I just picked this book up a few days ago, and started devouring it. I’m an avid reader, and I’m always looking for great books.
I got this on the recommendation of a friend of mine. I haven’t delved into it too far (i’m still in double-digit pages), but I’m growing more and more interested.
Anyone else read it? Does it keep the same interest throughout the entire book?
You mean it’s a real book? I thought they just made that up for a Simpsons episode.
Yarrr, that Simpsons book be “Love in the Time of Scurvy.”
Yeah - it’s a great book. I find with many magical realism books and/or books by Marquez, they are more about the journey than the destination - in other words, it doesn’t have a whiz-bang ending, but I loved the characters and how it flowed so much that it didn’t matter.
I strongly recommend his book Chronicle of a Death Foretold, obviously 100 Years of Solitude (although I find it to be more trouble that I thought it was worth) and also try Llosa’s Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter for other wonderful Latin American books.
Yes and yes. It’s fantastic, isn’t it? It’s like the literary equivalent of eating a ripe mango.
You might also want to read Garcia Marquez’s Of Love and Other Demons, which has a similar feel. A little girl is bit by a rabid dog and (after some tanglements) is brought to an abbey to be exorcised, and the priest who is appointed her exorcist falls in love with her. The back of the book described their relationship as “chaste [and] ill-fated,” and this is what made me read it. I loved it.
I haven’t (yet) read Love in the Time of Cholera, but I have read One Hundred Years of Solitude by the same author and I really liked it. One Hundred Years kind of slowed down a lot in the last third or so, but the imagery and interweaving of mythology and reality were wonderful throughout.
I haven’t read it in ten years but I enjoyed it a lot. If you enjoy that book, you’ll probably enjoy One Hundred Years of Solitude as well. It is a similar sort of epic story.
If you like those, check out House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. It’s freakishly similar to One Hundred Years of Solitude, which is another fantastic read.
Even more suprising is that there is a book called Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger.
Hey, fiddlesticks, the second link in your signature ain’t working.
I may have to do that. Next up is The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Our own JoeyHemlock has raved about it.
And, for the record, Bryan Ekars, Love in the Time of Cholera was mentioned by John Cusack in High Fidelity. Could also be a reference you’re thinking of?
Having studied Latin American literature, I remember being surprised by Love in the Time of Cholera, because it’s not as heavy on magical realism as his other works. It has a very different style than One Hundred Years of Solitude. I preferred Love in the Time of Cholera - One Hundred Years is such a pain to follow. Unbearable Lightness of Being is one of my favorite all-time books, so if there’s any consistency to my tastes, you should like both. (As for Kundera, you should also try The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, but unfortunately not all his books are enjoyable.)
Personally, I can’t stand Isabel Allende. She’s just copying a style developed by Garcia Marquez and others. IMO she contributes nothing to the genre.
Why have so few gringos discovered Carlos Fuentes?
Wonderful book, reminds me an awful lot like one of the relationships I was in years ago. (Hell, it describes a good portion of my life, I’d say.) Strange that I just happened to be thinking of this book totally out of the blue tonight and then when I log in on the Dope, I find a thread about it.
I loved Love in the Time of Cholera, One Hundred Years of Solitude and Chronicle of a Death Foretold by GGM. Didn’t care for Love and Other Demons. Liked No One Writes to the Colonel also.
I enjoyed Love in the Time of Cholera immensely (preferred it slightly to One Hundred Years of Solitude), and I loved Unbearable Lightness of Being.
I must read some Carlos Fuentes. Could you recommend me a title, chula, otherwise I’ll dip in at random (which may not be a bad thing).
I’ve read most of GGM’s tales. I like LITTOC better than OHYOS. Strange Pilgrims, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, etc. are not quite as good but have a similar feel.
Personally, I’ve read The Death of Artemio Cruz and The Old Gringo, so I’d recommend those. Neither truly set my interest afire, though Cruz picked up in intensity as the novel progressed. YMMV.
It was also used as a plot device in the John Cusack movie Serendipity. A girl he meets writes her phone number in a copy of that book and says she’ll leave it at a used book store, and if he finds it, then they were meant to be together. Events conspire to keep them apart right then, and he can’t find the book. Then,
Years later, his fiance gives him a copy of ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ as a wedding gift, since he was always looking for it in used-book stores, and when he opens it, it’s the one the other girl wrote her number in.