Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Horrendous Will burn

I've heard many bad reviews of this book, but I absolutely adored it. For his ninetieth birthday, an unnamed journalist decides to buy himself a virgin prostitute. I think this single act in the first chapter may be offputting to a lot of people who don't move beyond the moral implications. Further into the story it becomes a very interesting look at aging, lust, how we percieve ourselves, "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." Rosa Cabarcas is a fascinating character. A woman who is found a niche for herself of power and wit in a world where there are few opportunities for her. At the same time that she is doing something that should be frowned upon, her empathy and will is admirable. Finally at ninety years old the main character lets go of lust and sees the power of loving appreciation.

Many of the reviewers here and elsewhere are repulsed by what they see as Gabo's endorsement in this novella of pedophiliac prostitution. But saying that "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" is about sex is as absurd as saying that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is about architecture. Love, death, and aging are the (characteristically Marquezian) themes of this book. The 90-year-old protagonist, looking back at his long life, discovers that he's never really quite lived, and that a wasted life is much more fearsome than death. He falls in love for the first time in all his years, and with a young girl who seems to be a symbol for lost youth and innocence in general. In cherishing her, the protagonist lives the bittersweet melancholy of aging, the memory of past joys, sadnesses, and lost opportunities, and the sheer ambiguity of existence. Gabo's book isn't about sex, although it's intensely erotic. It's about what it means to live, and age, and remember, and to bring those memories into the present as living companions. It took Proust thousands of pages to explore "remembrances of things past." It takes Gabo just a bit more than one hundred pages in this haunting reflection on the human condition. Strongly recommended, especially to anyone over 50.

The book starts with an inflammatory proposition - a nonagenarian wants, as a birthday gift to himself, a virgin. Then we see Gabo's genius - how many authors could pull out a story out of this premise and write a beautiful and delicate story of love? Would you normally even buy a book with such a premise? I did not see this as an attempt to call the public's attention only. This premise is so dangerous and complicated, I believe that Gabo's pushes his limits as a storyteller and the result is successful and unforgettable. I intend to reread this book as the anxiety about knowing the end made me speed up, and then I want to savor the book word by word. The protagonist writes love letters in his weekly column in the local newspaper. One of them, printed in his own writing, is so remarkable that people copy the page and give them out and there is a boom of romanticism in the town. At the age of 90, a teenager recognizes him as "the guy who writes love letters". Some people thought that Mark Twain's books were racist because they contained the n-word. It is just as narrow-minded and misguided to get incensed by the idea of a 90yo and a 14yo together. This is the story of a man who feels ready to die of love; it is the story of the tragedy of poverty; it is about how people can live double lives and do not be happy for that. Their relationship should not offend anyone, it is indeed a much safer read then the imflammatory proposition makes it out to be.

Posar la vista sobre las líneas escritas por Gabriel hará que la lectura se haga sin percibirlo. Una historia sencilla cargada con ganas de vivir que no querrás que termine. La recomiendo para todos aquellos que creen en el amor y disfrutan la lectura de un buen libro.

On the surface Gabo's "Memoria de mis putas tristes" (loosely translated as Memories of My Sad Whores) is a story about an old man who upon turning 90 decides to bed (or attempt to would be a better description) a 14-year-old prostitute who, upon entering the old man's room for the first time, promptly falls asleep. And it is at this time that the old man (unnamed) begins a reverie of his life and in particular of the many women he has bedded and for whose affections he has paid. In barely over 100 pages, Gabo manages to squeeze in a chronicle of some 500 women: not finding Love with any of them. He says:"Sex is the consolation for not finding enough love." Many will look at this novella as Gabo's attempt to write a piece that would be placed out of reach to anyone under 18 in the Public Library, alongside "The Tropic Of Cancer" or "Lady Chatterley's Lover." And Gabo would probably think that this would be the ultimate in Coolness. But, "Memoria" is much more than this. What it is is a tribute to all women and the mysteries of all things feminine. The Old Man pays for companionship yes, but he adores these women: they are his respite from Life, all that he craves and they fulfill something much more inside of him, than can the mere act of sex. The Old man calls the 14-year-old virgin Delgadilla (or the little skinny one) and he lavishes her with gifts. Delgadilla becomes the Old Man's savior and avenging angel, for it is through her innocence and love that he is reborn as a writer and as a human being. "Memoria de mis putas tristes" is Gabo at his most sensual. That these encounters he details are sometimes graphic and often times brutal does not deflect the sheer beauty and majesty of the writing or of this novella in general.