(no subject)
last night I finished "Memoirs of my Melancholy Whores" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was a really short read which is why I chose it next. I wanted to feel like I accomplished something if I read the book in less than a week, since my schedule usually doesn't permit such a thing. Actually I opened it up and the font was huge! lol.
The book was about a man, who on his 90th birthday, decides he'd like to sleep with a virgin as a way to celebrate. it wasn't a bad book. it wasn't a great book, but definitely not a bad one. I did have my problems with it though, but nothing like with White Teeth, where the author's style didn't blow me away, this is just standard character discussion.
As I said, the old man in this story decided that he'd like to sleep with a virgin on his 90th birthday. He calls up a madame whom he had done business with in the past, and asks her to find him one. He tells us that his whole life, whenever he's had sex he's paid for it. When she finds him one, of course the girl is young, 14, and the old man only sleeps next to her all night, but doesn't have sex with her. I feel bad to admit that I was a little disturbed by that. And the fact that he would come back to see her often. He'd come in as she slept and lie next to her naked, making up a life with her in his head, but never having sex with her. He never even heard her voice until one day she talked in her sleep, but he didn't feel the voice suited her properly, so he then said he didn't like her to talk.
The way he created this whole life out of her when he knew nothing about her, not even her real name, reminded me a lot of a stalker I once had. It started out as a crush, but eventually he started saying how much he loved me, and how we were meant to be together. Honestly he knew nothing about me. We shared the same friends, had all of our classes together, but we were associates at best. Yet he was very adamant about the fact that he loved me. At the same time, whenever I would do something even remotely out of this idea he had of me (tell a dirty joke, flirt with someone, etc.), he would flip out, call me all kinds of sluts and whores, and say I was an entirely different person. At one point in the book, the old man saw the young girl dressed up for him and assumed that she had been whoring around since he last saw her. Of course how would he know this, because he didn't truly know her. it was all these crazy assumptions which he blamed on love.
I was annoyed that the old man kept using the word "love." how can you possibly love someone you don't know? You love the idea. Maybe you're attracted to the outside, a little background info, then all of a sudden your imagination gets the better of you. The whole time reading it, I couldn't help but think of this guy from my past, and because of this, I couldn't fully give myself to this book. i couldn't believe in the characters. Eventually the madame said that the young girl loved him too. ya well that's pretty easy when she's 'tutin just to make some extra money to support her sick mother and siblings. she knew nothing about him either, other than the fact that he left her gifts sometimes and wrote messages on the bathroom mirror.
some people tell me that i'm pessimistic towards love. that's not the case. I believe in love, I've felt it, and even in times where I've been in intense pain because of it, I'd never wish to not have felt it. But I can't stand when people are so quick to say those words. I won't say that I think there's a specified amount of time that you're allowed to say it in, but I don't think you can say you love the woman whose eye you catch while walking to work each morning, though you know no more about her than a fly buzzing in your ear. You can't say, "She looks so caring," because looks are deceiving. People tell me I look innocent!
Whatever, someone else might read this and see a great love story. i read this and see a pathetic pedophile infatuated with an imaginary little girl. i'm not usually this judgemental. i know for a fact this is because i found this story too personal.
my issue with that aside, it was a good book. well told. nothing against the author or the story at all.
The book was about a man, who on his 90th birthday, decides he'd like to sleep with a virgin as a way to celebrate. it wasn't a bad book. it wasn't a great book, but definitely not a bad one. I did have my problems with it though, but nothing like with White Teeth, where the author's style didn't blow me away, this is just standard character discussion.
As I said, the old man in this story decided that he'd like to sleep with a virgin on his 90th birthday. He calls up a madame whom he had done business with in the past, and asks her to find him one. He tells us that his whole life, whenever he's had sex he's paid for it. When she finds him one, of course the girl is young, 14, and the old man only sleeps next to her all night, but doesn't have sex with her. I feel bad to admit that I was a little disturbed by that. And the fact that he would come back to see her often. He'd come in as she slept and lie next to her naked, making up a life with her in his head, but never having sex with her. He never even heard her voice until one day she talked in her sleep, but he didn't feel the voice suited her properly, so he then said he didn't like her to talk.
The way he created this whole life out of her when he knew nothing about her, not even her real name, reminded me a lot of a stalker I once had. It started out as a crush, but eventually he started saying how much he loved me, and how we were meant to be together. Honestly he knew nothing about me. We shared the same friends, had all of our classes together, but we were associates at best. Yet he was very adamant about the fact that he loved me. At the same time, whenever I would do something even remotely out of this idea he had of me (tell a dirty joke, flirt with someone, etc.), he would flip out, call me all kinds of sluts and whores, and say I was an entirely different person. At one point in the book, the old man saw the young girl dressed up for him and assumed that she had been whoring around since he last saw her. Of course how would he know this, because he didn't truly know her. it was all these crazy assumptions which he blamed on love.
I was annoyed that the old man kept using the word "love." how can you possibly love someone you don't know? You love the idea. Maybe you're attracted to the outside, a little background info, then all of a sudden your imagination gets the better of you. The whole time reading it, I couldn't help but think of this guy from my past, and because of this, I couldn't fully give myself to this book. i couldn't believe in the characters. Eventually the madame said that the young girl loved him too. ya well that's pretty easy when she's 'tutin just to make some extra money to support her sick mother and siblings. she knew nothing about him either, other than the fact that he left her gifts sometimes and wrote messages on the bathroom mirror.
some people tell me that i'm pessimistic towards love. that's not the case. I believe in love, I've felt it, and even in times where I've been in intense pain because of it, I'd never wish to not have felt it. But I can't stand when people are so quick to say those words. I won't say that I think there's a specified amount of time that you're allowed to say it in, but I don't think you can say you love the woman whose eye you catch while walking to work each morning, though you know no more about her than a fly buzzing in your ear. You can't say, "She looks so caring," because looks are deceiving. People tell me I look innocent!
Whatever, someone else might read this and see a great love story. i read this and see a pathetic pedophile infatuated with an imaginary little girl. i'm not usually this judgemental. i know for a fact this is because i found this story too personal.
my issue with that aside, it was a good book. well told. nothing against the author or the story at all.