چند سال پیش خوندمش و واقعا قدرت آثار قبلی مارکز را نداره و گویا تاثیر آلزایمر داره خودش را نشون میده. نمیدونم چه چیز خاصی توی اثر وجود داره و باید دنبالش بگردیم؟ تقریبا هیچی. نهایتا همون قدرت قصه گویی که قلم مارکز داره.
ماجرای یک روزنامه نگار کهنه کار که در نود سالگی و در اوج تنهایی تصمیم میگیره باز یه رابطه را شروع کنه و نگاهش به ماجرا اول کاملا جنسی هست و تا اواخر کار کم کم یه کم عاطفی هم میشه.

On a certain level, I truly enjoyed "Memories of My Melancholy Whores". I am always ready to be swept up in the simple whimsy of G.G.M's language, and the sweeping romance and dramatic emotion of his work always appeals to me. But on another very real level I found this book disturbing and sexist.
The book's theme is strikingly reminiscent of "Talk to Her", a recent Almodovar film. Both deal with men who build flowery romantic/erotic relationships in their minds with a completely passive sleeping woman. In the film, the man in question is a nurse in a hospital caring for an accomplished ballerina who is in a coma. In "Melancholy Whores", the "lover" is a man who has just turned ninety and falls in love with a 14 year old prostitute who he visits every night while she sleeps deeply (possibly drugged).
If you choose to put aside the creepy elements and focus on the romantic sentiment and poetic pedestal that Delgadina (the name the old man invents for his nameless "whore") is placed atop, the book is a very beautiful reflection on the need for love and the degradations of aging. If you can't put is aside, this is a story of a strange pedophilic attachment that certainly should not be romanticized.
Both the Almodovar film and this book romanticize and rhapsodize about the perfectly passive woman-- a woman as little more than an object-- and construct fantasy relationships with someone who never speaks, or even opens her eyes. I once saw an issue of Hustler that had this photo of "The Ideal Woman". She had Jack Daniels coming out of one nipple, and milk out of the other. Guacamole issued from her nether regions and stuffed in her mouth was a tampon. The caption explained that since this woman menstruated from her mouth she was completely silent for about a week every month. This is, of course, disgustingly crude, but take away the frills of magical realism and I feel like "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" is not that different.
There are definite high points. The protagonist's reflections on aging were sharp and funny. The epic nature of the love described in the text whips you away on a Sleeping Beauty/Beauty and the Beast fairy-tale romance that evokes true punch-in-the-stomach emotion.
But in the end, this "princess" is a pre-pubescent prostitute who slaves away sewing on buttons all day to take care of her family and spends her nights fondled and admired by an aged delusional "beast", who will never take her away from reality in princely fashion. In the end, for me anyway, the ick factor breaks the spell.

For his 90th birthday, a man wants to sleep with a young virgin. But, unfortunately, the brothel he has already frequented offers him a 14-year-old girl.
The plot is cash; I would even say trash. But, on the other hand, it is a concise book and reads very quickly - nothing to be ecstatic about in front of this book.

«خاطرات روسپیان سودازده من» یا «خاطرات دلبرکان غمگین من» به وضوح وام گرفته از داستان «خانه‌ی خوبرویان خفته» هست. پیرمردی نود ساله که زندگیش با هوسرانی‌ و هم‌خوابگی با صدها روسپی گذشته و هرگز عشق رو تجربه نکرده تصمیم میگیره برای تولد خودش همخوابگی با یک دختر باکره رو به خودش پیشکش کنه. همین اتفاق خط اصلی داستان هست و در خلال اون اتفاقاتی از گذشته و داستان‌های حاشیه‌ای دیگه‌ای هم تعریف می‌کنه.ه

پیرمردی که می خواهد جشن نود سالگی اش را با شکوه برگزار کند تا طعم تلخ تنهایی را فراموش کند
او گوشی را بر میدارد و زنگ می زند. زن پشت تلفن، پیرمرد را بیاد می آورد و پیرمرد آنچه را میخواسته، به او میگوید
همه چیز خوب پیش می رود و پیرمرد گوشی را میگذارد.قرار است برای شب تولدش، با دختری 14 ساله و باکره همخوابگی کند
ولی این هوس با هوس های دیگر سال های جوانی و میانسالی اش فرق دارد
و این بار عشق است که هوس را به زانو در می آورد

