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A review by camillereads_
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez
4.0
The first line of the novel: "The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin." Now reading that, which is the premise of the novel might cause many people to not bother to continue reading. Yes, the premise is pretty despicable, but Gabriel García Márquez is a talent you should probably not skip out on. You need to keep reading because things are never as they appear and as the short novel progresses we learn more and more about this lonely 90 year old who finally, in his 90th year finds love for the first time.
I'm just going to place a couple of my favorites quotes from the novel here:
"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."
"My only explanation is that just as real events are forgotten, some that never were can be in our memories as if they had happened."
"I discovered that my obsession for having each thing in the right place, each subject at the right time, each word in the right style, was not the well-deserved reward of an ordered mind but just the opposite: a complete system of pretense invented by me to hide the disorder of my nature."
"I discovered that I am not disciplined out of virtue but as a reaction to my negligence, that I appear generous in order to conceal my meanness, that I pass myself off as prudent because I am evil-minded, that I am conciliatory in order not to succumb to my repressed rage, that I am punctual only to hide how little I care about other people's time. I learned, in short, that love is not a condition of the spirit but a sign of the zodiac."
"I became aware that the invincible power that has moved the world is unrequited, not happy, love."
"My delirium was so great that during a student demonstration complete with rocks and bottles, I had to make an enormous effort not to lead it as I held up a sign that would sanctify my truth: I am mad with love."
"Sex is the consolation you have when you can't have love."
"I did not have a moment's peace, I almost stopped eating, and I lost so much weight my trousers were loose around my waist. I had erratic pains in my bones, my mood would change for no reason, I spent my nights in a dazzled state that did not allow me to read or listen to music, while I wasted the days nodding in a stupefied somnolence that did not lead to sleep."
PS. I will admit, the title of this novel alone is what grabbed my attention.
I'm just going to place a couple of my favorites quotes from the novel here:
"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."
"My only explanation is that just as real events are forgotten, some that never were can be in our memories as if they had happened."
"I discovered that my obsession for having each thing in the right place, each subject at the right time, each word in the right style, was not the well-deserved reward of an ordered mind but just the opposite: a complete system of pretense invented by me to hide the disorder of my nature."
"I discovered that I am not disciplined out of virtue but as a reaction to my negligence, that I appear generous in order to conceal my meanness, that I pass myself off as prudent because I am evil-minded, that I am conciliatory in order not to succumb to my repressed rage, that I am punctual only to hide how little I care about other people's time. I learned, in short, that love is not a condition of the spirit but a sign of the zodiac."
"I became aware that the invincible power that has moved the world is unrequited, not happy, love."
"My delirium was so great that during a student demonstration complete with rocks and bottles, I had to make an enormous effort not to lead it as I held up a sign that would sanctify my truth: I am mad with love."
"Sex is the consolation you have when you can't have love."
"I did not have a moment's peace, I almost stopped eating, and I lost so much weight my trousers were loose around my waist. I had erratic pains in my bones, my mood would change for no reason, I spent my nights in a dazzled state that did not allow me to read or listen to music, while I wasted the days nodding in a stupefied somnolence that did not lead to sleep."
PS. I will admit, the title of this novel alone is what grabbed my attention.