Karen Howlett

I found the first half of the book enjoyable and quite charming. A story of devotion and unrequited love, with enchanting descriptions of a beautiful environment. However the last third made my skin crawl. I didn’t want Florentino Ariza to have any happiness! After all he was a peodophile, a rapist and a pervert. I found it all very unenjoyable and unsettling. I loved One Hundred Years of Solitude. I don’t regret reading this book as I feel literature should be challenging and take us to place we wouldn’t normally go, good and bad. But I must say it left a bad taste in my mouth.