Old Love

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short novel, "Memories of my Melancholy Whores" is a deeply moving yet ironic parable about how emotional transformation and a newly-found ability to love are possible, even at an advanced age.

The main character in the story is an unnamed narrator who, to celebrate his ninetieth birthday, contacts a madam of his longstanding acquaintance, Rosa, to procure a young virgin with whom to spend the night and to demonstrate his continued virility. The narrator tells us that in his long life he never had sex for which he had not paid and that he had engaged the services of over 500 women before he stopped counting. He had planned to use his experiences as the basis for writing his memoirs.

Rosa procures for the narrator a 14 year old girl from a poor family who works during the day sewing buttons at a garment factory. She drugs the girl and takes the narrator to the sleeping girl's bed. There is no sexual consummation; instead the narrator gazes at the body of the young girl and departs at early morning. At the madam's instigation, he continues to see the girl, chastely, reads to her, tries modestly to teach her, but largely watches her while she peacefully sleeps. His attractions are strongest when the girl is asleep. Gradually he finds himself in love with the girl and his life is transformed. He brings her presents and candy, thinks of her obsessively, becomes protective, and jealous. He writes of love in a column he has prepared for 50 years for a local newspaper and becomes famed for his eloquence. He adopts an aged cat, learns to take care of it, and steps in to prevent the cat from being put to sleep. He comes to believe, with some reason, that he has learned of love for the first time at the age of 90, without the thought of payment for sex and, indeed, without sex. The narrator's life takes on a meaning and a purpose it hadn't had before.

Marquez tells his story with a great deal of irony and distancing. While the narrator shows some growth in character and in understanding a love that had for his long prior life been closed to him, it is at the expense of a poor, exploited, and underage girl. The girl is far more appealing, the story suggests, asleep than awake, both physically and in terms of her disposition and character. The narrator gives her a pet name, Delgadina, and never learns her true name. The madam, an unreliable source, plays a key role at many points in the story in whetting the narrator's interest in the girl, and we frequently see the course of events through her highly interested eyes. All of this and more suggests that our aged protagonist remains more in love with an ideal than with an actual woman.

For all its ambiguities, the story seems to me inspiring, if bittersweet. I was left with the feeling that wisdom and love can come to people, even if they come late and come imperfectly.

Robin Friedman

The book summary and blurb will turn many people away from this book. And yes, it is about a 90 year old man obsessed with a 14 year old prostitute. But that doesn't do justice to what this book is about, and it doesn't do justice to the brilliant writing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He didn't win the Nobel Prize for Literature for nothing. Really it's a story of love, and it's a story of a time and place that most of us can't truly imagine. The writing alone makes the effort worthwhile.

