Books of the romance genre often never concern themselves with more than just that

romance. These novels typically fill endless, boring pages with descriptions of one characters
feelings for one or multiple others, and never manage to touch on any larger themes or grant any
deeper knowledge to the reader. If one were to judge by the title, Gabriel Garcia Marquezs Love
in the Time of Cholera would seem vulnerable to the same problem: the sensational title
promises both love and threats of disease and death which threaten to greatly weaken the
portrayal of the novels larger themes if the novel manages to present any at all. However,
Marquez quickly dispels the readers fears; he neglects to introduce the protagonist for roughly
fifty pages, precisely to engage in the analysis which escapes other books of the genre. Marquez
goes on to masterfully use the two-part structure of the narrative not only to explore multiple
perspectives on love itself, but also to explore a diverse range of other issues which includes the
aging process, the significance of class and wealth and the meaning of loyalty.