Love in the Time of Cholera

""Love in the Time of Cholera," by Gabriel García Márquez — one of the books that cracked me open."

"I read “Love in the Time of Cholera” when I was 19, and I still think about the characters."

"That's when I read Gabriel García Márquez's 'Love in the Time of Cholera.' If you know the book, you'll know what a perfect reading experience that was."

"Yes, favorites include Gabriel García Márquez (especially "Love in the Time of Cholera") and Orhan Pamuk ("Snow," "My Name Is Red")."

""Love in the Time of Cholera" seems to come up once a month, even though I read it 20 years ago."

"Well, this is about love as opposed to sex. He’s talking about love in all its forms, including unrequited love that goes on for 50 years. He shows the couple as teenagers in a passionate love affair, but then she’s forced to marry someone else and she forgets her first love and becomes a good wife – she loves her husband and they have a good relationship. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter But he can’t forget, can’t get rid of the early passion, and he has hundreds of erotic adventures but never commits because he holds a torch for his first love. Anyway, he turns up after 50 years at her husband’s funeral and says: Let’s start again. She, of course, sends him packing, saying: Don’t be ridiculous. Because her love for her husband is a different kind of love. It’s partly such a passionate book because of the beauty of the prose, describing love through time and how she found contentment – love, passion and sex all in one. The prose just drips sexuality and sensuality. It’s sexy enough without having to read about deep positions or anything."