قرأتها قبل سنوات
و لم يخطر لي أن أضيفها لقائمة كتبي
ربما لأني لم أكن أعتبرها شيئا على الإطلاق حتى أذكره
حتى فتحت بالصدفة صفحة الرواية و ذهلت من الحديث عنها، بل من أني قد كنت قرأتها فعلا و كل هذه الأمور الساحرة و الجميلة التي يتحدثون عنها لم أشعر بها... أذكر كل ما شعرت منها هو أنها أذتني...0
القالب الذي وضعت فيه مؤذ... الفكرة مؤذية... رؤيا المؤلف للحياة بحد ذاتها جعلتني أكره الحياة و أود لو أخرج من جلدي و لو صدقت هذه الرؤيا لأصبت بالنقمة على البشرية...0
لم أعد أذكر التفاصيل تماما، و لكنها عن رجل تسعيني أمضى حياة أنانية و دنجوانية خاوية... ثم عن محاولاته التعلق بالحياة في عيد ميلاده التسعين... عبر تلك الفكرة المريضة بأن يقضي ليلة مع عذارء مراهقة... ثم لينتهي بتأملها نائمة طوال الوقت و تداعيات أفكاره عن الحياة و الحب... تداعيات مسن لم تجعلني أشعر بشيء تجاهه سوى بالكراهية...0
أذكر أن الرواية جعلتني أشعر بالسوء، و بذلك الشعور الذي يأبى إلا أن يتكرر في كل مرة...أشعر بأني أكون محلقة و خفيفة ثم تأتي أمثالها فترميني بحجر و تسقطني على أم رأسي معيدة إياي إلى الأرض و مثقلة إياي بحيث أني لا أعود أستطيع المشي قدما و لا حتى التنفس و هي ترزح فوق صدري، لو أني بقيت عالقة طويلا فيها، لو أني آمنت بها، لو أني عشت داخلها... و أحسبني سرعان ما سأموت لو أني كنت أنظر للحياة هكذا...0
هذه النظرة للحب، للجسد، للعلاقات البشرية، لطريقة تفكير الرجال و النساء ببعضهم، للتقدم في السن، للجمال، هي ما يؤذي... يقال أنها الواقع، و أن هذه الحياة... و أن هذا الجمال و الحب و كأن هذه مسلمة! لكن ليس صحيحا، من قال أن هذا الواقع... هذا الواقع حسب رؤيا فلان من الناس و ليس حسب ما يراه غيره أو حتى حسب الوجود الخارجي... هذا ما يجري في دماغه هو... و هو ليس إلا فردا في الحياة، و ليس المشكل لها... لحسن الحظ...0
ربما أكون غريبة الأطوار قليلا... و لكني أستطيع رؤية أن ليس هذا هو الواقع و لا هذه هي الحياة فقط... و هناك أفق أخرى... و هناك أبعاد أخرى... و هناك تداعيات أفكار أخرى... و هناك حب آخر... و هناك قيم أرقى... و هناك طريقة رؤية للحياة أخرى بكل معانيها هي أحلى و أسمى... و هناك قصص أخرى تستحق أن تروى من ما يسمونه الواقع... إنما هذا الواقع بحسب ماركيز... و هو واقع كريه و منفر...0

و يا له من بون شاسع... بين رؤيا هرمان هسه عن التقدم في السن و بين ماركيز... كالفرق بين التحليق في السماء بخفة و بين الخوض في مستنقع...0

لم أكن أرغب بالحديث عن الرواية، فأنا لست أذكر تفاصيل بقدر ما أذكر مشاعر سيئة و سلبية... و لكن بت أجد من الأفضل أن يضع من له رأي مختلف حول عمل شبه مجمع عليه رأيه، حتى لا يحس بالوحشة شخص آخر يقرأ العمل و لا يشعر بكل هذه الأمور التي يتحدث عنها الآخرون... فيبدأ بالشك في نفسه...0

Reading Gabriel García Márquez, known as "Gabo" to his friends, is like visiting a loveable rogue.

We all know the type: a little too loud, profane to the point of creating cringes in his followers, laughing at all the wrong jokes - most of them told himself, drinking too much, with a wild and flamboyant reputation, and yet all around him are rolled eyes and smiles and laughter. For this lover of life, for this fornicator of all things human, yet with a piety whose sincerity is questioned again and again and over and again found intact, this trickster god; we are willing to forgive and forgive and forget and laugh and smile. He is a devil, but he is our devil.

Gabo is to Latin American literature as Harry Caray was to Cubs fans.

So, we come to his 2004 novella Memories of My Melancholy Whores. Published when he was 77, this tells the story of an old bachelor journalist who, a frequenter of brothels and a customer of prostitutes for decades, on the eve of his 90th birthday arranges to meet a 14-year-old virgin prostitute.

Now, I lost some of you right there. But wait.

Many of you have read my review of Nabokov’s Lolita. His 1955 novel, brilliantly written, is about pedophilia. It is. It’s a wonderful book of literature with an outrageously unrepentant subject. Many will never know the genius poured into every page because they cannot, and understandably so, get past the story and its monster narrator.

This is not Lolita.

Yes, our protagonist makes this arrangement and has as such his intent. But then something else happens.

I have been accused before of spoilers in my reviews and for this I apologize and here I will be extra cautious because I do not want the readers of this exceptional short work, and I want to encourage its reading, to miss out on the fragile blooming flower that occurs in the brief telling.

Yes, there is an outrageous subject, and yes this represents a real-life crime whose real-life victims are young girls who should be protected. It does not make this subject more palatable that Márquez uses his charming mastery of language and of his description of his great love for life. But what he describes is not sex with a child.

