Memories of My Melancholy Whores
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
128 pages
Stark Insider Rating:
7 out of 10
It seems like ages since I had the pleasure of indulging in fictional literature. So it is fitting the author that would lure me back into this past time would be Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author of one of my favorite works of all time, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Firstly, it was the title, Memories of My Melancholy Whores. Why this piqued my interest does not warrant explanation.
Secondly, it was the tiny letters strung together that read, “The First New Novel in Ten Years…”
Really? Now I was really curious to see what was captured in a mere 128 pages.
On the eve of his ninetieth birthday, a bachelor decides he would treat himself to a night of wild sex with a virgin. He has had many women all of whom he’s paid for and readily admits that “whores left me no time to be married” (pp 39)
A fourteen year-old is procured for him last minute to fulfill this whim. And so begins a story which told by anyone else but Marquez would be singularly disturbing and perhaps darkly comical.
Marquez is able to draw the reader into this story. Amidst the logical absurdity of the novel, one gets glimpses into the nature of love and life. Not as they are in the freshness of one’s prime, but after the music ends and the sun has started to set.
Although this piece of work does not soar to the literary heights of One Hundred Years of Solitude, it is still a solid pick.