Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez

Reviewed by Kaete O' Connell

Click the photo to purchase Memories of my Melancholy Whores

 Also available in the Drew University Library Collection, Call Number: 863 G2162meE

            Many people say a life without love is a life not worth living.  Others say that it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.  People will always place a special emphasis on the combination of these two “L” words, and one must wonder what a life without love must be like.  In Gabriel García Márquez’s novel, Memories of My Melancholy Whores, the narrator learns how essential this emotion is to a significant life, during his final days.

            The unnamed narrator awakens on the morning of his ninetieth birthday with the notion that he wants to sleep with a virgin.  After making a call to an old madam, our narrator prepares himself for a night of wild adventures with a beautiful young girl.  Rather than consummate his evening with the beauty, the old man falls asleep beside her, transfixed by the sight of her sleeping innocence.  Their one night progresses into a year long relationship full of all the trials and tribulations of any teenage couple.  It is during this year that the narrator begins to recount the numerous sexual exploits of his ninety years, each one paid for.  Yet it is this one, paid for and never consummated, that means the most to him.  The narrator is left feeling things he never felt before, and begins to question the difference between the physical act of love and the emotion.  Ever present in this conflict is the pressing matter of time.  Unlike young love, the narrator is repeatedly reminded of how little time he has remaining, something that worsens as the novel and his love for the girl progresses.

            Márquez is known for his amazing ability to produce successful narratives that touch the human core, Memories of My Melancholy Whores is no exception.  Even though we as the readers are never formally introduced to our narrator, no name ever given, a certain level of intimacy is achieved.  This intimacy with the narrator can be expected when the intricacies of his sexual exploits are so brazenly revealed.  The hopes and fears of this elderly man are the same hope and fears of everyone at any age.  It is this realization that suggests perhaps things do not change or improve over time.  The problems we face in life, especially problems of the heart, they do not seek out the young, but plague people of all ages.

            While the novel may leave some puzzled by its open approach to what many would consider sensitive or taboo subjects, I found it fitting as the story of a single man’s life, summed up by a year’s experience.  At many points I began to think this novel was just a man’s memoirs, focusing on the most life changing year of his life.  This idea, combined with the fact our protagonist is a writer himself, leads one to wonder if it at all possible this is a book based on the author’s own experience.  Regardless, it is a deeply moving romance while at the same time a delayed coming of age, and the combination of these two allows for a fascinating read.