** spoiler alert ** 
 Am reading this now, and am very annoyed with Florentino Ariza. 
 - He sees Fermina for one glance, and he falls in "love". I'm kind of skeptical, but fine, have it your way. 
 - He's drowning in his self-pity! He thinks he's the only guy to sacrifice a lot for love (or whatever - but even the author says this), but really his "punishments" are the result of his stupid (in my opinion anyway) acts. 
 - He's a spoilt brat. His mom is doing everything for him, tittering over him, throwing women on him to cure him of his unrequited love, and generally spoiling him. 
 - His mom also tries to send him to work somewhere else so he can forget, but as soon as he gets there, he returns and wastes the opportunity given (arranged by his boss), money spent on the passage and clothes (mom, uncle, boss), and the effort by his mom to alter the clothes. And when he returns, no mention of anyone being furious - he just continues living as before. 
 - During the trip there, he is 'raped' but enjoys it, and fears that his love for Fermina can be replaced by an earthly desire. Which just confirms my belief that his obsession with Fermina is just an infatuation. 
 - He tries to figure out who the sexual assaulter is, and secretly observes the woman whom he thinks is she, and forgets about Fermina. As soon as she leaves, he gets depressed about Fermina again. Again, confirms my belief that he just has an infatuation and the object of his infatuation is replaceable. 
 - He reaches home and has sex with lots of other women. (I've not read that far yet - only up till the first woman, but I've read reviews.) I'm not particularly bothered by this, but still. 
 - He shows up on the funeral of Fermina's husband (of 50+ years I might add) and declares his love for her again. A**hole. 
 The thing that bothers me most about this whole book: it's not love! Character flaws I can stand because they're not the point (what, he's real - all that matters), but this is not even love. For Florentino's, it's just obsession/infatuation. In Fermina's case, I don't know about 50+ years later, but when she was young, it was just out of defiance and to escape her life/father, but as soon as she matured and saw him as he was for the first time, she dropped him. (She had never previously had a conversation with him for more than two lines, due to circumstances etc, so she never knew what he was like, and in my opinion neither did he know anything about her. Where is the love!) 
 I'll probably finish the book and see where it goes before posting my final review. 
 --- 
 Finished the book (quite long ago actually, but never got around to finishing my review). 
 Um, well I don't really know what to say of it. -throws hands up- I give up. Okay, I can accept that what Florentino And Fermina have in the end can be considered love, but the character change in Florentino was too abrupt. He's all feverish (not literally) with his love for Fermina and depressed and even contemplating Urbino's death, and when Urbino finally dies, he foolishly confesses his love again. Then suddenly he is awfully calm and composed in his letters to Fermina and does something right for once. And it goes on from there. But if his character was supposed to have matured throughout these years, I don't see it. He was up till the very end still screwing around - even with his ward who eventually committed suicide (!) and his right approach in his letters seem to be merely a stroke of luck. 
 Huh. 
 I suppose this is supposed to portray Real Life or something, but still. 
 I love the writing though. It is amazing. 
 That's all.