Someone had turned off the moon

She was lost in her longing to understand. She could not conceive of a husband better than hers had been, and yet when she recalled their life she found more difficulties than pleasures, too many mutual misunderstandings, useless arguments, unresolved angers. Suddenly she sighed: "It is incredible how one can be happy for so many years in the midst of so many squabbles, so many problems, damn it, and not really know if it was love or not."

--Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

Comments

[Slow Panic]

I think I need to read this book... thanks for the quote.

[Susan Raihala]

Love that book!

[Peace]

I remember driving home one night into the driveway with the headlights bouncing off the garage door and thinking I just wanted to put it in reverse and drive off somewhere else. But the knowledge of my four kids in the house brought me to my senses and I turned off the ignition and went inside. In bed that night and many others afterward I would lay there wondering "is this all there is?" I knew I wanted, no needed, more. Guilt kept me around for many more years and finally after 27 years of marriage I knew I needed more and I walked out that door.

[V-Grrrl]

Peace--

Beyond the stellar writing, I think what mesmerized me the most about this book is its depiction of long-term relationships and the way it explores the idea of love.

When is it real? When is it a construct? What constitutes fidelity, passion, understanding? What does love look like when you're 16, 40, 70? How do you measure the truth or value of a person, marriage, lover?