Oh I couldn't agree more about the weirdness of it all LZ. I have been thinking about this book on and off for days. There are lots of different version of love and ways to have relationships depicted in the story. I would not wait 50 years for romantic love but I would wait that long for my son, to re-establish a relationship with him if something happened. I probably wouldn't even wait for a tenth of that time romantically if the other person was rejecting me though. I'm very pragmatic and not prone to romantic impulses. Having said that, I don't think Florentino actually waited for Fermina. He had heaps of sex and affairs and loved a couple of those women (or could have if he'd not been fixated on Fermina). I also agree that this is not really a love story. It's more a story about life in that part of the world in that historical context. The more I think about Florentino, the more I see him as somebody with mental health issues - he seems obsessive-compulsive to me and to have a very dependent personality style. Some of his physical health problems (constipation etc) seem to be brought on by stress/anxiety. And he developed into a pederast at the end. I was waiting for that young girl to expose him and felt disappointed that she killed herself instead.

I also can't get past the fact that he lied to Fermina at the end by telling her he'd waited and been chaste for her. He's basing their whole relationship on a lie. I can't get past that.

I also keep wondering what the author meant when he said readers shouldn't fall into his trap. I've been trying to work out what that actually means.