Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A few of us are going to make ourselves finally tackle Love in the Time of Cholera. Anyone else want to join us? It'll probably be a week or 2 before we start.

Yay, thanks for making this! I just placed a library hold on the book; hopefully it’s ready soon.

I would love to join!

Nice!

Lauren, did you get a copy yet?

Sorry, I never got a notification for this!

Yes, I have the audiobook on my phone now for a few weeks so I'll get started soon.

Are we reading it in parts, discussing each one at a time?

However you like. I'm about 30 pages in.

Ok, I see that the audiobook isn’t broken down into chapters or any type of distinct sections, so maybe we could just discuss the first half for now, and then the second half a week later?

It'll probably take me a coupke of weeks to finish it, but yeah, we can divide it in half.

Ok, that works. I will stop at the halfway mark and just let us know when you are ready to move on to the second half. So far the audio version is a little difficult to follow… How is the print version?

I‘m on holidays for the next two weeks and forgot my copy at home 🤦🏼‍♀️ I will try to catch up when I‘m back home and join you in the discussion at the end!

Oh no, Verena! Catch up when you can!

I haven't read any more. I almost tried the audio version, but I remember reading his 100 Years of Solitude and how confusing that was, so I figured I'd stick to the print version. So far, I"m OK, but I'm not that far in... I'll try to get back to it tonight.

I'm honestly having a really hard time following the story on audio, and I'm not sure why... I'll try reviewing some online synopses and commentary to wrap my brain around what's going on.

What are your thoughts/observations so far, Jennifer?

Hmm, that's too bad. I read to page 50 the other night. The Dr is dead, the Romeo has returned, and the woman has kicked him out and told him to die alone someplace! So far, I'm rather enjoying it!

Haha ok, thanks for the quick summary! ;)

Lol, no prob!

I try not to get too bogged down in the politics. Sadly, I'm not well versed in Latin American histories, but Garcia really is. He throws a lot of it into his stories, without being super specific, so I have found it hard to follow. I find it easier to follow which characters are friendly (or not) towards each other, for whatever reason.

Also, absurdity, sometimes to the point of vulgarity, shows up on the regular. If I don't understand something, I try not to fixate on it and just assume he was being ridiculous!

I'm fairly familiar with some Latin/South American history (I've lived in Chile and Peru) although not specifically this time period in Colombia. I found this for some background context (although I take it with a grain of salt since "Colombia" is misspelled throughout the article...): http://katelynpascavis.blogspot.com/2...

Also, here's a discussion question I found: "How and why does the novel conflate love and sickness? In what ways are the concepts related?" What do you think?

And what are some of the funny parts you've enjoyed?

That's cool that you've lived in South America!

I found the Dr and his wife's fight that nearly ended their marriage funny, the fact that he was chasing after a parrot when he died was amusing, and the way the wife told Romeo (I don't have the book in front of me for the correct names) to kick rocks amused me, too.

I haven't had a chance to read any further. I put this as my bedtime book, but I've been exhausted this week, so I haven't read anything before heading off to sleep! Have you made it much further?

I'm at about the 3/4 mark and it's strange; the audio just isn't working. I'm enjoying it one paragraph at a time, but the whole thing isn't really connecting as a continuous story. I can tell that I like the writing on a more zoomed-in level though. This also happened for me with with Rachel Kushner's books on audio. I can't tell if it's the narrators or the writing style that just doesn't translate well for that format. I listen to about three audiobooks a week, and it's only a few per year that run into this issue. I might try the book again in print another time, but my TBR hard copy stacks at home will need to be chipped away at first. :/

It's been helpful to read the synopsis and commentary online about the book though. Any thoughts on that question about love and sickness throughout the book?

I think it's a great question! I think the beginning already talks about Fermina's love for her husband as he is aging and experiencing declines. I haven't gotten to anyone suffering from cholera yet, but I assume that's coming... I will keep that question in mind as I read.

I noticed the cholera references were brief throughout the book. There were images of dead bodies floating by that could have been from either the disease or the war.

I planned to read this book much sooner, but it didn't work out. I'm about 1/4 of the way through now. I didn't read anything about the book in advance and really had no idea what it was about. So I was rather surprised when Dr Urbino died as I assumed the book was about him. Little did I know that it was really about his wife (unless it changes up again). I'm enjoying the audiobook, but I had to look up the characters' names just to keep them straight. Thank you, Wikipedia.

I read the physical book and had trouble keeping the names straight at first, the audio would habe been totally confusing for me 😅

The last 1/4 of this book was rather horrifying in many ways and made me angry, and I was glad to be done with it.

I dropped this book once again! I was enjoying it, just too busy, I guess!

Next year.... (I mean it this time! Maybe! Definite Maybe!)