I’m posting this review because it seems appropriate for the time we’re currently living through. I read it a long time ago, but now it seems particularly relevant because it ends with a love affair between a man and a woman who are in their 70’s and it takes place during the cholera plague.
The main characters of the novel are Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino and Fermina fall in love in their youth. A secret relationship blossoms between the two and they exchange love letters. However, once Fermina’s father, Lorenzo Daza, finds out about the two, he forces his daughter to stop seeing Florentino immediately. When she refuses, he and his daughter move in with his deceased wife’s family in another city. Fermina and Florentino continue to communicate via telegraph, but, upon her return, Fermina breaks off her engagement to Florentino and returns all his letters.
Fermina marries Dr. Juvenal Urbino, a physician devoted to science, modernity, and “order and progress”. He is committed to the eradication of cholera and to the promotion of public works. He is a rational man whose life is organized precisely and who greatly values his importance and reputation in society. He is a herald of progress and modernization.
Meanwhile, Florentino swears to stay faithful and wait for her, except that he becomes very promiscuous (as a coping mechanism??). Meanwhile, Fermina and Urbino grow old together, going through happy years and unhappy ones and experiencing all the reality of marriage. At an elderly age, Urbino attempts to get his pet parrot out of his mango tree, only to fall off the ladder he was standing on and die. After the funeral, Florentino proclaims his love for Fermina once again and tells her he has stayed faithful to her all these years. Hesitant at first because she is only recently widowed, and finds his advances untoward, Fermina eventually gives him a second chance. They attempt a life together, having lived two lives separately for over five decades.
By the end of the book, Fermina comes to recognize Florentino’s wisdom and maturity, and their love is allowed to blossom during their old age. They go on a cruise (wouldn’t be allowed today, I guess). Florentio persuades the captain to raise a yellow flag, indicating that there is cholera aboard, so they are not allowed to dock, allowing the couple to extend the time they are alone together, isolated.