Memories of My Melancholy Whoresby Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Columbia)
Nobel author
Hardcover, 128 pages
Alfred A Knopf (2005)
This novel was recommended to me by a reader as "more accessible" than Marquez's magic realism. I read One Hundred Years of Solitude and while it is literature of a high order and an interesting story it really didn't do much for me. I prefer my stories firmly planted in realism.
Memories...is a title I'd usually avoid to say the least...but I gave it a whirl after I looked up something about the story and it didn't seem quite as lurid as it sounds.
You certainly can't fault the man's writing and story telling, which is beautiful. And it's more than a simple love story, as it comes at the end of a man's long life with the surprise of an entirely new experience for him. It's a five star novel for anyone who doesn't mind a story about an old man, his memories of all the professional women he's been with, and the special 'treat', a fourteen year old virgin, that he buys for his 90th birthday. He's never fallen in love or had sex without paying for it, you see. The poor man has been too busy working. Four stars with a warning that this is not your mother's idea of a love story.
My next Marquez novel will be Love in the Time of Cholera.
Have you read this author? Which of his books can you recommend? Do you enjoy magic realism? Have you read his work in Spanish and English. If so, do you think we are losing anything in the translation?
If you've reviewed any his books please leave a link, I'd love to read them.
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You certainly can't fault the man's writing and story telling, which is beautiful. And it's more than a simple love story, as it comes at the end of a man's long life with the surprise of an entirely new experience for him. It's a five star novel for anyone who doesn't mind a story about an old man, his memories of all the professional women he's been with, and the special 'treat', a fourteen year old virgin, that he buys for his 90th birthday. He's never fallen in love or had sex without paying for it, you see. The poor man has been too busy working. Four stars with a warning that this is not your mother's idea of a love story.
My next Marquez novel will be Love in the Time of Cholera.Have you read this author? Which of his books can you recommend? Do you enjoy magic realism? Have you read his work in Spanish and English. If so, do you think we are losing anything in the translation?
If you've reviewed any his books please leave a link, I'd love to read them.
Next Review: Out Stealing Horses/Elephant Winter/Tirra Lirra...
Previous Review: The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
yeah, not my idea of a love story either!! haha. I really liked your review. I actually really enjoy magical realism, and was pretty disappointed with this one because it contained none, or at least none that I remember. However you are right in saying that he is a stunning writer. There is no doubt about that!
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