Product Description

Florentino Ariza has never forgotten his first love. He has waited nearly a lifetime in silence, since his beloved Fermina married another man. No woman can replace her in his heart. But now her husband is dead. Finally - after fifty-one years, nine months and four days - Florentino has another chance to declare his eternal passion and win her back. Will love that has survived half a century remain unrequited?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #310223 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

About the Author
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1928- ) was born in Aracataca, Colombia. He is the author of several novels, including Leaf Storm (1955); One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967); The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975); Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981) and The General in His Labyrinth (1989). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.

Customer Reviews

Pfffffff!
I'm staggered at the affection for this book, it bored me to tears. If it was written by a Scotsman and not a Colombian, it would be dismissed for the florid drivel that it is.

Like wading through treacle.

Charming and absorbing...
I found this book lovely, most of all because it engages you so deeply with the characters, especially Florentino. Yes - it does make you wonder how you can feel sympathy for him, since he sleeps with over 500 women (!) while waiting for the love of his life, but I think it's his humanity and romanticism which make you want him to win over Fermina from the start to the end, despite his imperfections. The sweetness of his other habits, such as writing love poems for young sweethearts, and his gentle honesty, made me adore him.

The book will absorb you and give you the feeling you are living under the hot Columbian sun, smelling the smells of the town and walking in the market under the blazing heat, to the extent I almost had culture shock from my bedroom! I read it whilst ill during 1 1/2 days and it was gorgeous. I didn't want it to end, and yet I did, since I had been waiting all that time with Florentino, and found myself holding my breath as his life-changing moment approached.

The language is rich and funny, the story is sometimes surprising (for me, especially when Fermina suddenly decides their youthful madness was all an illusion, and also the very end, which was a bit too perfect, maybe? maybe not.. - don't get me wrong, I was desperate for a happy ending!!) but the book was for me a great read which I couldn't put down, or stop thinking about in between.

If you have a heart, then I defy you not to be moved by this book, especially if you can accept the imperfections of the characters and take the book as a story about love, not the people, but the love between them, which another reviewer described so well. I want to read 100 Years of Solitude now and hope I will enjoy it as much. I'm very happy to have discovered this great author!

A JOYOUS & MOVING MEDITATION ON LOVE, PASSION AND, ABOVE ALL, LIFE
For some, this is a story in which nothing happens. For me, this is a story in which the only thing that happens is the only thing that happens to us all - life! We are the form and function of our dreams and passions. We live for them, and they for us.

The narrative flows like the river of life mentioned within - the Great Magdalena River as Florentino remembered it - illuminating these passions and dreams, these loves and beliefs, and does so in a non-discriminatory way that humanises all the characters we meet along our way even if their morals are not our own.

We are all human beings who have our own dreams and desires. This book in celebrating the passions that drive the characters we meet within is also a celebration of our own capacity to dream to live and live our dreams, and if that isn't worth recommending it for, then I guess it's time open a can of Carling and stick a Steven Segal movie in the DVD.