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Memories of My Melancholy Whores
A New York Times Notable Book
On the eve of his ninetieth birthday a bachelor decides to give himself a wild night of love with a virgin. As is his habit–he has purchased hundreds of women–he asks a madam for her assistance. The fourteen-year-old girl who is procured for him is enchanting, but exhausted as she is from caring for siblings and her job sewing buttons, she can...more
On the eve of his ninetieth birthday a bachelor decides to give himself a wild night of love with a virgin. As is his habit–he has purchased hundreds of women–he asks a madam for her assistance. The fourteen-year-old girl who is procured for him is enchanting, but exhausted as she is from caring for siblings and her job sewing buttons, she can...more
Paperback, 115 pages
Published
November 14th 2006
by Vintage
(first published January 1st 2004)
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To enjoy this book you have to enter the mind and world of this old, old man, living the last years of his life in poverty in the once-grand, decaying house of his youth. His career never rose above second-rate reporter, he never married and never even fell in love. His personal relationships with women were limited to the whores he paid for. A most unfulfilled life.
But then, for a present for his 90th birthday, he gives himself a 14 year-old virgin, a would-be whore. Exhausted from menial labou...more
But then, for a present for his 90th birthday, he gives himself a 14 year-old virgin, a would-be whore. Exhausted from menial labou...more
Life is so complicated to understand at the same time the working mind of every people, how they think, they act or develop in their entire life. When I was walking nearby a bar, I saw an old man wearing his new clothes bought from the department store while guided by his nurse and stick, and entered a bar. I cannot imagine such scene in my mind esepcially the sexual interaction between an old man and a very young lady.
In this novella, Gabriel García Márquez, put you into deepest imagination whi...more
In this novella, Gabriel García Márquez, put you into deepest imagination whi...more
22 likes · like · see review
Mar 20, 2008
Amanda
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
as-i-lay-dying
On a certain level, I truly enjoyed "Memories of My Melancholy Whores". I am always ready to be swept up in the simple whimsy of G.G.M's language, and the sweeping romance and dramatic emotion of his work always appeals to me. But on another very real level I found this book disturbing and sexist.
The book's theme is strikingly reminiscent of "Talk to Her", a recent Almodovar film. Both deal with men who build flowery romantic/erotic relationships in their minds with a completely passive sleeping...more
The book's theme is strikingly reminiscent of "Talk to Her", a recent Almodovar film. Both deal with men who build flowery romantic/erotic relationships in their minds with a completely passive sleeping...more
32 likes · like · see review
This is it everyone- The most depressing book I have read. Ever. Yes. This book. Not the ones about the holocaust, brutal wars, awful diseases... this book. About an old man who has only ever slept with whores. I don't know why it got to me like it did, but I would read a few pages and feel physically sick to my stomach. It's not the subject matter (it's interesting), it's not the writing (he's Marquez)... it's just this sense of awfulness. This awful awful life he's lead, and what he has never...more
This book is banned in Iran. This is one of those silly banning since there isn't even really any sex. Okay he rapes someone but later she claims to be a virgin so we can't really trust that memory can we. I think he might be a bit schizo and making up some of those memories although it's hard to say. I mean ban something reasonable. I digress... These customers come into work and ask for sex books, and no one wants anything remotely good like Sade or Nin, they all want Romance or erotica anthol...more
7 likes · like · see review
این کتاب آخرین داستان بلند گابریل گارسیا مارکز هست... کتاب در سال 2004 نوشته شده و ترجمه فارسی اسم کتاب میشه خاطرات روسپی های سودا زده من... کتاب در ایران با اسم خاطره دلبران سودازده من چاپ شد و بعد از اینکه چاپ شد وزارت ارشاد ممنوع اعلامش کرد و شروع کرد به جمع کردنش و با مسئولانی هم که مجوز چاپ داده بودن به شدت برخورد کرد و به نقل از خود وزارت ارشاد اخراجشون کرد... .
توضیح مختصری در مورد کتاب بگم براتون... سبک نوشتاری کتاب کاملا همون سبک آشنای مارکز هست... (گابریل گارسیا مارکز جزو نویسندگان مورد...more
توضیح مختصری در مورد کتاب بگم براتون... سبک نوشتاری کتاب کاملا همون سبک آشنای مارکز هست... (گابریل گارسیا مارکز جزو نویسندگان مورد...more
11 likes · like · see review
I really didn't like this story. The writing as always was wonderful - the descriptions, the language, the character development - all excellent. The story however was extremely disturbing and sad.
