The Cardinal's Whores is the first book by this author I have read, and with the intriguing mix of fact and fiction she twisted into this story, she is definitely one on my watch list.

Joan Larke is a young woman, living with her brother, and hopeful for a marriage to a noble. However, when her path brings her to the attention of Thomas Wolsley, her life takes a different route. We stay with Wolsley throughout most of this book, but also see things from other's perspectives. This story touches on actual figures and events from that period of history, and then puts the author's take on things to make them fit here.

This was a very well written story, with no editing or grammatical errors that disrupted my reading. The pacing was smooth, and the transition from one person's POV to the next was seamless. For those that like historical stories, something with a bit of steam, then I have no hesitation in recommending this one. Thoroughly enjoyable.

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!

https://msarki.tumblr.com/post/161848367868/whores-for-gloria-by-william-t-vollmann

…I haven’t told the truth for so long now that I’ve given up lying.

William T. Vollmann’s name has come up often and been noticed on lists of books deserving to be remarked upon. For some reason I have resisted reading him, but my being recently compared to him by another writer I am intimate with, I decided to examine a bit of the fuss behind the legend of Vollmann. Whores for Gloria signals my starting point. And what a point it is.

…Virgin Mary candy full of sunlight and ocean fruit…

The narrator’s voice is natural and through the use of no punctuation the dialogue between all the players is easy to discern, understand, and know at all times just who is talking. But the subject matter perhaps excludes too many of us on purpose. And I like it that Vollman’s work is exclusionary. Becomes a sort of fraternity I have been temporarily made member of. In this particular case a membership in what might be referred to as a gutter club. Flying dirt balls of emotion and most certainly a fated dead end. It is obvious to me that Vollmann has studied his whoring subjects well. His disturbed protagonist is named Jimmy.

It isn’t easy for me being this close-up to Vollmann. Too few pages of pure joy, reading pleasures somehow massaging the pain and loss that permeates everything everywhere. Jimmy’s absent love conjured up in real time, futile attempts at recovering some sense of belonging in the world, even in light of his daily encounters with a confounding nature called time. And sadly, time being something apparently needing to end for him.

…alley by alley I will search and destroy…he could not believe that he was actually remembering anything because he had not done that since before he started drinking, and he felt uneasy…

In light of Jimmy’s incessant delusion in his remembrance of his long-lost Gloria the story is as much about forgetting. Fueled by alcohol his escape from the horrors of the Vietnam War seemed to morph into a parallel fantasy regarding the woman of his dreams brought to life through the seedy culture of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.

One night Riley hopped a freight into town, and because he had been living the life of himself he was in bad shape.

For me, my first exposure to William T. Vollmann was portend, portend, portend. And for more of that I will be back. [b:Butterfly Stories|45683|Butterfly Stories|William T. Vollmann|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348089356s/45683.jpg|44857] is calling.

"The year I turned ninety, I wanted to give myself the gift of a night of wild love with an adolescent virgin."

This is the first period of the book. So, from the beginning, we know this novella is about a veeery old man getting involved with a teenager.

Give me a moment to process that.

So that is why some reject this story as misogynistic. I can understand that. But if we are to reject characters so bluntly, then what is the point of reading? One of the perks of appreciating high literature is that it increases empathy, not lessen it.

Whenever we see an old man with a much younger woman, we smell mid-life crisis from kilometres away. With our 90-year old protagonist, it is the same. His desire for a younger woman stems from his insecurities of an (extreme) old age. And this relation stand throughout all the story.

So, are we reproaching the protagonist for using an innocent girl for sexual validation, or are we using his misbehaviour as a lesson about the perks of ageing, of absence of love, of carrying of life without greater sentiment, or even the vulgar problem of sex vs. love?

Forgive me, but I think I can take something good from this.

And the writing style is very flowy, the wording exact; it is the best paced Marquez I ever read.

So I can see why it irritates some, but overall it stands as an excellent piece of work.