Book 12: Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Title: Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Length: 115 pages
Year Written: 2005
Why I chose this book: I bought this book as well as Love and Other Demons by Marquez a few years ago, and hadn't read either until recently. It was a very slim book, and I was intrigued to find out what level of storytelling he could accomplish in that number of pages.

One thing I always think about when I'm reading, without fail, is what was going through the author's mind when they chose that thought, that sentence, that idea. Memories of My Melancholy Whores is about an old bachelor deciding to celebrate the end of his run as an octogenarian with a virgin prostitute. Here enters 14-year-old "Delgadina" (he doesn't know, and doesn't want to know her real name). We don't hear directly from her the entire novel, but we are led to believe she fell just as deeply in love with the 90-year-old narrator as he did with her. However, it is the narrator's own assertion that he is prone to telling the same stories to friends over and over — and one can only imagine the credibility (or lack of) that such a fact lends to his perception and honesty in telling this tale. The narrator recounts moments throughout his life, mainly encounters with women that never coincided with romance or love. In Delgadina, he finally finds the elusive fuse in his heart and sets it aflame. While reading, I constantly wondered whether these were the diluted experiences of Marquez himself, and if not, how he dreamed up such a love story.

In our society, this storyline falls under the category of pure perversion. In different cultures, and throughout time, no one would bat an eye at what transpires between Delgadina and the old bachelor. It was very interesting to read this story from the most unbiased perspective I could adopt. In the few pages he wrote, Marquez tells a very tender tale of romance and awakening, if only on the narrator's behalf.

Rating: 7.9/10

Book 11: Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami

Title: Sputnik Sweetheart

Author: Haruki Murakami

Length: 210 pages

Year Written: 1999

Why I chose this book: I really enjoy Murakami. I bought this book in September 2012 and never finished it until now. The receipt from Barnes and Noble was still inside. 

This book is so Murakami. You can spot Murakami a mile away. If you've read one of his novels, you've read most of his novels — and I don't mean that in a bad way. The first two books I read by Murakami were After Dark and Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, for an Asian-American literature class I took during my senior year of college. These two were OK but I wasn't truly blown away until I read South of the Border, West of the Sun. Murakami really knows how to write about passion without sounding corny or overwrought with dramatic desire. Then, I read Kafka on the Shore, which showed a more complex and supernatural side of Murakami. Anyway, on to the book at hand — Sputnik Sweetheart shares many of the same themes as several of Murakami's other novels, including weird Freudian love triangles and escape into other-wordly realms. It is about a girl named Sumire who falls in love with an older woman, Miu, and eventually vanishes seemingly right off the face of the earth. The book is told from the perspective of Sumire's friend, a relatively easygoing guy who happens to be madly in love with her. 

This was a really quick read, being just north of 200 pages and so engagingly written as well. It certainly provoked a lot of thought with me, about loneliness, love, desire, human existence, all those things that leave you feeling mildly panicked if you dwell on them too long. 

Rating: 9.5/10

Book 10: A Spy in the House of Love by Anaïs Nin

Title: A Spy in the House of Love
Author: Anaïs Nin 
Length: 140 pages
Year Written: 1954
Why I chose this book: I purchased this book when I was 18 or 19, purely based on the feeling I got from the title and back cover description.

I once read a quote by Anaïs Nin that gave me an incredible sense of oneness with her: "If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it."

I have owned by copy of 'A Spy in the House of Love' for at least six years. It is water-warped and has a brown coffee-ish stain creeping down its slim paper side. I had no idea what the book was really about until I picked it up this year. Most importantly, it is book four of a five-part "continuous novel" called 'Cities of the Interior.' If I'd known that, I'd certainly have started at one, or not started at all. However, this small novel in itself is dreamy, emotional, and strangely moving.

The idea of infidelity in relationships being perpetrated by the girl — it's something I don't often see. It's something I can identify with personally, having been torn between different perceptions of myself that were based on dishonorable acts in love. We rarely get to see inside the head of a woman who is obviously smart, obviously wonderful in all ways except her ability to contain her love within the framework of a nice, faithful, cookie-cutter companion. Because these books are "distillations" of Nin's personal diaries, it is easy to imagine that much of her personal life flowed into this story. I can only wonder what percentage is drawn purely from imagination. Her words are poetic, strong, sometimes racist (but I guess that's unintentional, and indicative of her time - oh well). It was a very short novel, and explores themes like love, respect, guilt, and identity. I would love to read the other four parts of 'Cities,' but mostly I want to learn more about Nin.

Rating: 7.6/10