Why does he have a troubled conscience? Why would the act of telling his story ease it? Does he succeed in this goal? What is it, both physically and spiritually, that he gets instead? What is the significance of the narrator falling in love with Delgadina while she sleeps? What does he discover about himself? How has his experience with Delgadina led him to this knowledge? Why does he choose to have sex only with prostitutes? A North American novelist celebrating love between a ninety-year-old man and a fourteen-year-old girl would very likely be condemned for endorsing child sexual abuse.
In what ways is Memories of My Melancholy Whores like a fable or fairy tale? What is the meaning of the sentence the narrator finds written in lipstick on the mirror: Who left this message? The narrator at times doubts the reality of Delgadina. Is his love for her simply a projection onto the blank screen of her sleeping body, or is he in fact responding to her on some primal, transformative level? Why does he feel he is finally experiencing real life?
In what ways has his life up to this point been unreal? If you have read any of his other work, in what ways is the experience of love treated differently in Memories of My Melancholy Whores than in his earlier writing? Introduction On the eve of his ninetieth birthday, the unnamed narrator of Memories of My Melancholy Whores is seized by an inspiration: All his life, beginning at the tender age of eleven, he has gone to bed only with prostitutes, and many of them, so many in fact that he has twice been awarded the dubious honor of client of the year by the town brothels.
But age has diminished his desire, if not his amorous powers. And though she finds for him a fourteen-year-old virginโso frightened she must be given a heavy dose of valerian to relaxโhis night with her turns out far differently than he anticipated. From the girl whose sleeping presence exerts a powerful hold on him, he learns the many ways he has deceived himself about his true nature, his real motives, and the no-longer-deniable consequences of a life lived without love.
Questions and Topics for Discussion 1. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in LitFlash The eBooks you want at the lowest prices. Read it Forward Read it first. Stay in Touch Sign up. We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later.
