Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Characters

Fermina Daza Larenzo Daza -father – accused of illegal activities after death Escolastica – aunt Fermina Sanchez – mother – deceased Hildebranda Sanchez – cousin Dr. Juvenal Urbino Urbino children: Dr. Marco Aurelio Urbino Daza - son Ofelia - daughter Florentino Ariza Transito Ariza – mother Pius V Loayza - father Don Leo XII Loayza – uncle

Sister Franca de la Luz – Superior of the Academy of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Affairs with Florentino: Rosalba – on ship Widow Nazaret Ausencia Santander Sara Noriega Olimpia Zuleta – murdered by husband when affair discovered America Vicuna – relative under Florentino’s care, seduced by him, suicide Leona Cassiani – job at River Company of the Caribbean (RCC) – became Uncle Leo XII’s personal assistant Lucrecia del Real del Obispo – Fermina’s friend, rumored to have an affair with Juvenal Miss Barbara Lunch – Doctor of Theology, affair with Juvenal

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers refer to the paperback edition.

1. When Dr. Urbino returned from medical school to his home in the Caribbean, he had a difficult time adjusting to the pace of life, but, “…at last he gave in to the spell of habit” (page 108).   When is habit good and when can it be bad?  
2. On the other hand, Dr. Urbino “was in conflict with everything” at the hospital, but especially the “lack of sanitation in the city” (page 108).   This resulted in the first outbreak of cholera.   How important was cholera in the novel?
3. Florentino was responsible for his relative, America Vicuna, and yet he seemed unmoved when she committed suicide.  How much is he to blame for her academic difficulties and then death?
4. Why did Fermina end the relationship with Florentino so suddenly?
5. Was it realistic that Florentino would continue to love Fermina throughout his entire life and never marry?

6. When Fermina and Florentino connected late in life, Fermina’s two children had different views of their relationship.   Her son saw it as, “a healthy affection between two lonely old people” but her daughter thought is “a vice-ridden form of secret concubinage” (page 322).    Were you able to understand each’s child’s point of view?  What did you think?
7. Florentino believed that, “human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves” (page 165).  What examples did you see of rebirth in the novel?  In your life?
8. Why did we need to know so much about Florentino’s intestinal difficulties?  What did that add to the novel?
9. What major topics were addressed by the novel: unrequited love, marriage, widowhood, sexual freedom, aging, love between seniors?  Any others?  What topics did you think the author addressed realistically or not so realistically?
10. On page 256 the author, through Florentino, addressed aging in men vs. women.  He thought that as men aged, “…they seemed more dignified with their first grey hairs…” but that “…their withered wives had to clutch at their arms…”   He then went on, “A few years later, however, the husbands fell without warning down the precipice of a humiliating aging in body and soul…”   How did you feel reading these thoughts?   Are they accurate?
11. According to the New York Times Book Review, June 10, 2018, this book was the “summer’s must-read” book in 1988.   Why do you think it was so popular?
12. Did you learn anything or gain any new insights from this novel?
13. What did you think about the ending?

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