About this title: A Colombian journalist looks back on a long life and on the women he has known and loved--or at least had sex with. As he celebrates his 90th birthday, he begins what he knows is his last sexual relationship, this time an unconsummated one with a virginal 14-year-old, whom he prefers to see asleep. He describes this strange liaison in his long-running newspaper column as an idyllic and ideal situation, and his avid readers are charmed. A 112-page novella, MEMORIES OF MY MELANCHOLY WHORES is Nobelist Gabriel García Márquez's first work of fiction in a decade.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Date Published: 10/2005
ISBN-13:9781400044603ISBN:140004460X
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Good, In good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 115 p. Previous Owner's Inscription. read more
Description: Good. 0739325604 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 140004460X Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 140004460X Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781400044603ISBN:140004460X
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781400044603ISBN:140004460X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. No marks or tears; near fine. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 115 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: Large type / large print.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House Large Print Publishing
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780739325605ISBN:0739325604
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Ex) Library Copy. Moderate wear on Cover/Interior Pages. Usual library markings. (W3) Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 181 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. 0224077643 Standard used condition ie. Same quality you would find in your local bookstore. This is a new unread book that received the above wear during its handling. Has remainder mark. ~ read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9781400095940ISBN:1400095948
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Fine. Almost as new. No markings or creasing. Very slight edgewear. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 115 p. Vintage International (Paperback). Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9781400095940ISBN:1400095948
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 115 p. Vintage International (Paperback). Audience: General/trade. First print trade paper edition. read more
Edition: First U.S. Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf, NY
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781400044603ISBN:140004460X
Description: Near Fine in Fine jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman; prev. owner signature top front pastedown. read more
"This short read deals with the themes of love, old age, and the redemptive power of their intersection as a man nears the end of his life.
Given the premise, and the widely acknowledged brilliance of the author, I believe that I may have set my expectations a bit too high. Much of what makes Marquez such a master is on display here. There are brilliant passages worthy of pain and exuberance as the old man reflects back on his loveless life, and finds new love. There are many moments of beauty here characteristic of the best of Marquez. In the end, though, I don't feel the entire work added up to the sum of its parts. Given the deep emotion I felt while reading the core of the book (which I finished in a couple of hours), in the end, I don't feel the effect was as powerful as it could have been. I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps, in time, as I think more about what I read, I'll be able to pinpoint it with more precision. However, I'm still glad I read it. It is an engaging read that had alot going for it. It may not be one of Marquez's better novels, but his lesser works are better than most."
"To enjoy this book you have to enter the mind and world of this 90 year old man, living in 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 was limited to the whores he paid for. A most unfulfilled life.
But then, for a present, he gives himself a 14 year old virgin, a would-be whore, for his 90th birthday. Exhausted from menial labour and drugged up by the brothel madame with valerian, she sleeps every night they spend together 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. Its 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 demure, quiet, and let him be the dominant one, is taken to an extreme here with the sleeping beauty, it worked for Snow White and it worked for the Sleeping Beauty and it works for Delgadina too."
"This is a hard book to rate. It is beautifully written (translated by Edith Grossman), and the characters are wonderfully drawn. However, it is about a 90-year-old (one assumes Marquez) who wakes up on his 90th birthday and wants to have a sex with a 14-year-old virgin. His old friend, the madam, arranges same. In this short novel (115 pages), memories and events wash over the characters. I simply couldn't get past that premise--I know it is a fact of life, but not one I can accept. Read it for great writing and perhaps you will not be upset by the premise."
"I feel unqualified to dislike anything by Gabriel García Márquez, but with this slim novella I come very close. His other novels I've read (100 Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera) left me absolutely floored. His talent is prodigious and undeniable, and I fully expected this to be yet another amazing story masterfully told. But to be honest Memories falls a little flat. It was García Márquez' first work of fiction in ten years, and at a mere 115 pages long, I wonder if maybe its brevity is the problem. The qualities that usually amaze-his inventive magic realism, the color and innovation of his language, the swooping narratives that move seamlessly back and forth in time, the panoramic scope he manages with unwavering authority-feel squeezed out of this short work. Also, the book comes off a little careless. Jumps in time are not as smooth as they could be, memories are inexplicably dropped before they're fleshed out or given meaning, and dialog can be downright confusing. Too, we're expected to overlook the grim realities of third-world brothels and the barbarism of sex for hire with barely-pubescent virgins and focus instead on the raptures and pains of love and old age. It's a lot to ask.
Memories isn't all bad, though. I enjoyed its humor and earthy sensuality, and there is some wisdom to be found in these pages. I will say it's not without merit as a meditation on aging, desire and regret. But to readers who want to try something short by García Márquez, I say better to go with Chronicle of a Death Foretold."
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