In between his more well-known works such as “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and “Love in the Time of Cholera,” Gabriel Garcia Marquez published a novella with the curious title of “Memories of My Melancholy Whores.”
The story is told from the unlikely perspective of an old, ugly, Colombian journalist, who decides to celebrate his 90th birthday by having wild sex with a virgin girl. The girl chosen for him by the owner of the brothel turns out to be only 14, but after working in a button factory all day and taking care of her family, she can only sleep.
Thus begins the bizarre and sometimes touching romance between a man whose body is decaying as his career becomes completely pointless and a girl who struggles just to stay alive. Having never slept with a woman he didn’t pay, the protagonist finds himself in love for the first time with a girl who, night after night, he only watches as she sleeps.
Given the subject matter of Marquez’s novella, it is not surprising that one is often shocked and even disgusted while reading it. In order to appreciate the more uplifting and heartwarming qualities of the story, you have to withhold your usual disagreement with a relationship that you don’t believe should exist. These characters search for love despite their wretched existences that deny them the clean, Hollywood ideal of flawless bodies and pure, beautiful romance.
Upon completing the novella, you might have the sense that you have been let down or denied the perfect, sweet ending you might have expected to contrast the rest of the story’s dark mood. While Marquez’s characters do redeem themselves in some ways, they remain real people with real sins and real regrets that may never be completely washed away.
“Memories of My Melancholy Whores” shows us the gritty underbelly of love. Rarely is the romance between ugly, old, or whorish people given the spotlight. Marquez’s work is daring and puzzling, creating beauty out of an unsightly environment. It teaches us that even the most wretched members of society are capable of loving. They may not be Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, but their love is genuine and deserves our acknowledgement.
