EricaO

I don't know why I haven't read Marquez before now. I started listening to this book the day he died and it made me feel like I killed him even though that's not even possible because that is not how things work in the real world.
And yet...

So this is my first Marquez work and I have no others with which to compare/contrast. I'm blank-slating it, here.
Also, I probably misunderstood almost all of it because sometimes I get the wrong message.
Here's what I got out of this story:

It's subtly hilarious. You wouldn't think something could be both subtle and hilarious but, to me, this story was - I sniggered and giggled and did wry-smiling a lot while this book played in my car.
I got the feeling that men who don't actually do any sort of hard work for a living were being mocked. Maybe they weren't, but there didn't seem to be a lot of respect for either the good doctor or for Florentino.
And women...it seemed women who followed convention were screwed but women who flipped the bird to society were free and happy (until their husbands killed them or they were raped down by the docks and, perversely (and pissing-offingly, actually) were sometimes still happy) though shunned by the more upstanding folk. But it's better to be shunned by the stiffs than it is to BE one of the stiffs, yes?
I had so many deep thoughts while listening to this, so many realizations, so many profound epiphanies. I felt like these characters were shining examples of real people, of real jacked-up but not-remarkable people that maybe we know or maybe we sometimes are. In fact, I could relate to Fermina Daza so completely that sometimes I thought she was me. I always knew how she'd respond to her situations - from the time she was a silly but calculating teenager to the time she was doddering along all rheumy-eyed and widowed. I knew her that well.
Then I forgot it all because I had to catalog books and stalk authors or I had to make dinner and do some laundry and try to fit everything in before bedtime. This is a loss for me because it is not often that something clicks in my head and makes me feel like having introspection and puzzling out truths for relevance and answers and super-shiny mind sparkles. It happened with this book and I didn't write a damn thing down and now I feel sad.
I suck sometimes.

You know what also sucks sometimes?
Endings.
The one in this book is what made me drop a star.

I so badly wanted Fermina to not do exactly what she did; I needed her to do the opposite because while it may have seemed she was looking for simple contentment at the end of life, I felt she was merely settling, too afraid to be alone. She made the exact same decision I would have made and I wanted her to be stronger than I am. She wasn't. I was sad and I flicked that fifth star away.