The review I wrote for amazon.

A curious and lovely book

In the US, we understand sexy but we struggle with the erotic. We read the body like we read the newspaper, by habit; with a glance. Our real failure in love is our failure to take our time. It's not in our nature to wait, to sample, to savor. We rush into love as if we were late to an appointment. Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his MEMORIES OF MY MELANCHOLY WHORES doesn't rush. The book is a seduction and moves at that quiet lazy confident pace. The protagonist turns 90 and, mindful of his mortality, wants what he's never had: "A night of wild love with an adolescent virgin." Of course, desire is a dream and dreams are an attempt to remember. And, what do we want to remember, everything, everyone we've ever loved. Memory, though, is an admission of loss. Desire is our strategy to reclaim what was lost. Of course, memory is a trickster...and that's part of the joy of this book, as the "Professor," defies death less through contact with flesh, than though memory and desire. In this book as in life, it is the approach, it is anticipation, that sets us on fire.

Senryu Review:

Geriatric lust
bedecked in purple prose and
bland melodrama

- هل احب جابرييل جارسيا قصة "الجميلات النائمات" لهذه الدرجة؟ هل بقيت امنيته في ان يكون كاتب تلك القصة غصة في حلقه؟ ام انه اصابه الهوس بها فأسقطها على حياته (او حياة بطله) وعاشها ليحس بتلك اللذة؟!!.. لا ادري..

- الفكرة هي ذاتها من "الجميلات النائمات"، لكنها هنا تطفو على السطح، بدون اي عمق او بعد... رشّ عليها الكثير من الواقعية الوجودية، وزينها بذكرياتٍ تنتقل بين عاهرة واخرى!!

- هل عرف الحب عند بلوغه التسعين عاماً؟! ايمكن لمن عاش بين احضان العاهرات ان يبقى بمقدوره ان يحب! ام هي الشفقة على الذات والخوف من الموت وحيداً؟ او ربما الهلع من اقتراب الموت السريع والتمتع بآخر لحظات الحياة؟! او هي العودة على بدء وتحسس جسد مراهقة قد بدأت تتفتح ازهارها؟!!

- لنرى دور المرأة في هذه الرواية: هناك عاهرة، وعاهرة قديمة وقوادة وعاهرة اخرى.. حتى العذراء كان ينام بجانبها في بيت دعارة!!... هذه نظرة سيئة للنساء ودونية وظلم لا يمكن ان يقبل به.

- بالنهاية رواية لابأس بها، لكنها سيئة جداً لماركيز!

(B+) 77% | Good
Notes: The premise is interesting and the text is beautifully written, but the story's thin and the ending's a bit disappointing.

Per quanto si voglia dragare a fondo la malinconia se non vi é purezza quanto é difficile lanciare la propria rete d’empatia? Se quel disturbo di dissonanza aggredisce all’inizio, tenerezza noncurante si avvinghia al cuoricino alla fine.

Memoria de Mis Putas Tristes = Memories of My Melancholy Whores, Gabriel García Márquez

Memories of My Melancholy Whores is a novella by Gabriel García Márquez. The book was originally published in Spanish in 2004.

An old journalist, who has just celebrated his 90th birthday, seeks sex with a young prostitute, who is selling her virginity to help her family. Instead of sex, he discovers love for the first time in his life.

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «خاطره دلبرکان غمگین من»؛ «خاطرات روسپيان سودازده‌ من»؛ نویسنده: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ تارخ نخستین خوانش هر دو نسخه ی برگردان فارسی در روزهای سال2007میلادی

عنوان: خاطره دلبرکان غمگین من؛ نویسنده: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: کاوه میرعبّاسی؛ تهران، نیلوفر، سال1386؛ در124ص؛ شابک9644482522؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان کلمبیا - سده 20م

عنوان: خاطرات روسپيان سودازده‌ من؛ نویسنده: گابریل گارسیا مارکز؛ مترجم: اميرحسين فطانت؛ محمد امامی؛ تهران، نشر آهنگ دیگر؛ سال1383؛ در128ص؛ شابک9648433127؛

