The style this book is written in didn't hold my interest.

Most books I read to the end...even if they aren't fabulous. This book...I couldn't make myself read past page 34. Very bad read.

The book rambled in detail and skipped around chronologically. The bizarre sexual content further diminished any possible salvation of the book.

Everyone who managed to get through this book hated it in my book club. It is frustrating and the story is bizarre. Stay away!

This was, by far, the worst book I have ever read in my entire life.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez must have had to perform as many sexual favors on the critics, as Florentine Arizo did on his conquests, in order to get his book on the shelves. TWO THUMBS DOWN. I will forever be indebted to my fellow book club members for putting them through the torture of reading this book.

A Love Story that captures you with all drama...a love triangle, heartache and finally the triumph of true love realized!

I couldn't get half way through this book, and neither could the other members of my book club. We all sat there wondering who had suggested it to begin with. I still am very confused about why this book had such critical acclaim and praise. It was incredibly boring and the main character was to creepy to really care about. His 'romance' seemed more like stalking to me. Don't waste your time with this book.

The book started off interesting and expected to be sucked in. But instead had to force myself to finish it. I kept waiting for the story of the man that committed suicide at the start of the book to become woven into the later parts of the book - didn't happen. Maybe the translation effected the ease of the read, but I had to re-read paragraphs to understand what just happened. Is this an accurate reflection of the values of the un-named sea port? Despite these reflections on the book, I still learned something about human nature (not necessarily the good parts) and about life in the Carribean during the later 1800 / early 1900 time period - therefore gave it two stars instead of one.

This book was extremely difficult to get through. It's possible it had something to do with the translation into English, but nonetheless it was painful. I had to re-read the first 40 pages because of how the writer referred to "he" - I was confused and couldn't tell which "he" was being talked about as at least 3 male characters had already been introduced into the story. Once making in further in the book it was just slow and actually quite pathetic. I watched the movie after having read the book and wished I had just done that for the book club discussion.

This book was either loved or hated. The prose is beautiful but dense and the story can be viewed as either romantic or pathetic.

I found this book to be extremely descriptive and insightful. I could truly feel the ambiance throughout the entire story. Although it was difficult to start, once I started, it was a beautiful read. I would not, however, recommend this book to clubs.

One of the most boring books I've ever read. It was full of unnecessary descriptions to the point of being page filler, yet the areas I thought needed more were skimmed over. I also found the use of first and last names throughout the entire book to be annoying. After mentioning both names a couple of times you already have it in memory, you don't need it repeated over and over and over again.

This was a book that could have been written in half the volume and been wonderful. Parts were very good, even funny, and really kept me interested, but so much was just tedious. While I can't say I disliked it, I was really glad to be finished with it. I also think part of the problem is that it's a translation, and it just doesn't read as well for me, it's a bit stilted, etc. Development of the characters, however, is extensive, though I didn't need to see BOTH names for every character every time. I also wondered why the whole first part of the story line was even there...it never got resolved or explained as to its value to the book.

This was a massively meandering story line, in my opinion, and I had difficulty working my way through it. Though entertaining at times, informative at times, frustrating at times, I have to admit that it did pull me in and I read on because I just HAD to know what happened! A romance novel? Sort of. A work of classic literature? Definitely.