García Márquez has continued writing fiction and essays well into his senior years as a distinguished public intellectual among Latin America's writers and as a spokesperson for them on a broad range of political, social, and cultural issues. His recent fiction both hearkens back to many of his lifetime interests since the early Macondo stories and also suggests new approaches and new emphases on previously worked themes. As in El amor en los tiempos del cólera and Crónica de una muerte anunciada, he fictionalizes his critique of medieval and feudal structures and attitudes in modern Latin America. In his recent work, he has taken the liberty of exploring once again several genres that have been integral to his creative efforts since the 1950s: the novel, in the form of Del amor y otros demonios (Of Love and Other Demons, 1994) and Memoria de mis putas tristes (Memories of my Melancholy Whores, 2004); the testimonio, in Noticia de un secuestro (News of a Kidnapping, 1996), and the short story, in Doce cuentos peregrinos (Strange Pilgrims, 1992).

His two most recent novels, Memoria and Del amor, refer most directly to El amor and Crónica in their consideration of themes, topics, and attitudes related to the old structures inherited from Spain. These four works address these particular matters more explicitly than does any other of his works, making the concluding chapter of his writing career the most definitive in terms of his political and related thematic interests. Like El amor, Memoria offers a focus on ageing and love, and includes some of the signature García Márquez language and gestures from his Macondo cycle.

Ageing and love: Memoria de mis putas tristes

Memoria de mis putas tristes is the story of a ninety-year-old man, a retired journalist, who seemingly falls in love with a fourteen-year-old prostitute. He is the narrator of the story, so the matter of ‘love’ is always a question mark, as the reader is left to speculate about what ‘love’ might mean for him and in what ways a fourteen-year-old prostitute can ‘love’ her ninety-year-old client. The old man is a respected journalist with refined tastes, such as a passion for classical music.