Memories of My Melancholy Whores Paperback – November 14, 2006

Must read.

Márquez is a member of the upper echelon of serious writers; have you read many books better than 100 Years of Solitude? Nonetheless, sometimes you may not be up for a 200 character, 10 generation epic. No? This 115 page gem is like the Splenda version of Márquez, all the flavor, easier to handle.On the eve of his 90th birthday, a lifelong bachelor, utterly alone in the decaying house of his long dead parents, connected to the world only by the Sunday column he is still allowed to write for the local newspaper, feels the strong need for one more adventure; a wild night with a young virgin. After some trouble, it is arranged but presented with the peaceful sleep of the girl that has been carefully selected for him, he merely watches her and thus begins to grow the love that in his 90 years he has never known. Though his meager finances can barely afford it, the need to see her grows, as does his love for her, exponentially. Like a teenager in love for the first time, he can't sleep, loses weight, can only think of their next meeting when he'll be able so see her sleep, her body providing answers to the questions he thinks but doesn't vocalize. This impossible, but vital love affair sustains him for another year and through it the twists and turns of love makes him see what he never did; at the age of 90 he becomes a new man, love opening his eyes before they close forever.Some quotes:"I have never gone to bed with a woman I didn't pay, and the few who weren't in the profession I persuaded, by argument or by force, to take money even if they threw it in the trash. When I was twenty I began to keep a record listing name, age, place and a brief notation on the circumstances and style of lovemaking. By the time I was fifty there were 514 women with whom I had been at least once. I stopped making the list when my body no longer allowed me to have so many and I could keep track of them without paper. I had my own ethics. I never took part in orgies or in public encounters, and I did not share secrets or recount an adventure of the body or the soul, because from the time I was young I realized that none goes unpunished.""The secretaries presented me with three pairs of silk undershorts printed with kisses, and a card in which they offered to remove them for me. It occurred to me that among the charms of old age are the provocations our young female friends permit themselves because they think we are out of commission.""For a week I did not take off my mechanic's coverall, day or night, I did not bathe or shave or brush my teeth, because love taught me too late that you groom yourself for someone, and I'd never had anyone to do that for.""The truth is I'm getting old, I said. We already are old, she said with a sigh. What happens is that you don't feel it on the inside, but from the outside everybody can see it."

It is unlikely that, having written the greatest novels, fough a life time for a better world, earned admiration of the whole world, and pondered on it for 25 years and finally written it near 80 as his last work, Gabo was telling a story of an creepy old man whoring since 12 and preying on a 14-year old virgin on his 90th birthday. I could not find anyone saying so, but after reading his biography by Gerald Martin and "Live to tell the tale" and reading this novel twice in a row (one usual and one slow), I come to the conviction that Gabo was having fun with himself and with the world: the whores are metaphor of all the life's conquests, each giving moment's thrill and leaving nothing to hold onto, and to feel alive till the end one better leaves some dreams unfulfilled, like keeping the virgin intact but reachable. All those whoring and mounting a servant without consent are quite tough to swallow for ordinary readers, especially people outside Caribbean culture, but Gabo was just doing his magic realism, along with the dying cat, the demented old lover, long-died mother appearing on his bed, etc. The newspaper work, the city (Barranquilla where Gabo worked as a journalist), the few people, the cat, the reading and music, the chance meeting with old lovers, the treaty of Neerlandia ... all bringing forth a vivid, layered society of good and evil and love so natural and relatable. I believe this is a wise old man contemplating the end, having no care how the world see him, examining the complicated emotions of disillusions about a life lived and slipping away, wanting to have some dreams to hold on to, and also unashamedly expressing his love for the downtrodden, the whores who have given him joys through his life.Wonder if anyone in the whole world share my view...

Using just a short number of words, Garcia Marques creates a totally tactile and virtually perfect text. The protagonist is 90 (ninety) years old. He falls in love with a virgin prostitute. In his love experience during that one year, he projects all his love experiences; of an entire life on his new lover.His paramour/puta is a virgin when he meets her. And what he really experiences with her is not sex, but just the remembrance of the female human body. He sleeps with her very often, but never has sex with her. He only observes the least little details of a living human being, a lady human being sleeping beside him.In this short book, Marquez leaves us with some unique life philosophy. Perhaps there is none better example than : "Make no mistake, peaceful madmen are ahead of the future." The quote is so all encompassing and so fully inclusive as well as explanatory.The book is beautifully written and brings the tactility of life right to the readers mind. It is highly recommended for all readers of great literature.

The short book has a strong meaning. Some of the lines are absolutely amazing. However tone of the writing is little boring. But I enjoyed it.

On the eve of his 90th birthday , a not very likeable bachelor decides to give himself a wild night of love with a virgin. The girl who is procured for him is enchanting but exhausted from working all dayin a factory + caring for her siblings , she can do little but sleep .What follows is a cross between Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground + Nabokov's Lolita.Detached from the sordid reality of prostitution , Memories Of My Melancholy Whores is dream-like and surreal . Short + succinct , it glitters like a clear gem .

No, the challenge is not to follow in the steps of the protagonist but rather it is not to come to a place where his choices are all that is left. Marquez writes in such a lyrical and musical manner it was hard to put this book down. A beautiful read despite the challenging nature of the relationship at its heart.

Sometimes it is like reading poetry.

Not his best work,still manages to transport the reader into the fantasies of geriatric writer. Good one time read.