One Weird Neighborhood of Characters (Part One)

Imagine having the characters of all these tales in one neighborhood. It would be interesting to witness all the crazy happenings, or just exchange gossips over the fence.

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (THE OLD FOLKS'S LOVESTRUCK TRIANGLE)

In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fell in love. One day however, Fermina decides to end their relationship, and went on to marry Dr. Juvenal Urbino - a good-looking doctor from a wealthy family. Florentino Ariza, an illegitimate child of a merchant, could not match this. He vowed to improve himself to claim the love of his life. As a bachelor, he had affairs that spanned half a century while waiting for the day. And when indeed Dr. Urbino died and Fermina became a widow, he planned his way into winning her back again.

The book has wonderful lyrical quality to it and is a big hit to most of "The Bridges of Madison County" fans. I, on the other hand, found the sentimentality nauseating sometimes. This is the ultimate love story for those who stash romance novels in their library. For people who believe that there is just one person out there for them. For some who are of different tastes (which includes me), this is the dreaded chick flick (take note I'm a girl and I can't stand it). Just like the main theme of this book - PATIENCE - I had to summon a lot of will to finish reading this (it took me year). However, it is not badly written. It's the overabuse of the word "love" and anything related to it, which repelled me. It drained too much of my estrogen stores and made me stony.


THE VIRGIN SUICIDES by Jeffrey Eugenides (THE GIRLS NEXT DOOR AND THE BOYS WHO WATCH THEM)


The Lisbon girls were fascinating creatures. They were beautiful girls. But one day Cecilia, the youngest, commits suicide. This was the turning point of their story as it ushered a series of self-annihilation of the other four sisters: Lux, Therese, Bonnie, and Mary. A group of boys who obsessed them, tells their story as witnesses to the events of highs, lows, and the ultimate doom of their lives.


For people suffering insomnia, I recommend you to read this book to fill in those hours of sleeplessness. You won't waste a minute reading this as the story is interesting, funny, and wistful (finished it in one night and paid for it at work the next day, tsk tsk tsk). A very good read, if I must say. I am still looking for a DVD copy of the movie and am quite curious on how Sophia Copolla adapted the book to the movie.