I cannot say more except that Márquez has, in his own mischievous way, given us a glimpse into a love that is timeless and a hope that even into old age, we can continue to greet each sunrise with a wink and a nod, a song and even a dance. And love.

همیشه فکر می کردم شور و شوق و شیدایی عاشق شدن ، مال دوران جوانی است و عشق میان سالی و پیری ، توام با آرامش و خونسردیه.... و برام جالب بود که این کتاب نشون داد اشتباه فکر می کردم
��ه زیبایی اون حالات پر آشوپ افسون گر و اون غم نابودگر شیرین که آدمی با همه وجود می طلبدش رو تصویر کرده. انتظار چنین کتابی رو با توجه به آثار قبلی نویسنده نداشتم ،در واقع نوشتن و ترسیم چنین فضای و حالاتی رو !

"خاطرات دلبركان غمگين من"يا"روسپيان سودا زده من "داستان شروع دوباره زندگى است؛آنجا كه پيرمرد روزنامه نگار وراوى داستان در آغاز دهه دهم از زندگى خويش ميخواهد با دختركى نوجوان وباكره شبى را به ياد جوانى و لذت هاى بيشتر دوران زندگى خويش،خوش بگذراند،اما ناگهان عشق در قالب چهره محزون واندام وجان خفته دخترك به مشابه جنون محض جلوه مى كند و دگرگونى در درون و روح پيرمرد آغاز مى شود،زخم زندگى وحسرت عمر رفته را در نبود عشق در مى يابد و به تغيرر واهتمام كارها وامور خوبش مى پردازداما اين ياد و خاطره و خيال حضور دخترك در كنار خود است كه شوق واميد و شور زندگى را در روح وكالبد راوى داستان بيدار مى كند،آنجا كه در نبود وفراق دلبرك خود مى گويد؛
"حمام نمى گرفتم،ريش هايم را نمى تراشيدم ودندان هايم را مسواك نمى زدم،چون عشق خيلى دير به من آموخت كه آدم خودش را براى كسى مرتب مى كند،براى كسى لباس مى پوشد وبراى كسى عطر مى زند ومن هيچ وقت كسى را نداشتم"
ترجمه آخرين اثر داستانى گابو بزرگ كه بخاطر توصيف و بيان صحنه هاى جنسى در ايران به صورت قانوني براى اولين وآخرين بار در دهه٨٠ چاپ وعرضه شد حكايت وبيان تمثيل "هرگز براى براى شروعى دوباره دير نيست"مى باشد حتى اگر انسان نزديك به يك قرن زندگى وعمر زيسته را به بطالت و روزمرگى بگذراند،سن وعمرى كه گويا در كتاب هاى واثرهاى ديگر اين نويسنده بزرگ قرن بيستم مانند"خزان خودكامه"حالت جاودانگى وطولانى دارد و درجايي هم از اين رمان سن را اين چنين تعريف وتوصيف مى كند،
"سن اون چيزى نيست كه آدم داره،اونه كه آدم حس مى كنه"

پ.ن:از اين كتاب بغير از ترجمه نسخه چاپى جناب ميرعباسى كه اندكى دچار سانسور وحذفيات است چند ترجمه به صورت اكترونيكى موجود است كه ترجمه جناب امير حسين فطانت كامل وبدون سانسور عرضه شده است.

Am descoperit ca nu sunt disciplinat din virtute, ci ca reactie impotriva neglijentei mele; ca par generos pentru a-mi masca micimea de suflet; ca exagerez cu prudenta din neincredere; ca sunt tolerant doar ca sa nu ma las prada acceselor de furie pe care abia mi le stapanesc; ca sunt punctual doar ca sa nu se afle cat de putin ma intereseaza timpul altora. Am descoperit, in sfarsit, ca dragostea nu e o stare a spiritului, ci un semn al zodiacului...

(B+) 77% | Good
Notes: Wherein love is blind, undefined, limitless potential, but also illusion, addiction, delusion and capriciously torrential.

*Check out progress updates for detailed commentary:

Progress updates:

02/13/2025 - Preamble
(1) I read this book a really long time ago. It's one of the very first books I read when I started reading recreationally.
- I chose it because I'd read "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" for a university English class and always had Gabriel García Márquez down as an author whose work I wanted to explore more of.
- Incidentally, it's still the only García Márquez book I've read, and now for the second time.

