I started reading this book a couple of months ago and for the first time in my life it took me more than a couple of weeks to finish a book. It was not the book’s fault it was mine, I was busy and then Ramadan came along so I had to put it aside for some time.
I finished reading it yesterday and felt satisfied. It is a story of love that spans slightly over half a century. Set in latin America in the end of the 18th century till the 1920s. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel laureate, spins a gripping, exciting and romantic tale of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Not exactly star crossed lovers but nonetheless separated by Fermina’s choice and then brought back together by Florentino’s perseverence and undying love 50 years later.
I will not spoil it for you but the book is worth the reading time. You will be transported to a different time and a different world where everything is slow moving like the Magdalena river and time is of no importance only love. From the book my favorite passage has to be:
Together they had overcome the daily incomprehension, the instantaneous hatred, the reciprocal nastiness, and fabulous flashes of glory in the conjugal conspiracy. It was time when they both loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. Life would still present them with other moral trials, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore.
real life ….real love …amazing i’ll start reading it next week
@RJay, let’s watch the movie at the same time.
Hmmm.. a post about a book
Sounds important..
actually i read through 100 pages through it and kind of felt bored in the middle. I mean there is no “suspense” just a narrating of events that you know where are they going to lead… That is what I felt, at least the first 100 pages of the book
I think this Marquez’s general style, those first 100 pages are the hardest, but once you’ve passed them it because more interesting and gripping.
3ala baraket Allah! a7′allas bass elly fe eedy w ba3deen the World is Flat w ba3deen ba2a Marquez
isA
yeah and don’t worry, i already have it..mesh hastelfoh men 7add
I read this book as part of a bloggers book club we had going on last year. I personally loved it and thought it was a representation of modern dynamics of attraction between the sexes. Not everyone who read it though had a favorable opinion.
It was a good book, but I think I liked 100 years of solitude more. I also think that your opinion of a book depends on your mood and what you are going thru in life when you read the book.
100 years of solitude was a good one!
This novel is on my to-read list. A friend recently told that my debut novel THE YEARS OF SILENCE reminds him of this book (and I couldn’t have been more flattered). And that’s why I want to read it soon.
I’m an Egyptian author who writes in English, by the way. My debut novel is believed to be the first English-language romance novel by an Egyptian female born and raised in Egypt. May be you’ve heard about it before.
Ramadan Kareem.
I’d love to read your book, do you know where I might find it in Kuwait.
I don’t think you can find it in Kuwait. Anyone outside Egypt can order it via this link and it’ll be shipped to you:
http://bookspotonline.com/middle.php?file=bookdetails&bookid=43933
Or if you have someone you know traveling to Egypt; tell them to buy you a copy and they give it to you when they see you in Kuwait.
I’ll wait till I am in Egypt then. Good luck with it too!
I do like the part…”but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore”…
Yes and if you’ve read the book you’ll know it means so much more. I loved the book and have had the movie for ages and still haven’t seen it. I am afraid it might ruin the book in my head
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