I just finished reading this book. I had read One hundred years of solitude because everyone else was reading and I did not want to be left out. I did not understand much of it. When people said it was a great book, I nodded in agreement telling them that I have read and loved it. Gabrial Garcia Marquez, after all, is a noble prize-winning writer and darling of intellectuals but guess what? After reading Love at the time of cholera, I am totally judging those who admire him. Call me dumb, intellectually challenged, or whatever you want to, but I am never going to read Marquez again.
In Love at the time of Cholera, we meet Florintino Ariza who falls in love with Fermina Daza the moment he sees her. Both were young and without any experience at that time. They exchange letters but never went beyond that. When Fermina's father found it, he sends her away to her cousin's place. Life moved on and so did she. She realized whatever she felt for Florintino was not worth all that pain. In fact, she was no longer in love with him and chose to marry a doctor committed to his cause.
But Florintino never forgot and was determined to win her back even after she got married. If you thought this is about eternal love, please wait. This man Florintino fucks a zillion women while waiting on one. He fucks everything that moves including a 14-year-old girl whose mother left her in his custody. He was 74 at that time. He was supposed to be the guardian of that child but then he fucks her and does her plates, makes helps her wear school uniform properly and ties her shoelaces, and oh, takes her to ice cream parlors too.
His lady love did come to him, fifty years later. And when he fucked her, he very conveniently told her ' I have remained virgin for you'.
The concept of obsessively loving the 'one' while disrespecting and hurting other women while waiting for the 'one' is done to death in pop culture. I am thinking of Kabir Singh right now. That man sleeps around carrying the hurt. How convenient? Hurt other women because the 'one' did not give a damn? And the 'one' is the victim as well, of such toxic, maniac, and obsessive love that doesn't give them any space to grow or breathe.
Coming back to Gabrial Garcia Marquez, his books should not be celebrated in this era in the name of ' greatest piece of literature'. He got things not many writers achieve. He won a noble prize for those pedophile books. But now we do not have to glorify his work. There are awesome women writers from diverse backgrounds waiting to be read. Let's focus on them.
In Love at the time of Cholera, we meet Florintino Ariza who falls in love with Fermina Daza the moment he sees her. Both were young and without any experience at that time. They exchange letters but never went beyond that. When Fermina's father found it, he sends her away to her cousin's place. Life moved on and so did she. She realized whatever she felt for Florintino was not worth all that pain. In fact, she was no longer in love with him and chose to marry a doctor committed to his cause.
But Florintino never forgot and was determined to win her back even after she got married. If you thought this is about eternal love, please wait. This man Florintino fucks a zillion women while waiting on one. He fucks everything that moves including a 14-year-old girl whose mother left her in his custody. He was 74 at that time. He was supposed to be the guardian of that child but then he fucks her and does her plates, makes helps her wear school uniform properly and ties her shoelaces, and oh, takes her to ice cream parlors too.
His lady love did come to him, fifty years later. And when he fucked her, he very conveniently told her ' I have remained virgin for you'.
The concept of obsessively loving the 'one' while disrespecting and hurting other women while waiting for the 'one' is done to death in pop culture. I am thinking of Kabir Singh right now. That man sleeps around carrying the hurt. How convenient? Hurt other women because the 'one' did not give a damn? And the 'one' is the victim as well, of such toxic, maniac, and obsessive love that doesn't give them any space to grow or breathe.
Coming back to Gabrial Garcia Marquez, his books should not be celebrated in this era in the name of ' greatest piece of literature'. He got things not many writers achieve. He won a noble prize for those pedophile books. But now we do not have to glorify his work. There are awesome women writers from diverse backgrounds waiting to be read. Let's focus on them.
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