Love in the Time of Corona

While sifting through the countless "challenges" circulating social media during quarantine, the #booksasoutfitschallenge was one I couldn't resist. But because you shouldn't "judge a book by its cover" as George Eliot famously stated, I decided to do a little series of some of my favorite books and include brief descriptions and commentary on why I recommend them. My first recommendation was clearly inspired by...well, I'm sure you know.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

After a brief and passionate courtship in their youth, Fermina Daza rejects the marriage proposal of Florentino Ariza and instead marries the esteemed and well-respected Dr. Juvenal Urbino Del Calle. The heartbroken Florentino vows to remain faithful to Fermina, wait for her, and spends the rest of his life working to make himself worthy of her love once again. For fifty-one years, nine months, and four days Florentino’s passion for Fermina does not fade. He watches and loves her from afar, and when he learns that her husband of over fifty years – with whom she has had a comfortable and happy marriage – dies suddenly after a fatal fall from a ladder while attempting to reach his pet parrot sitting on the branch of a mango tree, he immediately reaches out to her in the hopes of winning her back.

To read this novel as a simple, sentimental love story of a man who makes it his life’s work to win over a woman who rejected him would be to fall into García Márquez’s “trap” as he once said in an interview. Though it is quite a powerful love story, it is anything but simple. Throughout the novel the reader learns of the ups and downs of what looks on the outside like a perfectly happy marriage. The countless sexual trysts of the perpetually lovesick Florentino Ariza highlight the differences between emotional and physical passion, which forces the reader to wonder whether he truly loves Fermina or the idea of her that he has held on to for decades. In short, what is love and how do know when it’s “real?” The novel seemingly suggests that there are many definitions of love and the reality of one doesn’t negate that of another. García Márquez links the complex feelings of love to those of a physical plague, a theme that runs throughout the entire story. He also rejects the idea that physical and emotional passion are reserved for the young.

The novel explores the complexities and contradictions of love and challenges societal expectations of how and who we love. It’s a beautiful story about the ambiguities of the nature of love and passion told in the dense lyrical prose that makes Gabriel García Márquez one of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century.

If you've read García Márquez before you don't need me to tell you why you should read it. If you're looking for a perfect romantic love story this book may not be for you. Life and love are complex journeys with hills and valleys, and people are never exactly as they intend to be. It's human nature. This book depicts the human spirit and human experience in such a real, raw way.