زندگی هدیه تولد غیر منتظره ای برای پیرمرد دارد
درک زیبایی زندگی ، آنهم زمانی که فرصت زیادی نمانده

این بار از روی عادت، ریشش را هر صبح اصلاح نمی کند
بلکه برای دخترک است
و همه کارهایش برای این زیباروست
نوشته هایش در ستونی از روزنامه بوی عشق می گیرد و طرفدار پیدا میکند

این رمان منو یاد جمله هایی از وصیت نامه مارکز انداخت

به همه ثابت می کردم
که انسان ها به دلیل پیر شدن نیست که دیگر عاشق نمی شوند
بلکه زمانی پیر می شوند که دیگر عاشق نمی شوند

....
مارکز گفته بود که آرزو داشت نویسنده کتاب" خانه زیبارویان خفته" باشد و شاید این کتاب را به تقلید از فضای آن نوشته
پیرمردی در برابر دختران جوان
البته کمی متفاوتتر
.......
امروز که نگاهی به کتاب انداختم
قبل از شروع این را نوشته

زن مهمانخانه دار به اگوچی پیر هشدار داد: هیچ کار زشتی نباید بکنی.مبادا انگشت توی دهن زن خوابیده یا یک کار دیگه ای شبیه بکنی

یاسوناری کاواباتا،خانه مهرویان خفته

پس مارکز این کتاب را بخاطر عشقش به کتاب خانه زیبارویان خفته نوشته

A Latin-American "Lolita" Lite or: Don't Let The Title Scare You (This Isn't A Dirty Old Man Book)

It’s been years since I've read anything by Gabriel García Márquez, and so this little book, while not as grand, sweeping or substantial as the works that earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, came as a lovely, gentle surprise.

Reading it felt like catching up with a grizzled old friend who can tell a mean story. García Márquez’s seductive writing has a perfumed air of nostalgia and romance about it. Once sniffed, it's impossible to tear yourself away.

Take the book’s remarkable opening line:

“The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin.”

The unnamed narrator isn’t as lecherous as he sounds. He’s “ugly, shy, and anachronistic,” a journalist who used to rewrite wire copy and now supplements his income by teaching Spanish lessons and penning a newspaper column. He never married (although he was once engaged), and doesn’t have any children. And, until now, he’s never been in love.

Yes, this is a story about a man who’s gone nearly a century without finding love. And now, old, wrinkled, his joints (and other things) creaky, he falls. With passion. And frustration. And jealousy. But absolutely no regrets.

The object of his love isn’t all that important in the book. She’s kept intentionally vague, often seen sleeping (she works at a factory sewing on buttons), her tired back usually turned to the narrator. We're not even told her real name, although the narrator calls her “Delgadina,” after the lyrics of a favourite song.

The fact is, the burst of energy the man gets from his (rather chaste) relationship with Delgadina suddenly gives his life meaning and purpose. His columns, many of them now about love, become famous in town; radio hosts read them to thousands of listeners. He gets the nickname “the maestro of love.” People recognize him on the streets.

García Márquez's powers of description are as strong as ever. The pacing is impeccable. Several characters – from the brothel madame, Rosa Cabarcas, to the narrator's hard-working, tireless maid – snap to life in a few sharp sentences and lines of dialogue. As a 90th birthday present, the old man is given an old cat, who pads his way through a few scenes without becoming too obvious a symbol. In one heartbreaking episode the narrator hooks up with an old sexual partner and instead of getting physical, they talk honestly about their lives and their age, which feels even more intimate than sex.

There's not one wasted word. García Márquez has distilled his art to its very essence. One caveat: If you're too young, you may not get as much out of this. You need to have chalked up some regrets. It's one of those "the unexamined life is not worth living" books.

