Memories of My Melancholy Whores is the most recent book by Gabriel García Márquez.  Published in 2005, there is much speculation that it will be his last book. I hope not!

It’s an interesting and quick read, and I read it for J.T. Oldfield’s November Novella Challenge 2009, although I didn’t find time to write a review of it.  I both liked it and was uncomfortable with it. The part that I found uncomfortable, of course, was the idea of a very old man with a very young girl/woman.  This book, however, is really a book about love, and in the face of one’s coming death, about living.  It was, as are all the works by García Márquez,  beautifully written.

From the publisher:

“On the eve of his ninetieth birthday, our unnamed protagonist, an undistinguished journalist and lifelong bachelor, decides to give himself “the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin.”

The virgin, whom an old madam procures for him, is splendidly young, with the silent power of a sleeping beauty. The night of love blossoms into a transforming year. It is a year in which he relives, in a rush of memories, his lifetime of (paid-for) sexual adventures and experiences a revelation that brings him to the edge of dying, not of old age, but, at long last, of uncorrupted love.”

Although it’s not my favorite, I liked this book because of the character’s insightful view of life from age 90.  And I found it interesting that García Márquez was exploring the idea of first love being experienced by a very old man(the 90 year old main character had slept with many women but had never had sex without paying for it).  My New Year’s wish for this gifted writer is health and happiness so he can continue to explore his many ideas and tell us his amazing stories.

Age isn't how old you are but how old you feel.