Memoria de mis putas tristes (Memories of My Melancholy Whores)

Un relato de la vida real

Tomando en cuenta que me gustan los libros con temas controverciales este titulo capto mi interez. Me lo he leido en 12 horas. En un largo viaje de un lado del continente al otro hace ya 2 años. Y todavia lo recuerdo. Es una historia real de aquellos con manias que no quieren ni desean lidiar con nadie y/o que nadie lidie con ellos. Es la historia de un alma solitaria que envejece para finalmente encontrar lo que nunca quiso, amor.

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Memoria de mis Putas Tristes

One of the very first serious novels I read on my own, outside of the required academic reading which most of us go through (Uncle Tom, The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, etc.) was ¿Cien Años de Soledad¿ which was, coincidentally, the first book my father handed down to me of his own stack. That may mean nothing to you, it meant a hell of a lot to me. Though I had read many of the short stories he kept around in his office, it was not until he saw my passion for the surrealistic that he reached up on the shelf and brought down that particular book (A Hundred Years of Solitude, is the English translation). I ate that book up like nothing else and to this day remains one of my favorite books I have ever read, in English or in Spanish.

I later went on to read ¿El Amor en Tiempos de Cholera¿ before my attention was drawn elsewhere. I never knew what became of that author, and assumed him dead, after he went for nearly a decade (if I remember correctly) without putting out a single new novel. I did see my dad with ¿Vivir Para Contarla¿ (To Live to Tell it) just last year when they came to visit, and he left it with me (I started it but abandoned it when other reading came up). That last is his biography, which is good, from what I read, but a bit slow, which is perhaps why I lost interest.

I had been eyeing ¿El General en su Laberinto¿ (The General in his Laberynth¿) when I saw that he had finally released a new novel. I promptly picked it up and finished it in one sitting. That is not as great an achievement as it sounds, the book is small, of decent sized print and merely 107 pages long. Yet, I ended up unable to put it down.

The story tells of an old man, turning 90 and having fully lived his life, wanting to celebrate his birthday, by taking an adolecent¿s virginity. The mistress from the local brothel, is only able to find him a fourteen year old girl in need of money. Hesitantly, our protagonist agrees (he is never given a name). Upon finding her naked in bed, however, he is faced with a number of truths which force him to re-examine his life, his actions, and lead him to find love in the unlikeliest of fashions.

It is a sad but touching love story, which moved me, obviously enough to read the book in one take, but unfortunately fell short of the work I was hoping to find. I really liked this book, but when holding it up to books he has written before, I felt slightly disappointed. Like being thirsty and given soda to drink, you only end up more thirsty afterward. I wish it had been more, but it was, nonetheless, a pleasant read.

El Amor vuelve a bociferar en el lenguage que solo Marquez nos sabe ofrecer!

Una lectura muy real y reflectiva de Garcia Marquez. La novela transita en el tiempo refleccionando amores pasados, amores que pudieron ser y amores que nunca seran.

Excelente !

Una Obra fuera de serie. Esta es una historia corta con mucha profundidad y ciertamente representa el sabor del cuento latinoamericano. Sin duda alguna es otra obra maestra del maestro de maestros 'Gabo'.

It is Marquez again!!!

Marquez still has it. Memoria de mis putas tristes is a wonderful, romantic, well written short story. For years I missed reading a good short story of a Latin American character in a contemporary Latin American background, but here it is and, of course, it is Marquez again.

Typical Garcia Marquez

Contrary to the title, which most of my American friends find shocking, this is a wonderful book. The story is shorter than most he has written, but equally powerful and beautifully written. The novel touches a subject that most pretend does not exist, but it is a love story none-the-less and filled with magical realism. There is much symbolism in the character's memories of the women he could have loved but didn't, the women who loved him, the regrets of his past and his re-discovery of life when he finds himself falling in love with an unlikely girl, in an unlikely place, with unlikely results. The non-consumation of his love is the greatest symbol of his entire life.

Of course, its a Marquez book

I'm a fan of Marquez since HS Spanish Lit. Marquez is totally in his style after ten years, telling a story how an older man discovers love with sex. He tells the story so thoroughly for a 109 page book. It was an easy read for my first time reading a complete book in spanish. I think I appreciated it more reading his work directly in spanish.

More of the same!

After reading his classics and having enjoyed them so much, I can only say this book is a total disappointment. In my opinion it is a best seller only because it was written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez but not because it is worth it.

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