Reet comes home, visiting me at her usual hour after sunset to fill me in on the day’s gossip. We’ve been friends for long so we tend to share details even about mundane matters. But today she has something weird to tell. It is funny and gross, both at the same time.
“Gunzi, you won’t believe it” she gushes. “Imagine an old man, with a bald head, a toothless smile and who resembles Laloo”. “So what’s extraordinary about that?” I enquire. She bursts out laughing and adds, “Well, I was walking back from the main road and this guy wearing a white dhoti, cycled past me. First, he called me ‘Ae guddi’ and when I looked in his direction, he gave me a flying kiss, followed by a toothless smile.” I too, have a good laugh. “B@stard! A-hole! Jerk! Lecher! ….” she rattles thus, while I lend her my ears. “How old was he?” I ask. “Old enough to be called my father’s father.”
So what is it with old men, hitting on young girls? Actually, it has nothing to do with age and it has everything to do with the mind. But then, a young man ‘on the prowl’ is considered far more ‘normal’ - an old man doing the same is just so unwarranted. But poor old men…what are they going to do? Are they not human? Are they not regular sexual beings? (I’m not suggesting that all old men should rent bicycles and go around town making a fool out of themselves. No, definitely not.) So what if they can’t DO IT anymore? They surely can THINK IT…and the mind is a dangerous tool. A perfect example is Khushwant Singh, who used his imagination to the fullest at the age of eighty-something, and came out with a book titled “The Company of Women”. In Singh’s own words – “as a man gets older, his sex instincts travel from his middle to his head”. Another example is of the Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez with the publishing of his latest work “Memories of My Melancholy Whores”. He wrote this book at the age of seventy-seven in 2004, and it was published in October 2005.
Why I read the book : To begin with, it was not recommended to me by anyone and it is not something I had ever heard about. Nor is it listed on Mouthshut, which is why it is going to be my Mouthpad.
Firstly, I chose the book because the author is Gabriel Marquez and I have never read something he’s written (he has been on my to-do list for long). He is famous for his works such as “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and “Love in the Time of Cholera” among others, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
Secondly, the bookstore I visited was offering a 30% rebate on the book as it is deemed a campus bestseller. I want to keep abreast with my peers - read what they’re reading, while I also save a few bucks.
Thirdly, the word “whores” in the title did manage to arouse my curiosity. And rightly so – the first question that popped in my head was ‘What is this old man going to narrate?’
Lastly, it is a very thin book, just 115 pages long. So it didn’t have that imposing effect on my schedule. So it lets you do your thing. Besides, you’re probably going to breeze through it because it’s less melancholic and more sexual – at least in approach, if not appeal.
What is it about : This is a story of a ninety year old bachelor, who is a journalist. The book begins with the protagonist’s ninetieth birthday and he decides to pamper himself (after a long break) with “the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin”. From the beginning itself, the book spells scandal. He contacts his old-time friend, Rosa Cabarcas - the owner of an illicit house and makes arrangements for the D-Day. He asks for an adolescent virgin, but Rosa presents to him a fourteen year old (quite to the old man’s shock). At first he resents the idea, but goes along with it, only to find her asleep. He falls into a trap and wishes to be with the girl regularly on fixed days. So the one day of his ninetieth birthday results in a whole year of contact with the girl. Ofcourse, she is the ever-sleeping ‘beauty’ (she is decorated with a thick layer of make-up and cheap jewels – she actually looks quite horrific) and he falls in love with the innocent charm of the girl.
He finds out more about her and it is revealed that the girl has a sad life – she is a poor girl who goes to a factory in the day to stitch buttons and at nights she comes to Rosa Cabarcas (this is why she’s always asleep because she is so tired from the day’s work, and our old man lets her be but pays for her company nevertheless). He begins to feel compassion for the young lady. The time he spends in the room with her, is a time meant for reflection and reminiscence. He goes over his life and, particularly, he goes over his experiences with women and work. He narrates to us his sexual adventures (and misadventures), along with specific landmarks in his life. He himself says “whores left me no time to be married” (he has been to bed with 514 different women...all of whom were paid for). He talks to the sleeping girl, sings songs to her and considers her to be only his. So much so, he also imagines her to be with him even when he goes back home. By now he is hopelessly in love with her. He then realizes that he doesn’t even know the sound of her voice because she has never been around him in a state of wakefulness. But he’d rather not have it any other way because he has created a whole new world for himself in the girl’s presence. He calls her “Delgadina” (he doesn’t enquire about her real name either).
This old man falls into the trap of bodily pleasures, without there being any, and quite strangely, for the first time he experiences true love. His accomplishment is that he has found love. He is content to now die at any age after his hundredth birthday because nothing really matters to him anymore. By the end of the year, the protagonist is finally brought to the edge of death – not because of old age, but, at long last, of uncorrupted love.
What I thought : Marquez has a style of his own – his sentences sometimes carry more weight than they should. He says a lot in every sentence - probably this is why the book is pretty slim.
There is a lot of insight, a lot of exposition that one encounters while reading the book. Most importantly, it gives you a feel of what the old man thinks. He’s not necessarily the father-figure you want him to be – he is erotic, sensual and gross. There is a lot about old age too, from an old person’s perspective - how one never thinks one is old in the real sense of the word; and despite a frail body, one still has an active mind.
The story is blatant and perverse in places, but it is also distressing and pitiful in parts. Love has been beautifully depicted and the insights that Marquez provides are quite shattering. I would not recommend this book to everyone, but I surely think it is well written. I have no doubt about the plot - If you have ever encountered an old man on a bicycle kissing /winking /whistling at you, you too will perhaps easily relate to it!