There's the benefit of a broad liberal education, an idea sneered at these days. It takes a while to figure out what you really believe, and you're unlikely to find it just by nodding parrotlike at whatever your parents or your childhood buddies or heroes tell you. A certain amount of scrambling to find solid ground is a damned healthy thing. It's a good sign that you still have you integrity. Hopefully you'll never stop
scrambling entirely.

However, sooner or later you have to be sure you're not refusing to settle for less because it's a way to keep from having to commit to any real work.

A Review: Love in the Time of Cholera.

My previous excursion into Gabriel Garcia Marquez's fantastically realistic worlds was through the pages of 100 Years of Solitude. That novel, like this one, had two things going against it with me as the reader: (a) I'm not a fan of magical realism and (b) I'm not a fan of stories that cover large periods of time. 100 Years did both of these to the extreme, as you might guess. The magical realism seemed placed abundantly in unnecessary spots and, as you might guess from title, it takes forever. It was a trudge to finish and I half vowed that I'd never read another novel like it again.

Despite this sentiment, I wanted to read Cholera because I've owned it for a couple years now. I am a sucker for good love stories (that aren't pandering only to females) and was hoping that this wouldn't tread in the grounds of 100 Years too much. Luckily, it keeps the magical realism in check and while it covers 70 years itself, apparently that 30 years made all the difference.

Love in the Time of Cholera was a fascinating read. It has some brilliant moments, some quotable quotes, a beautiful love story, and myriad tangents and distractions. Everything in the story has a history. The book clocks in at around 350 pages and I'm pretty sure over 150 of that is history of people, places, or objects within the fantasy world that Garcia Marquez creates. It becomes incredibly tedious with its incessant droning. While his writing is beautiful throughout, it makes it incredibly hard to stay interested when hearing about the history of a boat (in a story!). In hindsight, I'm surprised it bothered me as much as it did since I loved Moby Dick, which is notorious for it's long sidetracks.

Regardless of those issues, the story really is lovely. Young Florentino Ariza falls in love with a young Fermina Diza only to be spurned by her after his love for her has grown with unbreakable bonds. He vows to love her forever and win her over later in life when her husband passes away. As the story notes, 50 years, nine months, and four days later, he takes his chance.

I give the story bonus points for some really intriguing themes throughout. The one that sticks with me the most having just finished, is the theme of how the past affects the future. Florentino is convinced that the past still means something while other characters in the story interpret the past as not existing (in ways). It's a wonderful parallel to another well-read novel, The Great Gatsby. It was nice to see this theme played on within a love story, especially one that is a little more delicate than Gatsby's.

I do wish that the story would have stuck with the main storyline a little more, but I suppose it does become muddled when everything has its own history that--sometimes--ties into the primary storyline. It's amazingly easy to go through the ups and downs of Florentino, Fermina, and other characters, but that is probably a testament to Garcia Marquez's writing. Not only does it's artistic flow feel like beautiful poetry, but he manages to capture the essence of humans in the joys and tortures of love. After reading it, I'm now quite convinced that falling in love as hard as Florentino would probably destroy my soul with burden rather than happiness.

4*/5.

CN: This review is terse in comparison to the novel, but his writing is undeniably superior....ainec.

Wow nice review.

Reviews like this really deserve their own thread, but it's your call, of course.

nice review....but for the love of god, what is "ainec" short for?

It's an anagram of the name of an early computer. Eniac was the most important machine invented, and it's not even close.

I really think Stephenson is in a totally different league to the others you mention. The depth of his research and his extraordinary range are way beyond anything else around although his prose style leaves a little to be desired.

You might enjoy Stephen Baxter. I really liked his novel "Evolution".

I finally received Clockers by Richard Price in the mail (agonizing week+ wait because of stupid amazon). Can't wait to sink my teeth into it. Also got Homicide by David Simon and Big Blowdown by Pelecanos. I enjoyed The Night Gardener by Pelecanos and I've read that his DC Quartet is some of his best work so I'm hoping it lives up to my expectations.

In case it wasn't painstakingly obvious yes I'm a huge The Wire fanboy.

Thanks for the kind words. I have been wanting to review the books I read for a while now, so that in a couple years when I start forgetting the details of the book, I can reread the review to get a handle on it. Unfortunately, I don't write reviews often, so they're still not exactly down to an art. I tried though!