Chapter 1 in particular, when the narrator describes how upon turning 90 he decided he wanted to have sex with a young virgin was appalling. Then the local madam finds a 14 year old, poor, illiterate girl for him. He goes to see her and finds her asleep because she had been so afraid she had to be sed...more
Chapter 1 in particular, when the narrator describes how upon turning 90 he decided he wanted to have sex with a young virgin was appalling. Then the local madam finds a 14 year old, poor, illiterate girl for him. He goes to see her and finds her asleep because she had been so afraid she had to be sed...more
16 likes · like · see review
I picked this book entirely by mistake in the library. I read nineteen instead of ninety year old and so when I read the first page, I noticed my mistake.
Well this book turned out a pleasant surprise. It was short poetic kind of read. Marquez has this ability to turn unusual, unreal situations into convincing reality. The idea of falling in love at the age of ninety seems a bit far fetched in reality to me. I somehow can’t imagine people falling in love in their nineties but Marquez’s writing i...more
Well this book turned out a pleasant surprise. It was short poetic kind of read. Marquez has this ability to turn unusual, unreal situations into convincing reality. The idea of falling in love at the age of ninety seems a bit far fetched in reality to me. I somehow can’t imagine people falling in love in their nineties but Marquez’s writing i...more
من یک سئوال دارم؟ چطور می شود به کسی که این پروفایل را درست کرده دست یافت؟
به این دلیل که خواهش کنیم از این به بعد طرح روی جلد کتابها را، نه فقط این کتاب را، بگذارند.
این جا اگر هدف تشویق است برای کتابخوانی باید چشمها را هم به جلد کتابها اشنا کرد. زحمت چندانی هم ندارد.
من خودم شخصن دیگر کتابهای بدون عکس جلد اضافه نمیکنم. دیگر ان هم اگر این کار را کنند، آن وقت کسانی که پروفایلها را می سازند دقت بیشتری میکنند.
5 likes · like · see review
Powerful book of a decrepit man taking refuge in lechery ??!!!! I don't think in enjoyed it much !
This was given to me by a friend and i loathed it in the purest sense ! The plot was repulsive based on pedophilia and prostitution...a nonagenarian who decides to bed a virgin on the eve of his ninetieth birthday (assuming it would be his last fling before death)
Author neither could make it erotic nor could he do any justice to the debate "love over sex" (the polemic quote - "sex is the consolati...more
This was given to me by a friend and i loathed it in the purest sense ! The plot was repulsive based on pedophilia and prostitution...a nonagenarian who decides to bed a virgin on the eve of his ninetieth birthday (assuming it would be his last fling before death)
Author neither could make it erotic nor could he do any justice to the debate "love over sex" (the polemic quote - "sex is the consolati...more
8 likes · like · see review
كتب الأستاذ العقاد مقالا في مناسبة عبوره سن الخمسين بأمان، ووتبعه بآخر عندما تجاوز الستين، وتبعه آخر عند السبعين بعد أن قطع سلالم الستين العشرة ومر على الرقم السبعيني بعنفوان الشيخوخة، وأوقفه الموت قبل أن يتيح له كتابه مقاله لتهنئة نفسه بعبوره عامه الثمانين، فكان العقاد إذن رجلًا سبعينًا، رحمه الله تعالى.
وحافظ إبراهيم قال في رأس الستين:
إني وقفتُ على الستيّن أسألها .. أسوّفتْ؟!، أم أعدّت حر أكفاني؟!
يقول هلى مُدّ في عمره ليشهد العقد السابع أم لا، ولم تسّوف ومات حافظ على رأس الستين، غقر الله تعال...more
وحافظ إبراهيم قال في رأس الستين:
إني وقفتُ على الستيّن أسألها .. أسوّفتْ؟!، أم أعدّت حر أكفاني؟!
يقول هلى مُدّ في عمره ليشهد العقد السابع أم لا، ولم تسّوف ومات حافظ على رأس الستين، غقر الله تعال...more
13 likes · like · see review
So far, it is the worst book I have read this year. The story itself starts very disgustingly. A journalist, on his 90th birthday, wants to have sex with a virgin. He calls the local madam, Rosa Cabarcas and she arranges a 15 year old girl for him. The journalist, in his 90 long years, never found love. All he wants is just to please himself physically and to test his 'performance' at this age. When the journalist meets the arranged girl, he discovered he fell in love for the first time in his l...more
To get the obvious out of the way, Garcia Marquez's writing is stunningly gorgeous. That goes without saying. For example, savor this:
"She hadn't changed position when I turned off the light, at one in the morning, and her respiration was so faint I took her pulse so I could feel she was alive. Blood circulated through her veins with the fluidity of a song that branched off into the most hidden areas of her body and returned to her heart, purified by love." (p. 63)
Ahhh.....
