Love in the Time of Cholera half century between 1880 and 1930. The city's "steamy and sleepy streets, rat-infested sewers, old slave quarter, decaying colonial architecture, and multifarious inhabitants" are mentioned variously in the text and mingle amid the lives of the characters. Locations within the story include: Some critics choose to consider "Love in the Time of Cholera" as a sentimental story about the enduring power of true love. Others criticize this opinion as being too simple. García Márquez himself said in an interview, "you have to be careful not to fall into my trap." This is manifested by Ariza's excessively romantic attitude toward life,
The Love Machine (novel) into bite-sized nothingness," Nora Ephron, in the same newspaper, said "'The Love Machine' is a far better book than 'Valley'--better written, better plotted, better structured." As with "Valley", the reviews did not affect sales: "The Love Machine" spent 32 weeks on the "Times" best seller list, with 13 of those weeks at #1. The book became the third highest-selling novel of the year, behind just Philip Roth's "Portnoy's Complaint" and Mario Puzo's "The Godfather". Columbia Pictures bought the film rights for $1.5 million, which was a record sum for the time. Released in August 1971, the film was executive-produced by