روزنامه نگاری (البته که روزنامه نگار، و یادمانهایش از آن خود نویسنده ی روانشاد این کتاب، نیست، خیال است که بنگاشته اند، ایشان در سال1958میلادی، با خانم «مرسده بارچا» ازدواج کرده بودند، و دو فرزند به نامهای «رودریگو» و «گونزالو» دارند، «گابریل گارسیا مارکز» در روز ششم ماه مارس، سال1927میلادی، در «آراکاتاکای کلمبیا» به دنیا آمدند، و در روز هفدهم ماه آوریل سال2014میلادی در سن هشتاد و هفت سالگی در «مکزیکو سیتی» درگذشتند) که همه ی عمر خود را، بی زن و فرزند، و در تنهایی بگذرانده، در نود سالگی خویش، بار دیگر عشق را تجربه میکند، و دلدادگی پیرانه سر زندگیش را دگرگون میکند، تلخترین عذابها را تاب میآورد، تا به عشق ناب و پاک برسد؛ گزینش جملات از پشت جلد کتاب

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 04/10/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 27/08/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

این کتاب آخرین داستان بلند گابریل گارسیا مارکز هست... کتاب در سال 2004 نوشته شده و ترجمه فارسی اسم کتاب میشه خاطرات روسپی های سودا زده من... کتاب در ایران با اسم خاطره دلبران سودازده من چاپ شد و بعد از اینکه چاپ شد وزارت ارشاد ممنوع اعلامش کرد و شروع کرد به جمع کردنش و با مسئولانی هم که مجوز چاپ داده بودن به شدت برخورد کرد و به نقل از خود وزارت ارشاد اخراجشون کرد... .
توضیح مختصری در مورد کتاب بگم براتون... سبک نوشتاری کتاب کاملا همون سبک آشنای مارکز هست... (گابریل گارسیا مارکز جزو نویسندگان مورد علاقه من هست)... نسبت به کارهای قدیمی ترش تفاوتی که خیلی مشهود بود این بود که سبک رئالیسم جادویی مارکز خیلی بیشتر به سمت رئالیسم پیش رفته... داستان کلی در مورد تفاوت بین عشق و ارتباط جنسی هست... دیدگاهی که مارکز در مورد مسائل جنسی داره دیدگاه متفاوتی نسبت به نویسندگان اروپایی و آمریکای شمالی هست و در دو تا کتاب دیگه ای که من ازش خوندم (صد سال تنهایی و پاییز پدرسالار) همین دیدگاه تکرار شده... داستان عبارات و کلمه هایی داره که متناسب با عرف نیستن... برای من جای تعجب داره که چطور این کتاب حتی با سانسور قسمتهایی ازش چاپ شده...
در کل من کتاب رو کار خیلی قوی نمی دونم ولی کار نسبتا خوبی هست... کتابهای متنوعی از نویسنده های مختلف در مورد تحلیل اجتماعی و روانشناختی روسپی ها خوندم و به نظر من در این مقوله این کتاب، کتاب نسبتا خوبی هست.

_Memories of My Melancholy Whores_

Márquez, my dear, you are, without a doubt, the love of my life.

Life is so complicated to understand at the same time the working mind of every people, how they think, they act or develop in their entire life. When I was walking nearby a bar, I saw an old man wearing his new clothes bought from the department store while guided by his nurse and stick, and entered a bar. I cannot imagine such scene in my mind esepcially the sexual interaction between an old man and a very young lady.

In this novella, Gabriel García Márquez, put you into deepest imagination while reading a very interesting and lonely letter of a 90-year-old man searching for a girl. An old bachelor man is searching for a young virgin on his 90th birthday to enjoy his old body mind. Until he met a 14-year-old girl, searching for money to help her family, through Rosa Cabarcas, the owner of the illicit house.

n  n  
n  Poor cat trying to read the book but he end up beaten in the middle of the second chapter as he saw the virgin maiden lying naked and arms in cross. Meow.n

It was well-written and in a way reader will not bore to death reading a very short narrative of a very old man searching for love in his death bed. This story is quite common but cannot be shared as part of the societies acceptance. Although, it was banned in Iran after a group of conservatives said it was implementing prostitution. I think Gabriel García Márquez, only showed that love cannot be determine by age, love is ageless because age doesn't mean you are old or how old you feel. Recommended to those people who likes to read romance written by male authors.

