Love in the Time of Cholera

The writing itself is great, but honestly the story is creepy AF. Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza met as teenagers and Florentino quickly falls in love with Fermina. After a few years of “dating”, Fermina realizes that Florentino is not the man for her, and rejects him. Up to this part of the story, everything seems fine. But then it all goes downhill from here...

Fermina eventually marries Dr Juvenal Urbino, a wealthy doctor. Florentino on the other hand wants to remain “faithful” to Fermina and decides not to marry anyone. He does, however, end up sleepy with a myriad of different women, including América Vicuña, a 14-year-old girl who is sent to live with him. For a 70-something year old man to be intimate with a 14-year old girl is one thing, and add to that the fact that she eventually kills himself after he rejects her in the end!

Finally, after 50 years of marriage, Dr Urbino dies after falling from a ladder while trying to rescue his parrot. Florentino learns of this news and decides to re-confess his love to Fermina all these years. She initially outright rejects him, but after his consistent advanves, he wears her down and they become intimate.

So is the moral of the story here that you can be a creep and still get what you want?