Florentino Ariza has had 622 serious relationships (combo pack with sex) apart from numerous fleeting liaisons before he is able to embrace the only woman whom he loved with all his heart and soul. And that embrace happens “after a long and troubled love affair” that lasted 51 years, 9 months, and 4 days. Florentino is in his late 70s when he is able to behold, and hold as well, the very body of his beloved Fermina, who is just a few years younger than him. She now stands before him with her wrinkled shoulders, sagged breasts, and flabby skin that is as pale and cold as a frog’s. It is the culmination of a long, very long, wait as far as Florentino is concerned, the end of his passionate quest for his holy grail. “I’ve remained a virgin for you,” he says. All those 622 and more women whose details filled the 25 diaries that he kept writing with meticulous devotion have now vanished into thin air. They mean nothing now that he has reached where he longed to reach all his life. The
Brilliant as usual Tomichan :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kalpanaa
DeleteThe moment we realise that the thing we are pretending would have a rather negative effect on us might prevent us from pretending. Coincidentally I am reading thinking fast and slow, where the author talks about an experiment where the subjects when unknowingly make a smiling face become more likely to see positivity in even the worst situations and vice versa. So would it not be wise to pretend a fake smile when that smile can make us more positive in life? Sorry for that long a comment. I have more to say, perhaps need a seprate post.
ReplyDeleteIt's the positivity that i'm advocating, Pranju. Our pretensions are always on the positive side, aren't they?
DeleteI'm waiting for your post on it. Glad to have poked you enough to think of s post ☺
True and beautifully potrayed
ReplyDelete:) trying to convey more in less words.
DeleteAnother layer of pretense perhaps....we are full of these traps....! Was i
ReplyDeleteThe traps are inevitable, inescapable! Religious leaders and many others ensure that!
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