The book was also written in poetic prose, the sentences are clearly beautiful. But the idea of an old man with a body that aches and wrinkly skin is having an intercourse with a young girl is unacceptable in my mind, even though I liked this book. I just can't stop my vivid imagination of the scene to stop. Maybe if I'm older and still a bachelor, it is up to me to decide whether the man really done the right thing or not. I'm sure I won't forget this book forever.

P.S. I don't like to be an old bachelor.

n  n  
n  Picture tell lies, so beware and be careful of what you see and it may depicts your true intention. This picture is quite amazing, such a masterpiece for an old man. I think I need a spectacle this time. OhSaraOhOh!n

Review posted on n  Old-Fashioned Readern.

Rating: Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez, 4 Sweets

Challenges:
Book #193 for 2011
Book #110 for Off the Shelf!

كنت أقول دومًا أن ثمة أعمال يحصل بينها وبين أعمال أخرى تلاقي / تقارب من الأفكار لا أتحدث عن السطو والسرقة - رغم وجود هذا الشيء - بل أتحدث عن تناغم بين كتابين بطريقة خفية، أو بواسطة إلهام من كتاب سابق يناقش الكتاب الذي بين يديك مثلًًا، وعندما كتب
ياسوناري كواباتا / Yasunari Kawabata


روايته / : والتي وصلتنا بترجمتها (الجميلات النائمات / ) وهى رواية غريبة الموضوع وأعتقد الغرابة تكمن عندي من إختلاف الثقافات ليس أكثر. أقول عند تأليفها "تمنى ماركيز لو أنه كتبها". لهذا لا أعلم أجد فكرة الجميلة النائمة على سرير من حرير ويبقى بجانبها ذلك الرجل الطاعن في السن يرقبها طوال الوقت وفي أكثر من تجربة أجدها مقاربة كبيرة بين العمل الأول وعمل ماركيز (ذكريات عاهراتي الحزينة). أعجبني العمل الأول الياباني لياسوناري أكثر من عمل ماركيز. رغم ابداع ماركيز كعادته في تولية التفاصيل الصغيرة شأن دون الإغراق في الوصف.

ماركيز يرتبط بعاهراته أو بمن عرفهم في إطار علاقاته في ذاخل ذاكرته لهذه يسهل عليه دومًا إعادة تذكرهم في وحدته التي يخبرنا عنها كثيرًا، ويحاول إعطاء قيمة الحياة والتقديس للمرأة في هذا العمل..

بينما جميلات ياسوناري مكانتهم عنده أعمق وأجل وهو لا يفكر حتى في إخراجهم من محيطهم المكاني؛ بل حتى المساس بهن شيء منافي للذوق كما تخبرنا بذلك سيدة الخان "إيجوشي" التي ستجد لها مصطلج في الثقافة العربية يحمل اسم (قوادة) وهو ذا دلالة منافية للمشروع. حالتي الرفض في العربية والغربية هو عدم المساس. وقفت كثيرًا وأنا اتأمل الرفض وحرقة الرغبة في اللمس.

كلا العملين يخيفان أي قارئ وقارئة من العمر، وكلاهما جميل وفاتن.

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.

"The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin. I'm ugly, shy and anachronistic. But by dint of not wanting to be those things I have pretended to be just the opposite. Until today, when I have resolved to tell of my own free will just what I'm like, if only to ease my conscience. The beginning of a new life at an age when most mortals have already died."



There is no subject in our society that is associated with more myths and misinformation than that of sexual intimacy and the elderly. This subject is often considered taboo and is relegated to derogatory humour. Some examples of the myths include:
- impotence is a natural consequence of ageing.
- sexual activity can be dangerous for the elderly.
- the sex drive or libido diminishes with advancing years for both men and women.

Sometimes, in the end, it is impossible not to become what others believe you are.

n  "Sex at 90 is like trying to shoot pool with a rope"n-- George Burns

The media usually portrays the elderly as nonsexual beings who have traded in physical prowess for greater mental clarity and wisdom. Recent research shows that as we get older, our senses of taste, smell, and sight diminish, and our capacity for strenuous activities and exertion decline. Naturally, our sexual sensations and the ability to perform sexually will modestly decline. But decline is not the end, right?

n  "Human sexual response may be slowed by the aging process, but it is certainly not terminated." n

Whew! Am I glad to hear that!