As a romantic, the spe...more
"She hadn't changed position when I turned off the light, at one in the morning, and her respiration was so faint I took her pulse so I could feel she was alive. Blood circulated through her veins with the fluidity of a song that branched off into the most hidden areas of her body and returned to her heart, purified by love." (p. 63)
Ahhh.....
As a romantic, the spe...more
Dec 27, 2007
Robert
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Men who love women
The review I wrote for amazon.
A curious and lovely book
In the US, we understand sexy but we struggle with the erotic. We read the body like we read the newspaper, by habit; with a glance. Our real failure in love is our failure to take our time. It's not in our nature to wait, to sample, to savor. We rush into love as if we were late to an appointment. Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his MEMORIES OF MY MELANCHOLY WHORES doesn't rush. The book is a seduction and moves at that quiet lazy confident pace....more
A curious and lovely book
In the US, we understand sexy but we struggle with the erotic. We read the body like we read the newspaper, by habit; with a glance. Our real failure in love is our failure to take our time. It's not in our nature to wait, to sample, to savor. We rush into love as if we were late to an appointment. Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his MEMORIES OF MY MELANCHOLY WHORES doesn't rush. The book is a seduction and moves at that quiet lazy confident pace....more
14 likes · like · see review
"The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin." So begins Memories of My Melancholy Whores, and it becomes even more unlikely as the novel unfolds. This slim volume contains the story of the sad life of an unnamed, only slightly talented Colombian journalist and teacher, never married, never in love, living in the crumbling family manse. He calls Rosa Cabarcas, madame of the city's most successful brothel, to seek her assistance. Ro...more
Apr 25, 2011
Yzobelle
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
for-sharing-at-blink
This is quite an easy read -- something that can be finished while having a haircut and an ice cream sundae after.
I couldn't say much about the grandeur of this book. It's not much. But it did give me quite a number of realizations. Some are profound. Some are simply amusing.
One thing that struck me is the commonality I have, at 32, with a 90-year-old man. Marquez, speaking of himself:
"I discovered that my obsession for having each thing in the right place, each subject at the right time, eac...more
I couldn't say much about the grandeur of this book. It's not much. But it did give me quite a number of realizations. Some are profound. Some are simply amusing.
One thing that struck me is the commonality I have, at 32, with a 90-year-old man. Marquez, speaking of himself:
"I discovered that my obsession for having each thing in the right place, each subject at the right time, eac...more
3 likes · like · see review
Nov 05, 2012
Hafeth
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
أدب-عالمي-مترجم,
1-2-stars
ﻻ زلت في منتصف الرواية, و حتى اﻵن أراها فاشلة
ﻻ يمكن مقارنتها بأي حال من اﻷحوال مع رائعة "الجميلات النائمات" لكواباتا, الروائي الياباني
تفاصيل الرواية مقززة, عن علاقة جنسية بين رجل في التسعين مع فتاة معدمة و
فقيرة في الرابعة عشرة
طبعا موضوع الرواية مستوحى من رواية "الجميلات النائمات", و هذا مالا يخفيه ماركيز, لكن المعالجة مختلفة كلية بين الروايتين
كلاهما يتناول أزمة الشيخوخة, لكن كاواباتا قدم القضية بشكل أرقى و أعمق من مجرد علاقة شاذة مع قاصر في الرابعة عشرة.
من الناحية الشكلية, يتبدى مجون المؤلف في...more
ﻻ يمكن مقارنتها بأي حال من اﻷحوال مع رائعة "الجميلات النائمات" لكواباتا, الروائي الياباني
تفاصيل الرواية مقززة, عن علاقة جنسية بين رجل في التسعين مع فتاة معدمة و
فقيرة في الرابعة عشرة
طبعا موضوع الرواية مستوحى من رواية "الجميلات النائمات", و هذا مالا يخفيه ماركيز, لكن المعالجة مختلفة كلية بين الروايتين
كلاهما يتناول أزمة الشيخوخة, لكن كاواباتا قدم القضية بشكل أرقى و أعمق من مجرد علاقة شاذة مع قاصر في الرابعة عشرة.
