Unexpected compressions of images, as Florentino Ariza falls sick of his love for Fermina Daza and the symptoms are indistinguishable from cholera, so love and death are crammed into a sentence - or maybe it wold be more accurate to say unrequited love, a more visceral image than the the death and the scent of bitter almonds that starts the book.
And I was surprised by Dr Juvenal Urbino's last declaration of love as he lay dying under the ladder. The incident with the soap, the undeclared battle that lasted for weeks until he finally returns to their marriage bed in the middle of the night in a half stupor, and the reconciliation is effected without either really giving way, seemed real, and convincing but I had thought it was also a sign of a sham marriage, but I don't think it was now. So it makes me revise all the tenderness of her constant attention, dressing him when he can't dress, at his side in case he spills his food.
The fervent relationship carried on by letter is the more intense and yet liberating because it combines fulfillment with denial, so that we / they are dazzled always, never seeing the unveiling of the everyday that may inevitably disappoint.
No comments:
Post a Comment