by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Spanish 1985, English 1988
Florentino Aria falls in love with Fermina Daza. She marries Dr. Juvenal Urbino instead. Florentino whores around for 54 years waiting for Dr. Urbino to die. Dr. Urbino dies trying to capture his parrot from a mango tree. Florentino takes Fermina on a riverboat cruise on the Magdalena River. They fly the yellow cholera flag so they can have it to themselves on the way back. Discover they can’t dock, so it ends with Florentino telling the captain to continue sailing forever.
Didn’t enjoy it: too chaotic, run-on sentences, millions of characters (none of them very appealing) and just a mess of a book.