DB, with that blessing, if I continue to do these at this level, then I'll start the own thread. As for this one, I'll post it in its own thread since it might be the only review of this caliber (what little it may be) that I write.


Dom, as for "ainec," that was in the CliffsNotes section of the review for the lazy bums. I figure Loungers read the review, whereas visitors from other forums will read the CliffsNotes. On that note, I figure they will already know what "and it's not even close" means. Lazy bums.

I lol'd. Nice post.

As you can probably guess if you've read this thread from the beginning, I like reviews in this thread and think they are infinitely more interesting than a quick note on what someone is reading without explanation as to whether the reader liked it, recommends it, etc. Reviews keep the read thread a bit meaty and are more likely to make someone wonder if they should read the talked about book, too.

Just to take a tangent from your wonderful post Blarg, this was my biggest concern writing the review. I couldn't exactly decide how to write a review that would help sway a reader (of the review) to either give Cholera a try or to avoid it. That is easily the hardest part of writing a quality book review, in my opinion.

I have a lot of respect for those who can write reviews that are effective at letting me decide whether or not it sounds interesting enough to try or not worth the effort. It's hard to write that into a review, at least for me.

It's a hard row to hoe and the job may not be to convince people whether to read the book or not unless it's a real stinker or winner anyway. Otherwise, giving people a little perspective so they can feel they have the grounds to make a decision of their own is best of all.

I am very happy for it to be posted in this thread and have its own thread too. Why not, eh?

I suppose this is what I tried to do, but in this specific example it was a tough task. Love in the Time of Cholera was a book that I loved for many reasons and hated for others. I initially gave it 3 stars for its downsides, but then realized it had too much beauty to not be 4 stars. I suppose that because of my own unsure stance, it made it hard to offer that perspective. Shrug.

I definitely gain appreciation for those who can write awesome reviews (book, movie, whatever).

Me too.

Also the star system and such stuffery is really overrated. I don't think it's appropriate for books anyway.

It's most effective for me in reminding me of a general guideline. I don't rely on it for much more. However, without such ratings, I might be suckered into rereading a "2 star" book that I will wish I hadn't. Shrug.

Maybe we need the thumbs up model

LOL, for people for whom even the 5 star system is much too subtle, complex and time-consuming.

Currently on Way of the Superior Man by David Deida. I've seen it recommended in other threads, but eh. It's a sort of New Agey pseudo-spiritual/psychological thing. Talks about your "male essence" and how to rejuvenate it etc. There are some interesting parts and I'll finish reading it, but so far I wouldn't recommend it unless you're into that sort of thing.

Also Preacher volume 3 (apologies to Blarg for no content here).

I just read George Orwell's short essay (?) "Politics and the English Language."
Link: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm

This was a delightful read. I think that it's accurate in the judgment of the superfluous writing that we find in a lot of modern literature and especially in politics. I'd never come across this before and it was easily one of the funnier things that I've read, not so much for the piece per se, but rather for how I can place it in the context of current events (such as the election debates).

It's not a book, but I wanted to share anyway, in case anyone was interested.

Hey I'm not the boss of you; do what you like.

Of course now I have no idea what Preacher volume 3 is even about, but whatev.

Btw I think you're the only guy who has been less than lavish in praise of the other book. Whenever I see universal raves and "It will change your life forever!" type reviews, I get real leery.

If you enjoyed this you might enjoy David Foster Wallace's essay Authority and American Usage from his book Consider The Lobster. From wikipedia:

I found the Harper's version here.

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

Starting tonight.

I personally enjoy reading fiction books that have nothing to do with reality whatsoever unless they are future dystopia type stuff which I also like.

authors I like
stephen king- the dark tower series =
dean k- odd thomas yum
chuck paluchniak- zomg fight club, survivor , and choke
kurt vonnegut

books Ive read recently that I liked a lot

1. middlesex
2.the brief and wonderous life of oscar wao
3. a million little pieces ( i still like james frey, this is a totally different subject though)
4. currently reading infinite jest. I like all the parts in the book that are not about tennis A LOT!!


I also occasionally read good literature.

I read this about 10 years ago and thought it was brilliant, but tried another of his and it sucked.

I think I might reread it very, very, very soon.

posting cause db's new name showing up in the last post section is ****ing up the forums and putting me on tilt. plz to be mother****ing fixing that ****.

spaceman bryce, nothing wrong with some mediocre horror novels imo. They're great escapism and generally pretty entertaining to me.