This was just not my thing. The copy I got from the library has a quote on the back from Oprah Winfrey stating it's the "greatest love story [she's] ever read". My problem was that I didn't find it romantic or think it was a love story at all, or not a successful one, and I couldn't tell whether that was the point or whether I had entirely missed the point.I liked some of the descriptive passages in this book, and some section about Fermina Daza and her marriage. I hated Ariza, everything about him. He imagines he's in love, stalks the object of his affections, taking 'no' as an invitation to persist until she gives in, uses his illusion of the perfect woman for him an excuse to mistreat others - including a teenager he is meant to be the guardian of and who kills herself because of him - and he lies to the woman he claims to love. This left me with no sympathy for the central love story; I wasn't rooting for the characters to get together, and I found the whole thing unsatisfying.
