A dense and complex novel about an extremely long love affair. The writing is accomplished and evocative - no surprise, considering the author - but for me the strength of the piece lay in the atmosphere. It's a desultory sort of read, slow and humid and reading it I was almost in the setting: the city and the river were just so clear in my mind, almost as if I could see them. The characters, too, are generously painted. Alright, so one of them at least is a bit of an obsessive who crosses the line way over to weird and creepy, but there's so much feeling for them from the author, so much gentle compassion even for the very dodgy Florentino, that you're sort of mesmerised into keeping reading, because the prose itself is just so beautiful it sort of lulls you along regardless.