Why a Booktrail?
Garcia Marquez writes what is probably his strangest and most provocative read yet.
Memories of My Melancholy Whores
What you need to know before your trail
At first view, the story about a ninety year old man, a newspaper columnist in Colombia who decides to give himself ‘a night of mad love with a virgin adolescent’ may not be of good taste or even make for a good read. But this is the story of a man who falls in love with his girl his Delgadina and who makes him stop and think about what he’s doing and what he has done. He decides to chronicle the life of his heart.
This is a man with a very unique story to tell and tell it he does with the wit and charm you might not expect.
Travel Guide
Memoria de mis putas tristes – the Spanish title and one which teaches a whole new vocabulary if you read it in the original is set not in a place but in the human heart of a ninety year old man who comes to his tenth decade realising he knows nothing of love.
He’s an ugly old grump at first sight but as he tells his story, the wit and dry comments of this novella really bring him and his story to life. For instance he has the ‘instrument’ of a ‘burro’ and so there’s another word for your Spanish vocabulary that you would not have read in this way in another book. The word Donkey will come in use later on as well.
This man still has it in some ways – he is still working as a journalist and visiting Madam Rosa Cabarcas who finds him the girl he is looking for. as he watches her and falls in love he writes of their ‘relationship’ in letter form which he puts in his column so that his love can be seen by all.
Marquez states that he was largely inspired by the Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata, who wrote the novella “House of the Sleeping Beauties.”
The setting is undoubtedly Colombia but the town remains nameless – due to the topic and themes probably for the best. Yet this is a journey to Garcia territory and so our little booktrail looks at places associated with the great writer rather than the man in the book here.
Where Next?
