Remember my sad whores

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Memory of my sad whores ( Spanish: Memoria de mis putas tristes ) is a novel by Gabriel García Márquez from the year 2004. The Colombian Nobel Prize for Literature ignites a funny firework of nonchalant chatter about love for sale.
The work was filmed in 2011 .

content

An old journalist, who is only called “wise man” by everyone, gives himself a night with a virgin for his 90th birthday, which he has arranged for him from his old friend, the brothel owner Rosa Cabarcas, for this purpose. That night he, who has slept with women all his life exclusively for money, suddenly feels love, and he leaves the sleeping, apparently anesthetized girl untouched. As a result, Rosa Cabarcas repeatedly has to provide him with the young woman whose name he does not know and whom he calls "Delgadina" after an old hit; and every time she sleeps and is only looked at by him. With the wise man we also look back on his life and his wives: on his mother, who died early; to Ximena, who wanted to marry him and whom he left; to Damiana, his long-serving housekeeper, whom he used and who remained a virgin to him; to Casilda Armenta and all the other whores who were devoted to him. With the first love of his life in his heart, the wise man decides not to give up the column he has been writing for decades, but instead to continue it as a handwritten love letter to life - with later, but even greater success with the readers. Over time there seems to be a communication between old man and girl, even if the girl, exhausted from work in a sewing shop, sleeps at every encounter. When a murder occurs in the brothel, Rosa Cabarcas goes into hiding for a while and also brings Delgadina to safety. Meanwhile, the wise man is consumed with longing. Finally Rosa Cabarcas reappears and sees to it that Delgadina receives the wise man awake, puts on make-up and hung with jewelry. However, he is horrified and suspects Rosa Cabarcas of having passed the little girl on to wealthy customers in the meantime. He sees her purity tainted, calls her a whore, and creates a horrific scene for both women. Finally, Rosa Cabarcas is able to convince him that Delgadina loves him too, and concludes an agreement between old friends with him that regulates the inheritance of the two and ensures the girl a livelihood. The wise man now knows that he will die lovingly.

Form and interpretation

The tone is refreshingly relaxed: “Good luck with the birds, doctor!” Is called out loud to the first-person narrator on the street. Carelessness is the key. García Márquez leaves out the annoying quotation marks et cetera in dialogue passages, and sometimes he puts them meticulously.

The place of the action is not mentioned in the German-language edition used, but it is said to be Barranquilla . The mention of the nearby mouth of the Río Magdalena , the Bocas de Ceniza and the patron saint San Nicolás and the relative proximity of Santa Marta suggest this. There is talk of the country road to Pradomar and a train ride to Puerto Colombia . Both are neighboring towns of Barranquilla on the Caribbean Sea .

reception

  • The Persian translation was banned in Iran in 2007 . Reason: The text encourages prostitution .
  • In the Los Angeles Times of October 19, 2009 reference is made to a criticism by Andrés Oppenheimer the day before on a film project about the novel. The filmmakers then paid homage to the sexual exploitation of minors.

Used edition

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 34, 6. Zvo
  2. ^ Spanish Memoria de mis putas tristes
  3. ^ Spanish Bocas de Ceniza
  4. ↑ span. Pradomar
  5. ↑ eng. Ban in Iran
  6. ↑ eng. About a planned film project
  7. ↑ eng. Andrés Oppenheimer
  8. ↑ eng. Oppenheimer's article