Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ Memories of My Melancholy Whores was not the best of his novels, and in comparison to the others I’ve read (Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude), it was lighter and more casual. Still it sparkled with gems of wit and wisdom throughout. While I wouldn’t recommend this book to everyone, from a personal/psychological /introspective viewpoint, there was a good deal to be gained.

The book was at times depressing. Like with Love in the Time of Cholera or Goethe’s Sorrows of a Young Werther, unrequited love was an ever-present theme. I know I’ve certainly been through the frustrations of “wanting what you can’t have” or relationship things working out “imperfectly”–and Memories is all about those emotions. One passage on this theme that made me smile (and sniffle):

For a week I did not take off my mechanic’s coverall day or night, I did not bathe or shave or brush my teeth, because love taught me too late that you groom yourself for someone, you dress and perfume yourself for someone, and I’d never had anyone to do that for. Page 82-83

It caught me because we’ve all seen how different we are when we’re in love or have lost love. The way the narrator cleaned his house, organized his books, and generally looked at life in a completely different way when there was a chance at love… The sad part, however, was that much of it was for naught. And such is probably the case in our own lives when we go to extremes to make changes for the arrival of love.

There’s the rub: the levels one will go to for even the most unorthodox or impossible types of love, or even for a glimpse of it. It’s painful to live through that in the book, just like it’s painful to live through it in life.

So yes, the book was difficult at times. But it was worthwhile to live vicariously through some of it. The scary part (in discussing this with a few friends) is just how much empathy there is with these themes. If you’re looking for a warm and fuzzy book, don’t grab this one. If you want a short read or some bitter empathizing, give it a shot.