Memories of My Melancholic Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

On the eve of his ninetieth birthday, the protagonist (Mr. Unknown), made a call to Rosa Carbacas, to request for a strange birthday gift. The request...

                Fortunately or unfortunately, the gift changes his perspective about life and love. It is a tale about the meaning of age(ing), love, sadness and happiness. A tale that covers the importance of memories and most importantly,society's definition of old age.

“What happens is that you don’t feel it on the inside, but from the outside everybody can see it.”

                Every sentence in this book is pregnant with numerous meanings. Read it.

No One Writes to the Colonel

I just finished reading Marquez's novella bearing the above title. It is a story about a retired colonel. The colonel, as we are made to know, fought relentlessly in Macondo ( the fictional setting of Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude ). Unfortunately, the colonel has not received his pension for over fifteen years. He continues to wait for the mail or pension cheque but it never arrives.

Many things add up to his sad life: his extreme state of squalor, his wife's bad health, the death of his son and the gory pictures he sees in his dreams.

The colonel's son, Agustan, left a rooster which becomes a treasure in the colonel's house. Accurate attention is given to the rooster. A symbol of hanging onto the son's memory can be seen from the way the colonel treats the rooster.

However, the end is rather shocking.

It is a good read!