Florentino - Not Your Average Hero

So, I forgot to mention another element of the novel that I loved ((right? I'm finding more good things to say about it!)), and that is this: Florentino Ariza is not your average hero; he's the antihero.

Predominantly, the male hero is absurdly attractive and absurdly confident. If he is not absurdly rich by birth, then he became absurdly rich due to his absurd talent. He never loses composure. All the ladies want him. In short, he's quite a catch.

Floretino definitely falls short in most - if not all - of the above characteristics.

He's not attractive ((hence the reason not even his awesome love letter writing skills could keep his obsession)). He wears thick glasses for his myopia. He dresses like an old man; he dresses like an older man when he is an old man. He loses his hair at a youngish age and resorts to the high school prinicpal-meets-Don Trump combover. But the best of all is the fact that he suffers from severe IBS. I freakin' love it. Twice Fermina had his guts twisted up with nerves that he almost soiled himself in front of her. That's spectacular.

Yet, despite all of that - all the ladies still wanted him.

I don't get it. The explanation was that he was a man in need of love. So, I guess all those poor, misguided women wanted to be the ones to love him, to fix him.

Good fail, ladies.