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
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