Recently I saw a man reading on the bus. It was an older man, decently dressed. It was obvious that he was interested in reading. To see people reading books in the transport of our city is an extraordinary rarity. But I looked at the book. It was Marquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. There is some mysticism in the popularity of this author. Something very important but inexplicable happens between Marquez's books and the reader. Meanwhile, the last novel of the writer "On Love and Other Demons" was published in 1994. Ten years later, the first volume of memoirs was published. And no one, apparently, expected anything new from the patriarch of world prose.
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. García Márquez, familiarly known as "Gabo" in his native country, was considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
But in 2004, unexpectedly for everyone, the novel “Remembering My Sad Sluts” was released. Some mysterious publishers immediately released this novel. A scandal broke out: the translation turned out to be a draft, and the publishing house itself disappeared into space immediately after the release. Ultimately, AST acquired the rights to publish all of Marquez's works, and this book was one of the first to be published with full rights.
The title of the novel, at first glance, provokes the reader to expect a lot of frank erotic scenes, but disappointment will follow here. By the way, the translator in the preface says that the original title looks a little rougher. The book is not about that at all.
First of all, this is a different Marquez. This book is written in a lapidary style unusual for the writer, which suggests that this simplicity (recalling everything written by Marquez earlier) is of the highest order. When the most important thing remains.
The protagonist of the novel is preparing to meet his ninetieth birthday. His life has been long, but there is not much to say: newspaper day labor, loneliness, and leisure with the ladies from the brothel. And he wants to celebrate his anniversary especially - to spend the night with a fourteen-year-old virgin who is forced to start earning a living in such a simple way.
Arriving at the brothel, the protagonist finds the girl sleeping. Time after time coming to her, he only sees how she sleeps. And now, looking at the girl, not knowing anything about her, he begins to create an ideal image, and for the first time in so many years, he truly falls in love.
And here, with the elderly lover of paid intimate services, changes are taking place. Feeling for the first time what it is to love, he literally comes to life. His articles cease to be tedious and obligatory, he becomes subject to unprecedented generosity, recklessness, that is, to everything that is characteristic of every ardent lover. And this love makes the hero look at himself and the world around him in a new way. This truth turns out to be like surgery: there is little good, but it is also impossible to remain silent.
The age of love and the age of old age, according to Marquez, are not overlapping universes. And only with this belated love for a person whose age in our country seems beyond the bounds, comes a real understanding of the beauty and tragedy of this world. And along with it, the hope that, perhaps, for a few more years it will be possible to live with those feelings, without which there was an entire previous almost endless life. After all, as you know, it's never too late to start.
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