Hardcover, 509 pages
German language
Published Jan. 1, 2000 by Kiepenheuer & Witsch.
De jóvenes, Florentino Ariza y Fermina Daza se enamoran apasionadamente, pero Fermina eventualmente decide casarse con un médico rico y de muy buena familia. Florentino está anonadado, pero es un romántico. Su carrera en los negocios florece, y aunque sostiene 622 pequeños romances, su corazón todavía pertenece a Fermina. Cuando al fin el esposo de ella muere, Florentino acude al funeral con toda intención. A los cincuenta años, nueve meses y cuatro días de haberle profesado amor a Fermina, lo hará una vez más. Con sagacidad humorística y depurado estilo, García Márquez traza la historia excepcional de un amor que no ha sido correspondido por medio siglo. Aunque nunca parece estar propiamente contenido, el amor fluye a través de la novela de mil maneras –alegre, melancólico, enriquecedor, siempre sorprendente-.
Eines der größten Bücher, die ich je gelesen habe (vor gut 30 Jahren). Packend von Anfang bis Ende, wunderbar geschrieben und schön bis in die Druckerschwärze.
Der Klappentext bezeichnet es als "Liebesroman", ich kann dem nur bedingt zustimmen. Der Protagonist ist besessen von der Frau, die ihn zurückgewiesen hat, das lässt ihn 50 Jahre nicht los. Aus seiner Perspektive ist sie seine wahre, große Liebe. Meiner Ansicht nach verhält er sich zunehmend creepy. Das spanische "la cólera" kann auch Zorn bedeuten, könnte sein, dass es das ist, was ihn im Innersten antreibt; der Zorn, zurückgewiesen worden zu sein. Bin erst 2/3 durch, mal sehen was noch passiert. Sehr gutes Buch bis jetzt.
Excellent.
Incredible journey through a lifetime by Marquez; Both heartwarming and funny and written with the obtuse but accessible style of a confident author telling stories on tangents.
One of biggest pet peeves is selfish people. This book is filled with them.
Florentino Ariza falls madly in love with Fermina Daza when they are both young. Her father intervenes, and Fermina marries a wealthy doctor--a practical decision, but she comes to love Juvenal Urbino over the years and they have a solid marriage for the majority of their time together. As marriages go, it is filled with the ups and downs expected in a long-term relationship: loss, grief, betrayal, love, happiness, change, contentment. Through their fifty years of marriage, Florentino Ariza is biding his time through hundreds of love affairs, waiting patiently for Fermina's husband to die so they can be together once again. Yes, you read that correctly. He spends his entire life marking time for the girl he briefly loved in his youth. He is unlikeable and selfish. Terrible consequences happen to others as a result …
One of biggest pet peeves is selfish people. This book is filled with them.
Florentino Ariza falls madly in love with Fermina Daza when they are both young. Her father intervenes, and Fermina marries a wealthy doctor--a practical decision, but she comes to love Juvenal Urbino over the years and they have a solid marriage for the majority of their time together. As marriages go, it is filled with the ups and downs expected in a long-term relationship: loss, grief, betrayal, love, happiness, change, contentment. Through their fifty years of marriage, Florentino Ariza is biding his time through hundreds of love affairs, waiting patiently for Fermina's husband to die so they can be together once again. Yes, you read that correctly. He spends his entire life marking time for the girl he briefly loved in his youth. He is unlikeable and selfish. Terrible consequences happen to others as a result of his affairs, and he seems either not to notice, or not to mind. Either way, I hate him. He wasn't someone I was pulling for or wanted to see triumph in the end.
The saving grace of this book is the absolutely gorgeous writing style. Even though I hated the characters, I loved the writing and could picture the setting. It's a gorgeous book, to be sure, I just didn't feel the romance others rave about.
The writing (or translation) was beautiful but the book suffered greatly by its incessant descriptions and from a main character for whom I had zero sympathy. He lived his life in the shadows and did nothing but pine for one woman his whole unexceptional life. This isn't romantic, it's absurd and childish. What a waste of a life and what a waste of my time.
It wasn't universally loved - it was a slog for some (while one woman read it - today!). But everyone described it with words like dense, rich, and lush. The descriptions of the scenes, of the characters, of the smells!, were slow and deep. Jenna read some information about his family. It feels almost as if he transferred his relatives into his fictional account. We discussed the different types of love that Urbino and Florentino felt towards Fermina, or even the difference between the young adolescent love between Florentino and Fermina and the love that they felt in old age. It was a good portrayal of the changes that slowly overtook Columbia, and of the changes as the main characters slipped into old age.
I had a hard time with this book. I fell in love with the beauty of Garcia Marquez's writing very quickly, but didn't take too much longer to find the stupidity of most of the characters and the incomprehensibility of many of their actions grating. The fabulous prose kept me reading, albeit slowly and in short bursts, until about 3/4 of the way through the book suddenly it all fell into place for me, and I fell wholly in love with the book--story, characters and all--from that point until the deeply affecting ending.
I'm not sure I want to read another long novel by Garcia Marquez, because there were too many times in the middle when I was about to give up, but this has made me very keen to read some of his short stories and journalism.
I had a hard time with this book. I fell in love with the beauty of Garcia Marquez's writing very quickly, but didn't take too much longer to find the stupidity of most of the characters and the incomprehensibility of many of their actions grating. The fabulous prose kept me reading, albeit slowly and in short bursts, until about 3/4 of the way through the book suddenly it all fell into place for me, and I fell wholly in love with the book--story, characters and all--from that point until the deeply affecting ending.
I'm not sure I want to read another long novel by Garcia Marquez, because there were too many times in the middle when I was about to give up, but this has made me very keen to read some of his short stories and journalism.
Whew! I finally finished this book...and I am glad I did. For some reason this book never inspired that "page turner" fever in me. Don't get me wrong, it held my attention and I did love it, but I was never in a race to finish this book. I'm not sure what it was about this story that allowed me to interrupt it with other books, then come back. Maybe I subconsciously wanted to savor the story.
I'll let others decide this books virtues and place in the pantheon of literature. I loved the beautifully drawn characters. I loved the vivid sense of place and period. I loved the dense sentences, each one chewy and sweet. I loved the humanity in this novel.
I didn't love the pacing, yet I doubt I would want it changed - back to that savoring thing, I guess. I should have read this book …
Whew! I finally finished this book...and I am glad I did. For some reason this book never inspired that "page turner" fever in me. Don't get me wrong, it held my attention and I did love it, but I was never in a race to finish this book. I'm not sure what it was about this story that allowed me to interrupt it with other books, then come back. Maybe I subconsciously wanted to savor the story.
I'll let others decide this books virtues and place in the pantheon of literature. I loved the beautifully drawn characters. I loved the vivid sense of place and period. I loved the dense sentences, each one chewy and sweet. I loved the humanity in this novel.
I didn't love the pacing, yet I doubt I would want it changed - back to that savoring thing, I guess. I should have read this book on a cruise, then I wouldn't be picking nits.
I do think you should read this book. Just don't tempt yourself by putting other books on your nightstand at the same time.
It's wonderful � funny, romantic, sad, startling. The central obsession is romance, even as he skewers romance. I enjoyed the complexity of the characters, which couldn't be less black/white. It may be heresy to say so, but I found this to be a more successful novel than "One Hundred Years of Solitude", probably because Solitude sprawls so much.
Garcia Marquez's story of love that waits forever: I enjoyed it very much, and love the writing style. The characters are all very complex--I liked them, warts and all. And the ending was absolutely perfect.