Memories of My Melancholy Whores is a tale about romance in old age, enticingly sensual yet often tragic and sad. It is about an unnamed second-rate reporter who on the eve of his 90th birthday decides to give himself "a night of mad love with a virgin adolescent". As much as that statement may hit some in the face, and potentially raise questions about why you decided to read this book, one is soon drawn in to the lonely and disconnected life of this old man.

On his 90th birthday, the old man awakes, as always, at 5am in the morning:

n  "My symptoms at dawn were perfect for not feeling happy: my bones had been aching since the small hours, my asshole burned, and thunder threatened a storm after three months of drought."n

He settles down to write the day's column for the local newspaper and decides that the subject should indeed be his 90th birthday. He starts to think about his life and what it means to be old.

n  "The truth is that the first changes are so slow they pass almost unnoticed, and you go on seeing yourself as you always were, from the inside, but others observe you from the outside."n

Old Age

The old man has never fallen in love. He was close to marrying once, but it was a loveless union that he could not commit to. He had never gone to bed with a woman he didn't pay and the few who weren't in the profession, he persuaded to take money. At 20 he began to keep a record of his liaisons, listing name, age, place, and a brief notation on the circumstances and style of lovemaking. By the time he was 50 there were 514 women with whom he had been with, at least once.

n  "I stopped making the list when my body no longer allowed me to have so many and I could keep track of them without paper."n

He had the tool of a galley slave and he slept in the red-light district two or three times a week. His claim to fame is that he'd been with such a variety of companions that he was twice crowned client of the year! *rolling my eyes*

While thinking back over his life, he is overcome by irresistible excitement and he calls Rosa Camarcas, the madam of the local whorehouse. She informs him that she knows precisely his desires and requests that he visit the whorehouse later that evening.

Freshly washed, dressed and pressed, he visits the whorehouse and is presented with a 14 year old adolescent. She is a seamstress who desperately needs additional funds to support her impoverished family. She is so anxious by events that Rosa has to give the girl a mixture of bromide and valerian to drink, so that by the time the old man sees her, she is asleep in the enormous bed for hire.

n  "I sat down to contemplate her from the edge of the bed, my five senses under a spell. A warm current travelled up my veins, and my slow, retired animal woke from its long sleep."n

But strangely, nothing happens.

n  "This was something new for me. I was ignorant of the arts of seduction and had always chosen my brides for a night at random, more for their price than their charms, and we made love without love, half-dressed most of the time and always in the dark so we could imagine ourselves as better than we were. That night I discovered the improbable pleasure of contemplating the body of a sleeping woman without the urgencies of desire or the obstacles of modesty."n

For a period of time the old man and the young girl meet. He calls her Delgadina, a girl in a song, and he brings her small gifts. Each time they meet they sleep side by side, with him mostly looking at and smelling her. Occasionally he kisses and caresses her tired young body as she snoozes. She doesn't speak with him; their intimacy is silent, tranquil.

The old man soon falls madly in love, that first time, intense, giddy kind of love. He simply becomes another man and his eyes and soul are opened to the invincible power of unrequited love. It drives him crazy and he pours his feelings out in his local column. Soon his readers are living this life with him, many conversant with the feeling of being completely, hopelessly, desperately in love with someone, all the while knowing that their feelings will never reach them. It's like drowning but you just won't fucking die.

He begins to realise that all of his previous years with prostitutes have been wasted years.

n  "Sex is the consolation you have when you can't have love."n

This is a sparsely written yet beautiful novel, told touchingly from a first person perspective, by a man who has lived his life in isolation and lacks human affection. When he finally finds a connection at 90, which most of us are lucky to experience in youth, the reader is left with no choice but to acknowledge the possibility that truth and beauty may be found in the strangest of places and times.

The power of love is limitless and does not fit neatly into a box. It transforms people regardless of the conditions under which it comes into existence.

One thing this book did make me think about was where I'd be, who I'd be with, and the type of person I would be at 90. I love life and live it to the full and I want to stick around on this earth for as long as I possibly can. I want to be just like Betty White...out there, living life, brain intact, and a wit as quick as ever.


Betty White clips

The secret to successful aging is never retiring from life, always having a mission or a reason for living. And hey, if I can still enjoy the sexual pleasures of life at that age, then bring it on! :-).

Be sure to enjoy each day GR friends by staying active doing what you love to do. And, you may just live long enough to find out that many things will naturally take care of themselves.

4*/5