من الناحية الشكلية, يتبدى مجون المؤلف في...more
4 likes · like · see review
بالتأكيد قراء ماركيز يجب ألا يكونوا من القراء الاعتياديين..أقصد بالقراء الاعتياديين هؤلاء الذين يقرؤون وهم يأكلون مثلاً أو لشغل وقتهم في الحافلة أو القطار أو الطائرة أثناء السفر..هؤلاء الذين لا يستطيعون منح تركيزهم بالكامل للكلمات التي بين أيديهم ويعتبرونها مجرد ترفيه أو طريقة لبعثرة الوقت الممل أو ماشابه..
ماركيز دائماً يأخذك إلى منطقة لا تستطيع الفكاك منها ..لأنها ببساطة فيك..داخلك ..فهو يتوغل إلى تلك الأعماق الضيقة الميكروسكوبية التي في الإنسان بكل رحابته وقدرته على الحكي ويتلوها عليك تماماً ك...more
ماركيز دائماً يأخذك إلى منطقة لا تستطيع الفكاك منها ..لأنها ببساطة فيك..داخلك ..فهو يتوغل إلى تلك الأعماق الضيقة الميكروسكوبية التي في الإنسان بكل رحابته وقدرته على الحكي ويتلوها عليك تماماً ك...more
3 likes · like · see review
"'Voor mijn negentigste verjaardag wilde ik mezelf trakteren op een waanzinnige liefdesnacht met een jonge maagd." Qua openingszin kon dit boek van Gabriel García Marquez alvast enorm tellen. En de rest van het verhaal denderde er achteraan als een sneltrein.
Een verhaal over ouderdom, oud worden, de kwaaltjes die ermee gepaard gaan, de relativering die er mee gepaard gaat, het feit dat men er minder goed gaat uitzien dan men zich voelt.
Een verhaal over Colombia! Over Bogota! Zoveel schetsen van...more
Een verhaal over ouderdom, oud worden, de kwaaltjes die ermee gepaard gaan, de relativering die er mee gepaard gaat, het feit dat men er minder goed gaat uitzien dan men zich voelt.
Een verhaal over Colombia! Over Bogota! Zoveel schetsen van...more
2 likes · like · see review
Dec 13, 2007
Soshyans Varahram
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone
داستاني كوتاه و لطيف كه پردهاي از روابط زشت و زيباي انساني را به نمايش ميگذارد. عشق و تمناي جسماني پيرمردي در سالروز نود سالگياش و تغيير شكل آن به عشقي روحاني و نفس گير.
كتابي كه از خواندنش پشيمان نخواهيد شد. مطمئن باشيد!
كتابي كه از خواندنش پشيمان نخواهيد شد. مطمئن باشيد!
Despite my well documented affection for the author, I actually had mentally prepared myself to dislike or at least be disappointed by this book. I had read lukewarm reviews and was somewhat under-whelmed by the brief on the book jacket. A 90 year old man who falls in love with a sleeping 14 year old virgin. Marquez has written about these sinful or impossible loves before, one novella of his is about a priest who falls in love with a 14 year old girl. Ultimately though, I found this book to be...more
Garcia Marquez is getting tired. He dashed off this half-hearted little story and no publisher or faithful reader could resist the draw of his name. But if it had been someone's first work, it never would have been published.
This is a hard book to rate. It is beautifully written (translated by Edith Grossman), and the characters are wonderfully drawn. However, it is about a 90-year-old (one assumes Marquez) who wakes up on his 90th birthday and wants to have a sex with a 14-year-old virgin. His old friend, the madam, arranges same. In this short novel (115 pages), memories and events wash over the characters. I simply couldn't get past that premise--I know it is a fact of life, but not one I can accept. Read it for...more
"The truth is, I'm getting old, I said. 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." page 98
This is just one of many great insights found within Memories of My Melancholy Whores.
While the premise of this book, which revolves around a ninety-year-old bachelor who longs to celebrate his birthday with a virgin (a sleeping girl of 14 who becomes the source of an unconsummated love), invokes a certain amoun...more
It is really unfortunate that this is the first book I’ve read of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The style of the author is brilliant and easy to understand , the sentences are long and descriptive without being boring.
The book is about the love affair of a 90 year old man and a 14 year old peasant girl , if you can even call it an affair because the girl is asleep during the man’s nightly visits to the brothel she works at. The man decides to celebrate his 90th birthday by deflowering a young virgin...more
The book is about the love affair of a 90 year old man and a 14 year old peasant girl , if you can even call it an affair because the girl is asleep during the man’s nightly visits to the brothel she works at. The man decides to celebrate his 90th birthday by deflowering a young virgin...more
Aug 04, 2012
K.D. Oliveros
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to K.D. by:
Ayban
A 90-year old man falls in love for the first time. He has been single all his life and pays whore to have sex with him. He is a writer and his boss does not want him to stop writing because people would like to know how it feels to be a ninety-year old man.
