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  • Though I read the English translation (by Edith Grossman) of this novella, the prose is beautiful in its simplicity. A very quick read, although I almost feel guilty for having read so fast--there certainly is much more to be gleaned from a slow and thorough second reading about what it means to lov ... Continue

    Though I read the English translation (by Edith Grossman) of this novella, the prose is beautiful in its simplicity. A very quick read, although I almost feel guilty for having read so fast--there certainly is much more to be gleaned from a slow and thorough second reading about what it means to love, and how we let age and its expectations affect the lives we lead.

    

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• ― Chezmerelda said on Jul 6, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • This book may have the greatest opening line of any novel I have yet to read.

    

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• ― Bossdog said on Aug 7, 2007 | Add your feedback

Memories of My Melancholy Whores is Gabriel García Márquez’s first work of fiction in ten years, written at the height of his powers, the Spanish edition of which Ilan Stavans called, “Masterful. Erotic. As hypnotizing as it is disturbing” (Los Angeles Times).

On the eve of his ninetieth birthday, our unnamed protagonist–an undistinguished journalist and lifelong bachelor–decides to give himself “the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin.”

The virgin, whom an old madam procures for him, is splendidly young, with the silent power of a sleeping beauty. The night of love blossoms into a transforming year. It is a year in which he relives, in a rush of memories, his lifetime of (paid-for) sexual adventures and experiences a revelation that brings him to the edge of dying–not of old age, but, at long last, of uncorrupted love.

Memories of My Melancholy Whores is a brilliant gem by the master storyteller.

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• English translationagelovenovellaSpanishrelationships