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Wednesday, November 07, 2007

A date at the movies


I've made a date for myself next weekend to see the new film, Love in the Time of Cholera. The novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of my favorites, so beautiful, so haunting.

The teaser for the film, starring a mesmerizing Spanish actor Javier Bardem says, "How long would you wait for love?" The answer in this case is found in the last three lines of the book. The written story evokes such strong imagery—I've envisioned everything from the lush sepia of late 19th- and early 20th-century Cartagena to the scents of flowers, fruit, the sea air and love most of all—both young and old. I'm almost reluctant to see films of my favorite books for fear that a filmmaker's version won't align with my own. But this looks promising and it's been so long since I've been to the movies.

Anyway, if you've not read the book, I highly recommend doing so. Here's the opening sentence:
"It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love."

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Bitter almonds are also what is described as the odor of cyanide for what its worth. I recently ordered this book for a customer. Now I'm going to have to read it as soon as I'm finished with the Charles Schulz biography - that is a 'can't put down ' book for me.

Wendy A. Hoke said...

Makes sense because the opening scene of the book is a death scene by suicide.

Will you be writing about the Charles Schulz book?