It is a novella (short novel) that you can finish in 2 hours. However, it took me 6 days to finish it because I read it along with somebody in our book club here in Goodreads. She is a lot younger than me and she also liked this book. It was...more
It is a novella (short novel) that you can finish in 2 hours. However, it took me 6 days to finish it because I read it along with somebody in our book club here in Goodreads. She is a lot younger than me and she also liked this book. It was...more
17 likes · like · see review
I feel unqualified to dislike anything by Gabriel García Márquez, but with this slim novella I come very close. His other novels I’ve read (100 Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera) left me absolutely floored. His talent is prodigious and undeniable, and I fully expected this to be yet another amazing story masterfully told. But to be honest Memories falls a little flat. It was García Márquez’ first work of fiction in ten years, and at a mere 115 pages long, I wonder if maybe its brevi...more
An old man at the end of his life wakes one morning with the desire to sleep with a young virgin. This desire seems natural for a man who has been with many women, all of which he had to pay for. On the surface our protagonist seems like a dirty old man with no regard for anyone but himself, but as we take a look into his quaint life we realize that he, like any other person faced with the finality of time, is reflecting on his own life with nostalgia and perhaps a bit of regret.
The reader may f...more
The reader may f...more
3 likes · like · see review
Gabriel Garcia Marquez writes beautifully. Many paragraphs throughout his works can be easily mistaken for poetry, as they contain language so vivid and colorful that it inspires even the most disinterested reader. MEMORIES OF MY MELANCHOLY WHORES is Marquez's first piece of fiction in ten years, yet it maintains the writing acumen that he's famous for and that permeates his other works. It is also markedly shorter than many of his other novels; the 113 poignant pages of this novella take the fo...more
Memoria de mis putas tristes...I LOVE Gabriel García Marquez. He weaves his magical realism right into your brain and it's like I was peeking in through a window rather than reading.
I've read a few not so good reviews of this novella and they cannot be more wrong. Yes, Gabo's intricate magical realism is not as pronounced as it is say in Cien años de soledad (100 Years of Solitude), but it's definitely there. If you missed it, I suggest you go back and reread because it is there.
This was a sho...more
I've read a few not so good reviews of this novella and they cannot be more wrong. Yes, Gabo's intricate magical realism is not as pronounced as it is say in Cien años de soledad (100 Years of Solitude), but it's definitely there. If you missed it, I suggest you go back and reread because it is there.
This was a sho...more
6 likes · like · see review
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| خاطره ای با : خاطره دلبركان غمگين من | 3 | 29 | 12 hours, 0 min ago | |
| Povestea tarfelor mele triste | 1 | 4 | May 13, 2013 08:18am | |
| خواندم | 2 | 24 | Apr 01, 2013 06:18am | |
| خاطره دلبركان غمگين من | 1 | 33 | Dec 27, 2009 01:09pm | |
| سلام دوستان... | 1 | 10 | Sep 08, 2009 03:12pm | |
| مقايسه ترجمه هاي فطانت و مير عباسي | 3 | 47 | Dec 23, 2007 12:33am | |
| یک سئوال عمومی | 5 | 26 | Nov 23, 2007 12:38pm |
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Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. García Márquez, familiarly known as "Gabo" in his native country, is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
He started as a journalist, and has written many acclaimed non-fiction works and short st...more
More about Gabriel García Márquez...
He started as a journalist, and has written many acclaimed non-fiction works and short st...more
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“I discovered that my obsession for having each thing in the right place, each subject at the right time, each word in the right style, was not the well-deserved reward of an ordered mind but just the opposite: a complete system of pretense invented by me to hide the disorder of my nature. I discovered that I am not disciplined out of virtue but as a reaction to my negligence, that I appear generous in order to conceal my meanness, that I pass myself off as prudent because I am evil-minded, that I am conciliatory in order not to succumb to my repressed rage, that I am punctual only to hide how little I care about other people’s time. I learned, in short, that love is not a condition of the spirit but a sign of the zodiac.”
—
296 people liked it
“The adolescents of my generation, greedy for life, forgot in body and soul about their hopes for the future until reality taught them that tomorrow was not what they had dreamed, and they discovered nostalgia.”
—
149 people liked it
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