02/14/2025 - Chapter One
(1) "Oh, Señor, she said, with a mournful lament, that wasn't made for coming in but for going out."
- At the risk of sounding juvenile or crass, there's been an awful lot of butt talk so far—butt talk in seemingly every way conceivable.
- I guess this is meant to underscore the unnamed narrator's gross and profane morality and mindset, and to draw stark contrast with the 14-year-old virgin he seeks to defile.

02/16/2025 - Chapter Two
(1) "For the first time in my long life I felt capable of killing someone."
- All because someone publicly cast into doubt his knowledge of classical music.
- It's a window into what he values.
(2) "Poor thing, she's right here in front of me. Do you want to talk to her? No, for God's sake, I said."
- Of course, because then she'd be an imperfect human being instead of an uncorrupted ideal of youth and beauty.

02/20/2025 - Chapter Three
(1) The girl is both explicitly and implicitly compared with the old man's cat.
- They're both beautiful and rescues of a sort.
- The girl is his imaginary housemate, while the cat is his actual housemate.
- He knows the cat too intimately: "The stink of his rancid urine and warm shit contaminated everything."
- He knows the girl not at all, remaking their brothel love nest into an oasis of ersatz domesticity.

02/25/2025 - Chapter Four
(1) We finally get to the point where the virgin speaks, which initially excites the narrator, though upon hearing her "plebian" voice he laments: "I preferred her asleep."
- As long as she's a blank slate, bereft of idiosyncrasies, he can project upon her whatever he desires.
- This absence of individuality backfires later when she disappears, and he sees her in every young girl he encounters and hears about.

03/03/2025 - Chapter Five
(1) The narrator attempts to pawn his mother's jewels to continue financing his brothel habit. The jewels, it turns out, are fake, which he ends up keeping for sentimental reasons.
- Ultimately, the only value that matters here is sentimental value. His love affair with Delgadina is as artificial as his treasured family jewels.
(2) Love here inflames many things: illusion, addiction, delusion, affliction, etc.

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

Love him, hate him. You got to give García Márquez some credit: The man can write an opening line. And so begins an intriguing story of a man who finally falls in love at the ripe age of 90 with a 14-year-old prostitute. If you're familiar with García Márquez's oeuvre of work, prostitution and underage sex would be just a walk in the park for most. However, I must warn you of these themes if you cannot stomach it.

I'd call this "Sleeping Beauty with a Márquez twist". The subject matter may be difficult to discuss considering that we, as a society, have constantly frowned at sex and its association with the elderly. No, it isn't the erotic fantasy of a dirty old man. The narrative has its sensuality, and a tragic sense of heart-rendering passion that is always unfulfilled, yet it is still wholesome at the core. I'd definitely recommend this for an evening read as it is a relatively short story.

