This article first appeared in The Herald, March 2006.
Such a premise – the love of an aged man for a sexually ingénue – carries much literary baggage, a fact Marquez acknowledges when quoting from Yasunari Kawabata’s short story “House of the Sleeping Beauties” in the preface of the novella. Lolita, Death in Venice and Marquez’ own Of Love and Other Demons as well as several short stories have expertly explored the overwrought themes stemming from the pedophiliac urges: guilt, desire morality, inadequacy, violence, seduction, escapism, delusion and fear. In earlier works, Marquez distinguished himself from Nabokov and Mann by contrasting his characters’ perversion with the lush lyricism of his prose when describing sensuality and sexuality.
