The story begins during Florentino’s teenage years, with a description of the kind of listless pursuit of love that only teenage boys are capable of. His early attempts to woo Fermina involve a relentless letter writing campaign and the composition of various pieces of music on his violin.
Fermina, whilst initially flattered, does not feel amorously for Florentino and, after humouring him for a while, she rejects his suit, seeing him as an immature hopeless romantic. This rejection devastates Florentino, who instead focusses on his career at a local shipping company. After a time, he moves on and develops something of a reputation locally as a womanizer, despite his feelings for Fermina remaining unchanged.
Meanwhile, Fermina has met her future husband, a practical man by the name of Juvenal Urbino – a doctor by profession who is, by contrast to Florentino, composed, self-possessed and an important figure in the local community.
The rest of the novel goes on to explore the divergent lives of these two characters as they grow older. Fermina’s tale in particular is populated by scores of difficult relatives and cynics who attempt to manipulate her and her husband. Yet, Marquez has created an intriguing woman in Fermina - she is fiercely independent and possessed of a rare conviction about her opinions, usually to the exclusion of the wishes of her husband.
Among the cynics, Fermina’s father, Lorenzo Daza, is a particularly memorable creation – a driven, self-made man whose primary concern is the advancement of his business. His treatment of Florentino in the early chapters of the book is particularly striking and the interplay between the two over Florentino’s pursuit of Fermina is a fascinating confrontation which is one of the strongest sections of the book.
Florentino’s development as a character as he ages is certainly curious. He goes from being a slightly clueless but ultimately sympathetic character as a young man to being something of a user of women, who he seems to view as collectively as distractions from Fermina, who is beyond his reach. He is by no means a consistently moral character and comes across as something of a hypocrite when he offers his true opinions on love to the various women he sleeps with.
Overall, this novel, whilst slow and a little laborious as a read, is an interesting meditation on love and the effects thereof on different characters. Although the dialogue sometimes feels a little off and some of the incidents seem to have been lifted straight out of a soap, it is rich novel by a highly accomplished author.
It will, however, take even the most committed reader at least a week to read so it is worth picking up when there is plenty of spare time available.
N/B: I do not own the rights to the photo used in this blog entry and will remove it at the request of the rights holder.
