Memories of My Melancholy Whores

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It's a hit!

It is peculiar reading ‘Memories of My Melancholy Whores’ right after reading Gabriel García Márquez’s magnum opus ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’.... (show more)

It is peculiar reading ‘Memories of My Melancholy Whores’ right after reading Gabriel García Márquez’s magnum opus ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’. The two novels are very stylistically different and from opposite ends of Márquez’s literary career. ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ is an epic work of literary ambition encompassing much of the recent history of Colombia, employing magical realism and narrated in the third person. ‘Memories of My Melancholy Whores’ is a highly honed, intensely introspective and fairly realist novella in the first person. And yet nostalgia, isolation and, most vitally, the impotence of love ties both works together.

The unnamed narrator-protagonist is an aged bachelor reporter who has been living an empty, socially isolated existence and makes up for his lack of love by frequently buying prostitutes. For his ninetieth birthday he decides to sleep with a virgin and falls in love, for the first time in his life, with the fourteen year old offered to him. The narrative is ponderous but controlled and is ultimately a story of salvation through love, the protagonist's slow realisation that, ‘sex is the consolation for not finding enough love.’ This, unfortunately, is a subtlety clearly beyond the comprehension of conservative Iranian censors. It is also a story of old age, a counter to the stereotyped view of the old as passionless and at the end of all possible stories.

A good, worth while read. (show less)

 

 

by Rowan Fortune Wood

No, it's a flop!

I get the whole thing about never too late for love and live your life to the fullest, but....it just blahed out the message. There where some memo... (show more)

I get the whole thing about never too late for love and live your life to the fullest, but....it just blahed out the message. There where some memorable descriptions/moments. I finished it but was kind of sad that I bothered. Heard great things about the author, maybe I shouldnt have started with this book (show less)

 

 

by Facebook User

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  I finished this book on the treadmill, flipped to page 1, put 40 minutes back on the machine and read it right over again. It’s amazing. You can read the plot on the back but are still completely unprepared by his gripping execution. The story line is compelling enough to be a page turner but the gorgeous nuanced philosophical reveling make each page readable without plot. Unlike his lengthy books the writing in this is so finely distilled almost every line connotes universal truth. To s... (show more)

  I finished this book on the treadmill, flipped to page 1, put 40 minutes back on the machine and read it right over again. It’s amazing. You can read the plot on the back but are still completely unprepared by his gripping execution. The story line is compelling enough to be a page turner but the gorgeous nuanced philosophical reveling make each page readable without plot. Unlike his lengthy books the writing in this is so finely distilled almost every line connotes universal truth. To skim this book is a mistake. Read it slow and really enjoy it. He’s such a fine writer and after 10 years of silence his presumably last book truly solidifies his place in great literature. (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook User on Jul 07, 2009 at 04:15PM

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  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 l... (show more)

  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. (show less)

   

   

  by Rakisha on May 15, 2009 at 03:18PM

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