I'm having a hard time with this one. I rarely quit a book, mostly because I find that the payoff in the end is worth sticking out a slow beginning. While I don't dislike this one, I'm finding it very laborious reading. I'm not at 100 pages yet. Any insight as to whether this is one that rewards you if you stick with it? No spoilers, please. :)

Hmm, I'm curious to see how others respond. This book is on my shelf, waiting to be read.

Eh. I am not a huge fan of magical realism.

Magical realism? I guess I haven't gotten far enough to get to that part. Not at all what I thought this book  was about. Huh.

I, too, will be watching. Have it on my Reminder List.

I had a hard time with this book too and never finished it. It really drug on for me and I just couldn't stick it out. I kept it intending to go back to it but I never have. I might actually watch the movie though and see if that gets me more interested in it. Usually I like to read first but there's no way I'm getting through this book at this point in time.

Let us know if you finish it!

I had to put it aside for now. Sometimes I'm just in the mood for a certain type of read. I have my cycles of light reads, where I don't have to think too hard and just want to be entertained, and other cycles of intellectually stimulating reads, etc. I guess I am just not in the right frame of mind for this one. I do intend to pick it back up, though.

I gave up on it and posted it here a few months ago.  Just could not get into it.

It was one of a few books that I quit reading. I just couldn't get into the story and found it to be exceedingly dull.

Guess I'm in the minority here - I loved it.  It was my first GGM book, and yes, it was a bit of a slog in parts, but also just kept getting better and better. 

There's a movie as well, starring Javier Bardem (yum), that's not half bad.

I can enjoy any fiction.  Any time, anywhere, any genre.  I read this book, finished it and immediately forgot about it.  It's not that I didn't enjoy it, I didn't really react to it at all.  I think that this is one of those cerebral books that doesn't depend on emotion, just intellect, to affect the reader.  And as usual this author is so NOT about women, so even the women characters couldn't draw any empthy for me. 

I guess I'm on the intelectual side, because I couldn't put either this one or 100 Years of Solitude down. It wasn't so much that it was good in the sense of what I usually enjoy plotwise, as that the writing was superb. GGM doesn't mince words, and I found the dissonance of his situations and the character's actual thoughts and emotions, well, hilarious. I wouldn't read them again, I'm not really drawn to the weird or bizzare, but I remember laughing in the middle of parts that wouldn't be made funny if written in any other book. There's probably a lot of meaning that I just didn't GET, and it certainly wasn't like reading comedy, but what kept me reading was the wry, unexpected humor.

I still remember, from years ago, the first scene in Love in the Time of Cholera, with the suicide of the crippled man which everybody assumed was from depression over unrequited love, but was really not- it still makes me shake my head and laugh! Who thinks of that? And then GGM moves on to something else, as if nothing- his other character's never come to know the truth, it's just there for the reader. This kind of writing is so different, I can understand why many people wouldn't like it, but it drew me in from the first page. I don't know if the books really got "better-" I actually think I liked the beginning better than the end, so if you are well into it and still don't like it, I can't say that you will later. But if you do like it, you'll certainly never forget it.