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writing pool
A Collection of Reviews, Short Stories and Essays
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007
 Reading Love in the Time of Cholera evoked a wide range of emotions in me like no other book ever did. In just one read, my reactions witnessed transitions from compassion to incredulity, sympathy to amusement, pity to wonder…It is hard not to be astounded by Florentino Ariza’s fifty one year, five month, and four day vigil towards the much awaited requited love of Fermina Daza. He took lovesickness to the extremes. He went beyond the figurative to the more literal; he ate roses and gardenias, drank bottles of cologne…all because they were reminders of the object of his intense affection. He even bought a ridiculously expensive mirror for the even more ridiculous reason of having her reflection linger there for a mere two hours. He barely witnessed the passage of time, the ravages of old age—basically went through life like a blur. Only in the changes of Fermina Daza’s appearance was he able to discern that old age was catching up.Nothing could have discouraged him from his relentless pursuit of love—not even Fermina Daza’s sudden and inexplicable rejection. Upon realizing how the love she felt for him was nothing but an illusion, she erased him from her life with just a wave of her hand. And even though one’s heart would go out to Florentino whose despair was inevitable, one can understand the rationale behind Fermina Daza’s decision. They separated for years…years wherein Fermina’s expectations rose to impossibly fantastical levels. She had likened him to a demigod—gallant, romantic, poetic, dashingly handsome. A perfect creature set to entice her the moment she finally laid eyes on him. Her vision may be shallow, yes, but one cannot deny the fact that most of us exhibit the same trait at one point or another. I have never known a person who dreamed about the perfect mate and seeing that person without a beautiful exterior. There will always be that ethereal image of beauty that we cannot help but attribute to the ideal mate we have created in our heads. In the end, it is only the harsh wakeup call that is reality that forces us to compromise; for only a number of us can truly meet the exact vision we have in our dreams. People always say, "When you dream, you might as well dream big." This could not be more appropriate because this was exactly what Fermina Daza did—she dreamed and dreamed about her perfect future with her perfect man, with his perfect good looks and his perfect personality…it was not a surprise, then, that nothing but disillusionment and disappointment clouded her vision the moment she saw Florentino Ariza. Florentino, however gallant, romantic and poetic he can be, was, unfortunately, not much of a looker. In the end, he was unable to meet the unequivocally high expectations Fermina has set for him in all their years of separation. Fermina consequently ended up in a “marriage of convenience” to the seemingly perfect Dr. Juvenal Urbino. Love did not even play a factor in her decision as she opted for convenience instead. Dr. Juvenal Urbino, the perfect man you could take home to meet the parents, was accomplished, charming, good-looking, wealthy, and intelligent. Unlike the immediate disapproval Fermina’s father bestowed upon Florentino, it was even the father who encouraged his daughter to marry Dr. Urbino. Typical. Lorenzo Daza’s reaction is prevalent even in today’s society. Any parent would want nothing but the best for his daughter. But conflict ensues as there are times when what parents perceive as the best do not really coincide with what/who their children actually want or love. There are even instances, in certain cultures, that parents do not make room for compromise. In order to preserve a certain tradition or heritage, sons and daughters are pressured and prohibited to marry or have any relationship with an individual not of the same race or religion. But I digress, for in the case of Fermina Daza, it was actually none of the above. She, herself, chose to marry Dr. Juvenal Urbino of her own volition. Theirs was a good and stable marriage that lasted for half a century until the doctor’s unexpected demise. For somebody who took the utmost measures of self-preservation, his death was accidental, amusing, and very much ironic: he fell on his back after climbing a mango tree in search of an errant pet parrot—in my opinion, a rather unbecoming way to die for a person of his stature. Here we realize that we do not really have a say in the way we are to die. Much as we like the idea of dying in a spectacular, earth-shattering manner, we really do not have a choice in the matter. Death comes when you least expect it—you might not even have the best attire the moment it decides to knock on your door. I, myself, have seen a number of films depicting peoples’ deaths in the most absurd, horrifying, tragic, ridiculous and anti-climatic of ways. That of Juvenal Urbino obviously falls within the latter, mingled with fragments of the absurd and ridiculous. Nevertheless, his was a decent, stable and happy enough life. It wasn’t until the doctor’s death that Florentino Ariza began to really live. Although, one can not really call him a hermit during the past 50 years as he flitted from one liaison to the next—six hundred and twenty-two, in fact. How he squeezed all these women in all of his seventy-four years (less, actually) is something worth putting in the world book of records—I’m still trying to figure out how he accomplished such a feat. However, all these relationships he regarded as nothing more than temporary. Yes, he loved each and every one of these women in his own way, but he never married as he was still loyal to Fermina Daza. Indeed, his long pilgrimage to requited love would have spurred a variety of reactions from a wide range of people—cynics would have viewed him as excessively sentimental and stupidly wasting his time, hopeless romantics would have seen what he did as something of a dream, others would have even called him a hypocrite—vowing to remain true to Fermina Daza but fools around with every other women anyway…the list goes on. In the end, however, Florentino’s loyalty to Fermina warrants admiration. He already acknowledged her as a vital part of his life despite the fact that she chose someone of higher stature over him. He was on the verge of leaving her at one time but resolved to return and wait for her instead. He persevered and, in the end, prevailed, albeit breaking a number of hearts along the way. What struck me most about the story was how Florentino Ariza’s love blossomed from that of an extremely intense, unrealistic, and crazed obsession to that of a love that has reached a more mature depth. Even the style he used in wooing her back showed an air of maturity. Gone were the days of intense and excessively sentimental letters containing vows of eternal love. Replacing them were typewritten meditations on life, love, old age and death. He found a new way to connect with her. He opted to offer her comfort rather than his usual vow of undying adulation. He transformed from being a self-absorbed stalker to a man offering her the emotional security she needed at that time. In the end, it worked. When at last he had Fermina Daza’s love in return, they went beyond the fevers of passion and reached a point past having any care in the world. They overcame numerous obstacles to their relationship—the ravages of old age, the harsh criticism of Fermina’s daughter Ofelia, and even the awkwardness of their physical capabilities. Theirs was a love that transcended the boundaries of age. A love that is timeless.
posted by Tricia @ 4:00 AM 0 Comments:
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