GROUP READ --- "Love in the time of the cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A few of us signalled we would tackle this in may. I'll not start it for another week or two myself, but thought I'd set up a thread for us.

I'm sure we're not the only ones to have this lingering unread on our shelves. Feel free to join in!

okay I'm in. I have had a copy on my shelf for a year now and have been looking forward to reading it.

I am also in and have my copy read to read. I probably won't get to this one until mid-month when I have another stretch of time off from work and look forward to reading it.

Ah, just realised there's a "the" too much in the thread headline. Are we okay with that, or do we start a new one...?

I am okay with it.... typos happen. ;-) I see that Christina has added the link on the main page so it should be easy enough for others to find the group thread.

I'm in, too. I've got the book already, but probably won't begin until later in the month.

Oogling the damn thing. But will read a quick one or two more before diving in.

Right, I've started. About 70 pages in. I liked how I at first thought it would be a book about de Saint-Amour. And then a book about Doctor Urbino. But how it after a while turns out to be a book (at least for now!) to be a book about Urbino's wife and her youth. I think that the budding young love story is quite charming - it makes me smile.

Not crazy about Marquez style, though. It's been many years since I read him, and now it feels just a little ornate and flowery for my taste. Sooo, enjoying it well enough, but not really drawn in yet.

I've got about 80 pages left to go now, and find it somewhat slow-going. I like the setup well enough (even if the sex bits reek just a little of aging male author), and enjoy many of the situations. I love how Marquez just in a sentence can give us a wonderful mini story like the one about the senile woman giving the family jewels away as candy to the kids in the neighborhood. But there is something strained about how every page has to be brimming with tall tales and quirky detail. The book hasn't really gripped me, even yet.

Is anyone else reading?

I just started Love in the time of Cholera. I LOVE Marquez's writing style. It makes me feel like I am eating super-ripe papayas.

I am reading it but very slowly. It certainly is not moving quickly and I am only about 90 pages in. What do I think of it? I really do not know. I am still trying to figure out what, or who it is about.

Finished it while I was traveling. I do love Marquez's writing style but I have to say the meandering story was a trifle annoying at time. Florentino is not my idea of a romantic with an undying love for one woman and I wasn't a fan of the lead up to the ending or the ending. Darn it all....., it had such great promise when the story was focused on Doctor Urbino!

No regrets on reading it - the writing and the descriptions of South America of the time period were worth the read - but it is not something that I will be retaining in my personal library for a re-read down the road.

It looks like I am the only one really enjoying this book. It's one of those that I need to read in short chunks, so I am about 2/3 through and really love the writing and the characters.

I was rather captivated with the first half of the book - beautiful writing is one of my weaknesses - but I found myself losing interest with the direction the story was taking. Maybe if it had been edited down to a more condensed story...... but chances are an editor would leave in what I would edit out! ;-)

I finished today, loved the book, although some parts made me squirm. THat's fascinating that it's based on his parent's marriage.

Oh, is it? I found it quite interesting actually how it, regardless of being so atmospheric, never outright specified it's place an time (as I recall at least?) I'm pretty sure we are in Colombia, but I'd guess it took place a bit earlier than would've been implied by Marquez basing it on his parents.

Marquez was born in 1927, so the action in the book would probably be the 20's through early 60's. I thought that seemed about right. They talked about endless wars, which fits with that time period in Colombia (but probably a lot of time periods in Colombia!)
We could check it out by researching the use of telegrams and telephones in Columbia.

I finally finished today! For some reason I could not read more than a few pages at a time and then I kept taking breaks for a few days. Having finished it I think I liked the book a lot and I am lost as to why I found it so hard to read. I found the constant movement backwards and forwards in time from one paragraph to the next a little much and just as I was starting to enjoy one of the characters we would switch to another and I no longer liked the original when we got back. Still with all of my complaining my overall sense is that it was worth reading.

Yay! Happy you liked the book. It does take concentration to read and time to digest, I think.