Prepare to think about your own history of love. To be nostalgic for a time and place you never even knew. To laugh and weep over the surprises, joys and melancholic moments of a long, fully inhabited life.

To enjoy this book you have to enter the mind and world of this old, old man, living the last years of his life in poverty in the once-grand, decaying house of his youth. His career never rose above second-rate reporter, he never married and never even fell in love. His personal relationships with women were limited to the whores he paid for. A most unfulfilled life.

But then, for a present for his 90th birthday, he gives himself a 14 year-old virgin, a would-be whore. Exhausted from menial labour and drugged-up with valerian by the brothel madame, she sleeps every night they spend together, her sleeping and he sitting on a chair next to her bed. and for the first time in his life he falls in love. In love with the idea of his sleeping beauty.

This is a poetic, sensual book that many reviewers, unable to see beyond their own ideas of fitness, have condemned as tawdry, a paean to pedophilia and just plain sick. But it isn't. It's the last flowering of a rose; touched by frost it should have died but instead is more glorious, more beautiful because it is so unseasonal, a real surprise. What it says about the nature of men's love for young beauty is age-old: look good, be quiet and demure, and let him be the dominant one, is taken to an extreme here. It worked for Snow White, it worked for the Sleeping Beauty and it works for Delgadina too.

Love changes everything. Despite his 90 years, the old, old man walks with a spring in his step, his head held high and smiling to the world. He has an epiphany, 'sex is the consolation one has for not finding enough love' and writes about love in his weekly columns in the local newspaper. This brings him the fame, respect and friendship he had craved all his life. In his 91st year, at last, he has found fulfillment.

Ultimately, Gabriel Garcia Marquez says through this book: Never Give Up.

Read May 1, 2009

Update I've been reading other reviews and it seems that people think this book is about paedophilia, some Lolita book. Nothing could be further from the truth. The whores and loveless sex without dreams or commitment didn't bring the old man happiness. Now, not having sex but just sitting beside a sleeping girl and dreaming and falling in love with the dream, has brought about a sea change. Pure love and romantic daydreams have made him happy and this happiness has seeped into every aspect of his lire, until, despite his years he walks with a spring in his step and a smile on his face and this happiness makes him a hero to all who see him.

This is a brilliant book. It is the last book, the final jewel inset into the crown that is the literature of GGM. Do not hold back because of what you've heard. Do not misinterpret and see what isn't there. This book is the musings of a life without much happiness, not sex, and the girl is no more molested than was Snow White resting in her glass case with only her beauty on show.

I wrote this update purely because both on GR and in my shop people "have heard" about this book and so don't think they want to read it. December 4th, 2016

Livro pequenino que se lê muito bem, mas com um enredo que me agoniou um pouco. A velhice não é desejada, mas é imparável; aparece no que parece ser um piscar de olhos. Com ela sabemos que o fim daqueles que amamos está próximo.
O narrador desta pequena história fez-me sentir emoções contraditórias com as suas memórias desde a sua infância até aos seus dias com Delgadina.
Não são muitos os autores que conseguem fazer-me sentir assim.

Είμαι σε φάση ανακατάληψης των μνημείων μου αποστρογγυλοποιώντας τις ακμές που γλύκανα όσο περνούσαν τα χρόνια. Κοινώς ό,τι χρειάζεται για να πω goodbye σε ωραιοποιήσεις που δημιουργούν ανύπαρκτα σημεία αναφοράς. Διασχίζοντας διάφορα σημεία μου πέρασα τη ματιά μου αρκετά πιο κριτικά κι από ένα ταξίδι και τότε θυμήθηκα κι αυτό το βιβλίο και σήμερα μόλις μπήκα εδώ το βρήκα μπροστά μου από κάποιον που το σήμανε ως to read. Μου φάνηκε καλή ιδέα να πω δυο λόγια, διότι παρά τη δυσκολία της περιόδου, είναι κάτι που θυμάμαι από εκείνο το ταξίδι με αγάπη.

