Love in the Time of Cholera

Fifty-one years, nine months and four days of waiting, patience as a love language.

The symptoms of love are the symptoms of cholera. Florentino never clarified which he had.

Fermina chose real life over a fever. The book respects her more than we did at twenty.

Six hundred twenty-two long-term liaisons, kept in ledgers. Heartbreak has a bookkeeping department.

Dr. Urbino's parrot and the ladder, death arrives mid-sentence, chasing a pet.

The river never gets shorter and the passengers never age. Rivers run on love's schedule.

Forever is a promise the river keeps better than the shore.

Aunt Escolástica's camphor smell, memory hides in the nose.

They hoisted the cholera flag to be left alone. Best privacy hack in literature.

Carried out of it: the heart is a patient organ. Mine got more patient.