Love in the Time of Cholera

Just finished reading "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (Actually, it has been sitting on my shelf for a very very very long time now- from Dudut). Although I liked "One Hundred Years of Solitude" very much, I didn't really enjoy this one. Maybe I've 'outgrown' (if there is such a thing) reading novels of this style. It took me so long to finish this novel, (I finished reading "The Kite Runner", by Khaled Hosseini, "Slumdog Millionaire" by Vikas Swarup, "Soul Mountain" by Gao Xingjian, White Tiger, and Banyaga by Charlson Ong while I was forcing myself to finish Marquez.

Soul Mountain alone is 504 pages but I was never bored reading it. [I bought this book because the cover says it is "Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature." Because of so many novels out there, I have no idea what to read so I rely on these claims and awards to point me to the best. Sometimes, I am disappointed, but with this one, I thought I made a right choice]. Perhaps i can identify with the solitary sojourn of the character, or maybe because I was fascinated that this was translated from Chinese (Mabel Lee). I read it slowly, also studying the English, as if I knew Chinese and guessed some "Chineseness" in the renditions. It seemed, as I read this novel, that I was also walking with the man, through the forests and through exotic bridges and passing by rivers and mountainsides, and even his loves are echoes of my own yearnings. But in this novel, he is "you,she,he", and expecting it would turn out to have the usual plotted structure was a struggle at first. I was looking for a central character, but the central character was a narrator experiencing other character's lives. Later, I appreciated the style, the atmosphere - reading it was like watching a cinematic film, visually enchanting to say the least, since it expertly visualizes the surroundings . It is also a collection of tales, short stories, anecdotes about interesting characters. Literature calls this style 'picaresque' (novel in miniature stories).

I read Slumdog Millionaire because I did not see the film. And even without the film, the human interest level alone was enough to hold my attention. I finished this novel in one sitting. The style was journalistic, so it was easy to read. I was quite impressed with the plotting and character development, but I was most impressed with the realistic approach, just-as-it-is realism. I favor novels like this, and I feel "antique" in a sense, because everybody now seems to be reading science fiction and are all gaga at fantasy. [I allowed myself to be coerced, by my 16 year old niece, to read "New Moon". But when I watched the film (also because my niece wanted to watch it so much,) I realized that well, indeed, the wolf was handsome, but the vampire was not. So that was all this novel was all about, handsome vampires and wolves and impressionable teenagers on a mysterious love affair. I'm not afraid of vampires at all, but I'm afraid of my niece getting into somethings which could be a subtle deception from the devil himself. So Help us God.]

I know nothing about India so I was quite curious and bought another novel about India called "White Tiger," a very depressing book which also told everything that it knows about India, but minus the 'glint' of hope present in "slumdog..." This one simply says, this is India, "It's filthy, it's corrupt, it deserves it's hoodlum characters." I wanted to balance my reading so I borrowed an Autobiography - Lindy Hope said this one was a classic and it gave a picture of India before the India that is today's India - "The Sun in the Morning" by M.M. Kaye. Set at the time when India was still under British occupation, and there was ample spaces and stretches of exotic land for the sun to glare at, The Sun in the Morning romanticized India so I saw the other side. I enjoyed reading all these books.

The "Kite Runner" was so sad, but in the end it was also a poignant story of true and deep friendship, and what it means to put your life on the line for your friend. [I should have read "Kite Runner" earlier, but at the time that I was looking for this book, powerbooks said it was sold out, so I was happy to have finally borrowed it from a friend] I really really cried. Well, my friend from SK Yna also lent me the film together with the book so my experience was complete. Sometimes, it takes novels like this to jolt me out of my complacency. I could sense all the feelings in this film, it is like a poem. Since I'm no critic, I don't know how to fully express my appreciation of this story. But this is one story that affirms what it means to be "human" in an extremely inhuman condition. Now I became curious about Afghanistan so I read a book about an American, married to an Afghan, who had a parlor in Afghanistan. I still have to buy that book and read it again. But it was so expensive, so I browsed it as fast as I could in Fully Booked at Bonifacio Old Street (my favorite bookstore). It told about women who could only allow themselves to be themselves when they were among themselves in a most natural place where they could let their hair down - a parlor. Once they got out of it, they become once more subject to the limitations of their traditions. It was an affirmation of what women can do in an extremely 'limiting' society, where a woman's role is confined to marriage and bearing kids.

Afghanistan, India, China - it seems to me that these glorious civilizations of thousands and thousands of years are slowly succumbing to each nation's inevitable deterioration. Degradation of the environment (China), Davastations brought by war (Afghanistan), imprisonment by false gods and beliefs (India). But I'm sure, the salt of Christ are ever present in those areas too. Back home, I read Charlson Ong's novel "Banyaga, A Song of War". The blurb says- ("...portrait of three immigrants and their familial, business, romantic, political and social entanglements over eight decades effectively demystifies the lingering myth-understandings surrounding the 'Chinese.' Caroline S. Hau, Writer and literary critic.") Since the 'tycoons' seem to Lord it over businesses and are the richest in the Philippine Islands, I recommend this book to all of us who wish to understand where these Chinese merchants and citizens of the Philippines are coming from. They have a most interesting story to tell. I could only wish that for Filipinos who are migrants abroad, that they too could become successful and reach a position of influence and success that would make a difference in the country where they are now in, even if they would have to start at the lowliest positions or jobs. The Chinese could do it, why couldn't we?

"Love in the Time of Cholera" is a love story. I won't forget it's title and it's author, but I will forget what it's all about. Meanwhile, I have already forgotten the name of the author of "The KiteRunner", but I will never forget its story.