Sunday, December 28, 2008

Love in the Time of Cholera

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) - One Star

What could go wrong, right? Marquez has four three-star or higher rated books on my bookcase already, and this is one of his most acclaimed novels. I'm sure to like it, right?

Or not.

Here's how the book starts: old man (Juvenal) dies, second old man (Florentino) proclaims his love to first old man's widow (Fermina), flashback of young Florentino wooing young Fermina and failing, flashback of young Juvenal wooing the young Fermina in a relatively similar fashion and failing. Boom, there's 125 pages. The novel is less than 350 pages long, so in the first third of the story you learn... NOTHING! Florentino as a young man was a hopelessly love-struck buffoon, Juvenal as a young man was obsessed with sanitation, Fermina as a young woman was an unapproachable ice queen. 125 pages summed up in one sentence.

I had never understood a complaint I'd heard from others about J.R.R. Tolkien: "too much description of scenery." I understand it now. The cities and landscapes are detailed down to the minutest detail in the first third of this novel, but only the minutest character development and plot is given to the reader. Massive fail.

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