از این رمان توقع صد سال تنهایی یا عشق، سال‌های وبا را نباید داشته باشید ولی شیرین و خواندنی است.
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هیچ وقت به او و به هیچکدام از پیشنهادهای وسوسه انگیز و بی‌شرمانه‌اش تن در نداده بودم، اما او اصولی را که من به آنها اعتقاد داشتم قبول نداشت و با لبخندی موذیانه می‌گفت: اخلاقیات هم بستگی به زمان یا زمانه داره، خواهی دید. ص 6 کتاب
هیچ وقت به سن �� سال مثل قطراتی که از سقف می‌چکند و به آدم یاد‌آوری می‌کنند که چه قدر از عمر باقی است فکر نکرده‌ام. ص 10 کتاب
وقتی چهل و دو سال داشتم به خاطر پشت دردی که وقت تنفس اذیتم می‌کرد به سراغ دکتر رفتم. اهمیت زیادی نداد و گفت: در سن و سال شما این دردها طبیعیه. به او گفتم: در این صورت اون چه طبیعی نیست سن و سال منه. ص 11 کتاب
واقعیت این است که اولین تغییرات در پیری آن چنان به آرامی اتفاق می‌افتد که به سختی به چشم می‌آیند. آدمی باز خودش را از درون نگاه می‌کند همان طور که همیشه نگاه می‌کرده است اما این دیگرانند که از بیرون به او پیریش را یادآوری می‌کنند. ص 12 کتاب
هر چند حافظه‌ی پیرها برای چیزهایی که ضروری نیستند ضعیف می‌شود اما به ندرت در مورد چیزهایی که واقعاً مورد علاقه آنها است تعلل می‌کند و این از نکته‌های خوب زندگی است. سیسرون به درستی گفته است که: هیچ پیری نیست که مخفیگاه گنج خودش را فراموش کند. ص 13 کتاب
یادم افتاد که یکی از قشنگی‌های پیری اغواگری‌های دوستان جوانی است که فکر می‌کنند ما خارج از سرویسیم. ص 46 کتاب
همان طور که وقایع واقعی فراموش می‌شوند بعضی وقایع هم که هرگز اتفاق نیفتاده‌اند می‌توانند در خاطرات طوری بمانند که گویی اتفاق افتاده‌اند. ص 61 کتاب
سن اون چیزی نیست که آدم داره، اونه که آدم حس می���کنه. ص 62 کتاب
راننده هشدار داد: حواست باشه عاقله مرد، تو این خونه آدم می‌کشن. جوابش دادم: اگه به خاطر عشق باشه عیبی نداره. ص 64 کتاب
در ادبیات رمانتیک که مادرم سعی کرده بود با سختگیری آنها را به من تحمیل کند و رد کرده بودم غرق شدم و دریافتم نیروی شکست ناپذیری که جهان را به پیش برده عشق‌هایی با فرجام خوش نیستند بلکه بر عکس. ص 68 کتاب
خودت خوب می‌دونی "نازک اندام" که شهرت مثل یک زن چاقه که با آدم نمی‌خوابه ولی همیشه وقتی آدم بیدار می‌شه می‌بینه که از اون طرف تخت داره ما رو نگاه می‌کنه. ص 70 کتاب
قبل از اینکه لذت هم‌خوابگی با عشق را امتحان کرده باشی، نمیر. ص 103 کتاب
ای کاش زندگی چیزی نبود که مثل رود گل‌آلود هراکلیت بگذرد بلکه فرصت نادری بود تا در ماهیتابه از این رو به آن رو شویم و طرف دیگرمان هم تا نود سال دیگر سرخ می‌شد. ص 111 کتاب

«No ano dos meus noventa anos quis oferecer a mim mesmo uma noite de amor louco com uma adolescente virgem.», assim começa este livro.

Ao encontrar essa adolescente virgem, uma bela adormecida, - o escritor ( é essa a sua profissão) descobre aos 90 anos o que é dormir com uma mulher sem a necessidade de sexo.

Um homem que começou por apresentar-se como alguém que nunca foi para a cama com nenhuma mulher sem lhe pagar e que convencia as poucas que não eram da profissão pela razão ou pela força a que recebessem o dinheiro nem que fosse para o deitar ao lixo.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez conta com mérito, brilho e humor, bem à maneira dos escritores sul-americanos, esta história de amor muito bem enquadrada na vida social e política da Colômbia dos anos vinte do século passado, numa época que os homens iniciavam a sua vida sexual com prostitutas.

Em minha opinião, uma homenagem a essas mulheres.

" ليست السن هى ما بلغه أحدنا من العمر ، بل ما يشعر به "
" الجنس هو العزاء الذى يلجأ إليه المرأ عندما لا يحصل على الحب "

ها هو الساحر يخرج لنا من جرابه رواية رائعة - كعادته - وتحمل معانى انسانية كثيرة .
بعد أن عرف الكثير والكثير من النساء الذى لم يعرف معهم معنى الحب .. عند بلوغه التسعين يكتشف المعنى الحقيقى له .. وأن الرابطة الجسدية لا تغنى أبدا عن الرابطة السحرية المسماة بالحب .
رواية انسانية توصف الرجل التسعينى ومشاعره بمهارة بالغة .
ماركيز صاحب أفضل اسلوب سردى من وجهة نظرى .. فهو ساحر بلا ادنى شك .

رواية لا أنصح أحد بقرائتها .. إلا عشاق ماركيز .