magical Realism
Key Stage: KS5+ contains mature content.
Love In The Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (1985)
Reviewer: Shah, Year 12
The story begins with the aftermath of a suicide: Jeremiah, an expert at chess, dies by suicide due to love which takes the reader on the path as to why he left his chess game unfinished and why did he decided to die at that moment. This late foreshadows the difficulties of love in Florentino’s and Fermina’s relationship, and if they overcome it. Florentino is introduced to Fermina when delivering a telegram, and eventually falls in love thanks to the help of Fermina’s aunt who escorted her everywhere. Over time, they grew fond of each other and started writing love letters. However, there was always a social difference between them, where although his social status was lower than Fermina, it never diminished his love even after when her father disapproved and convinced his daughter to marry another man. Read on to find out if … Florentino’s plan to wait for her succeeds? If their love remains strong despite waiting 50 years or should have stayed in their youth? Will they end up together again?
I enjoyed this book as it was a constant reminder of hard work and true motivation where Florentino wanted to be successful for one reason: to be with her. To eventually ignore all the boundaries put to separate them which proved to be pointless and shows how class division and social status does not matter in the face of love.
If you enjoy this book, I implore you to read, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez