Love in the Time of Cholera the reader is reminded repeatedly of his more sinister exploits. The novel examines romantic love in myriad forms, both "ideal" and "depraved", and continually forces the reader to question such ready-made characterizations by introducing elements antithetical to these facile judgments. García Márquez's main notion is that lovesickness is literally an illness, a disease comparable to cholera. Florentino suffers from this just as he might suffer from any malady. At one point, he conflates his physical pain with his amorous pain when he vomits after eating flowers in order to imbibe Fermina's scent. In the final chapter, the Captain's declaration of
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