قصة الكتاب :
Love in the time of cholera is a novel by Gabriel Garcia Márquez, originally written in Spanish and published in 1985. It was translated into English by Alfred A Knopf in 1988, and even made into a feature film in 2007.
\r\nThe key protagonists are Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza, who fall in love with each other in their youth, have a fall out when Fermina Daza decides that the whole thing was a dream, and go different ways. Fermina Daza marries the accomplished Dr. Juvenal Urbino and never really looks back. Florentino Arizo holds on to his unrequited love obstinately throughout the years. They re-discover themselves later in life, after half a century when Florentino attempts to reconnect with Fermina Daza after she is widowed, and have the opportunity to watch love blossom in their old age.\r\n
\r\nThe place where the story occurs is a little hard to decipher, although several clues have been provided by the author. Many suggest that the author may have deliberately left this open so that the readers can assume their own locations. It could be anywhere.\r\n
\r\nThe most prominent theme of the book is the comparison of lovesickness to a plague like cholera. Ariza is seen experiencing real pain as he longs for Daza. His illness transcends from the physical to the psychological. The other interesting theme is that of aging and death. Manchez does a fine job of treating both with the deserved dignity. He forces us to deal with that unwritten, hidden prejudice we hold in our heads regarding love after mid-life. \r\nThroughout the book, cholera serves as a counterpoint to love and a metaphor for the agony experienced by those it strikes. Like the disease, love strikes unannounced, renders its victims powerless and is blind to all else. Set against a backdrop where cholera is a grotesque reality, the story reflects upon life’s brevity and thereby love’s urgency. The novel states that ‘love is difficult’. In saying this, Manchez means that love of the kind elaborated here can be as fleeting as life itself. Love that sets one’s mind on fire and twists destines, usually gets worn out by the rust of routine or the grind of domesticity. That is probably why Manchez makes sure that his happy ending is not of the lovers getting married, but of them finding each other on a riverboat, floating away happily in the middle of the estuary. To leave it they say would be “like death”, both for themselves and this perfect love that they have discovered.\r\n