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Loading... Memories of my Melancholy Whoresby Gabriel García Márquez
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez but I have to admit I had my doubts about this book after reading the first line. "The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin." Immediately, I was repulsed and faced with the question, is my all time favorite author a dirty old pervert? And thankfully after finishing the book I can say with some degree of certainty, no, he is not. There is no magical realism in this book. Instead the reader finds a philosophical and charming tale about aging and love that only GMM could spin. The main character, a dirty old pervert (no doubt), is perplexed by finding himself madly in love at the age of 90 after a life time of empty affairs. The two main characters are nameless. The girl, the object of the old man's affection, is speechless throughout the story. The main character is in love, but not with the girl herself, rather the idea of the girl. She is perfect, but only in his mind. For that reason, the main character is constantly reminding the reader that he prefers the girl while she sleeps and he is afraid of ever knowing her real name or seeing her out in public when she isn't naked and sleeping. To him she is not a real person. This theme of strange irrational love flows throughout the book and makes the underlying truth of the story bearable to a modern reader - an impoverished 14 year-old girl is forced to pseudo-prostitute herself to this old man in order to help feed her family. This book is a literary gem for anyone who can put that point aside, doing so is well worth it. (  ) Pretear | Sep 28, 2009 |  An casual glance at the subject matter of this novella could lead readers unacquainted with Marquez' work to deduce this was a cheap, tawdry piece but nothing could be farther from reality. Heartbreaking but hopeful, unflinchingly harsh but beautifully sentimental, and oddly sexual without all the gritty details of actual consummation. Guaranteed to bring hope to anyone who is afraid they have missed the boat on finding love in their life, but worth the read for everybody else too. Bottom Line: It's lovely and unexpected from cover to cover - I definitely recommend it. (  ) dele2451 | Aug 26, 2009 | going from gabriel garcia marquez' other stories to this was ... disappointing. the narrative and tone for which he is famous just fell flat around the theme which simply put is about an old man and his fantasy. no amount of romanticizing this story with poignant words cuts it. (  ) fierolucent | May 6, 2009 | Our unnamed narrator, who has never had a sexual relationship he hasn't paid for, turns ninety, and decides he wants to spend that night with an adolescent virgin. Said virgin sleeps peacefully through their first "meeting" and subsequent encounters, and our narrator finds himself, in his dotage, falling in love for the first time. Never quite as horrifying/titillating/disturbing/beautiful as the reader dreads and/or hopes, I didn't enjoy this short piece as much as I wanted to, nor did I really dislike it. Of course Marquez is a master storyteller, and the tale is lovingly told, with moments of transcendent beauty, but one is left wondering why this particular story. (  ) heidialice | May 6, 2009 | To celebrate his 90th birthday, the unnamed narrator decides to go to a brothel so that he can enjoy the evening with a 14 year old virgin prostitute...that concept alone may seem disturbing to some as the basis for a book. Luckily, the author doesn't go into details that would make one too uncomfortable, in fact the focus isn't so much on sexual themes but more on finding love, understanding that unmistakable feeling of longing the one you love, and reflecting on life's accomplishments (or lack thereof). Beautifully written, but brief and to the point. Many questions are left unanswered...it's more like a snapshot rather than a fully fleshed out story. I would have no problem recommending this book to someone, although it's not a book I'd rank in my favorites of this year. I'd give Marquez' book a 3/5. http://kishamasala.blogspot.com/2009/... ( ) CutestLilBookworm | Mar 18, 2009 | 
 The relationship between the narrator and his virgin is really a relationship that exists inside the narrator's head, and since Mr. García Márquez makes little effort to make this man remotely interesting - as either an individual or a representative figure - it's hard for the reader to care really about what happens. Moreover, the trajectory of this narrative turns out to be highly predictable, leading to a banal ending to a banal story that's quite unworthy of the great Gabriel García Márquez's prodigious talents.  "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" is García Márquez's first book of fiction in a decade - since "Of Love and Other Demons," which was also a short novel about an unlikely romance. He has filled that time with memoir-writing: the first, large volume of his autobiography, "Living to Tell the Tale," was published here in 2003. So perhaps it's natural, after 10 years of looking back, that he has now treated himself, and his readers, to this sprightly, perverse little fable about looking forward
Amazon.com (ISBN 140004460X, Hardcover)"The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin." So begins Memories of My Melancholy Whores, and it becomes even more unlikely as the novel unfolds. This slim volume contains the story of the sad life of an unnamed, only slightly talented Colombian journalist and teacher, never married, never in love, living in the crumbling family manse. He calls Rosa Cabarcas, madame of the city's most successful brothel, to seek her assistance. Rosa tells him his wish is impossible--and then calls right back to say that she has found the perfect girl.The protagonist says of himself: "I have never gone to bed with a woman I didn't pay ... by the time I was fifty there were 514 women with whom I had been at least once ... My public life, on the other hand, was lacking in interest: both parents dead, a bachelor without a future, a mediocre journalist ... and a favorite of caricaturists because of my exemplary ugliness." The girl is 14 and works all day in a factory attaching buttons in order to provide for her family. Rosa gives her a combination of bromide and valerian to drink to calm her nerves, and when the prospective lover arrives, she is sound asleep. Now the story really begins. The nonagenarian is not a sex-starved adventurer; he is a tender voyeur. Throughout his 90th year, he continues to meet the girl and watch her sleep. He says, "This was something new for me. I was ignorant of the arts of seduction and had always chosen my brides for a night at random, more for their price than their charms, and we had made love without love, half-dressed most of the time and always in the dark, so we could imagine ourselves as better than we were ... That night I discovered the improbably pleasure of contemplating the body of a sleeping woman without the urgencies of desire or the obstacles of modesty." Márquez's style never falters throughout this recounting of his life and his exploration of love, found at an unexpected time and place. The erstwhile lover is still capable of being surprised--and fulfilled. After an absence of ten years, it is a treat to have another parable from the master. --Valerie Ryan (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:03 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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