Το διάβασα στον προαστιακό από Πειρ��ιά για Κιάτο το 2013. Όσο κι αν δε του φαίνεται είναι πολύ καλή ταξιδιάρικη παρέα, ωστόσο δεν ανήκει στον κύκλο του μαγικού ρεαλισμού, είναι διαφορετικό. Ένα θραύσμα μνήμης σε δικό του κόκκινο χαλί ελαφρώς λερό. Η μαγικότητα ή η μουσικότητα βρίσκεται στο ύφος του. Έχει μια μαλακότητα που με έφερνε πολύ κοντά στο στρώμα που ξάπλωνε ο γέρος και κοιτούσε το νέο κορίτσι να ξαποσταίνει. Δεν κρύβει τις ασκήμιες που συμβαίνουν παντού, τα κακώς κείμενα. Τα υπαινίσσεται και μας προτρέπει να γευτούμε τη λύπη μαζί με τη χαρά του να είμαστε καθαροί, την υγρασία του δωματίου, με το όμορφο κορμί δίπλα που έστω για τον ύπνο, του ανήκει όλη η μυστηριώδης αθωότητα της ψυχής που δεν ανήκει στους άλλους.

Κλείνοντας τα μάτια θυμάμαι το τρένο να κουνάει κάπως, κάποιον απέναντι να χαζεύει σε ένα φορητό και να διώχνω μια σκέψη παρά τη φαινομενική χαρά του σκοπού της γιατί το βιβλίο ήταν πιο θελκτικό από έναν έρωτα που είχε πάρει να σβήσει. Και εκείνη τη στιγμή είχαν αναμιχτεί η λύπη μου μαζί με τη λύπη που πάντα μου δημιουργεί αυτός ο συγγραφέας που διαρκώς τον νιώθω σα να θρηνεί κάποιον έρωτα και σα να τον δοξάζει.

Çok güzeldi, çok güzeldi, çok güzeldi.
Marquez okumayı özlemişim. O kadar uzun zaman oldu ki yazarın tarzını unutmuşum. Aklım Yüzyıllık Yalnızlık'ın karmaşasında kalmış olacak ki bol betimleme beklerken sade bir kitapla karşılaştım. Derin anlamlara sahip yalın cümleleriyle huzur veren bir kitapla.
Hayalet hissi veren kitapları seviyorum. Benim Hüzünlü Orospularım'da onlardan biri. Tuhaf bir belirsizlik havası var kitabın, her şey hem gerçek hem de değil. Satır araları okuyucunun hayal gücüyle istediği gibi doldurması için boş bırakılmış. 90 yaşındaki bir adamın hayatından kesitleri okumanın bu kadar keyifli olacağını düşünmemiştim. Marquez sevenler kitabı mutlaka okumalı. Ayrıca yazara başlamak için iyi bir tercih olacağını düşünüyorum.

« نه احساس دردی داشتم نه ترسی بلکه‌ هیجانی عظیم از این که توانسته بودم آن را زندگی کنم.»



این کتاب جزو کتاباییه که یه قسمتی ازش رو تو اینستا خوندم و دلم خواست کامل بخونمش. جزو معدود داستان‌های عاشقانه‌ایه که دوسش داشتم. نمیدونم چرا ولی عمیقا حسش کردم؛ شاید چون قلم ملموسی داره. گابریل گارسیا خیلی ملایم و قشنگ ،اثری رو که عشق و جداییِ بعدش روی آدمیزاد داره، به تصویر کشیده .

Uf, lo siento pero es un NO rotundo.

Me ha sabido a poco, me ha parecido que solo fue publicada por el simple renombre de García Márquez y ya está. Es más, no me ha sabido a nada. Para eso mejor leerse Lolita o La carne, que son dos novelas que exploran los temas que aquí se han tratado de forma superficial. La primera trata sobre estar en la mente de un pedófilo/pederasta y la segunda sobre la vejez y como la protagonista se toma esa situación que se torna complicada en todo sentido para ella. Mucho mejor contadas y narradas, a mí parecer, con todo el respeto y sin desmeritar que este relato se lee rápido y la pluma de Gabo no se hace pesada.