Student Blogs

I felt too dumb for this book, like I completely and entirely missed the point, confused and certain I was missing something, that I should be able to wade through the language and symbols to find the underlying meaning much better than I was actually able to. The use of names in this book confused […] read full post >>

mar 8, 2026 First of all why are all the books in this course highkey depressing… Before I read the book read the title The Lover and that Duras is a female French writer I thought maybe finally we have one that’s less depressing and would be an account of a woman falling in love. […] read full post >>

The Trenchcoat by Norman Manea is probably my favourite reading of the course so far. One reason I liked it was that I was finally able to read a story in one sitting. Lately a lot of the readings have felt extra long so it was nice to sit down and finish a story from […] read full post >>

To be honest this book left me very confused and even after finishing it I still feel lost. Maybe it’s one of those books you have to read for the second time to fully grasp what happened. Although it was very interesting for me at the start it slowly became overwhelming because it felt like […] read full post >>

I just finished reading ‘The Lover’ and I think I’m realizing that I don’t like French books. They are all so wishy washy and dreamy and so hard to follow. I was so confused the whole time reading this book. It felt like the narrator’s stream of consciousness but everything was fragmented and we would go from talking about her... read full post >>

Thank you Marguerite Duras for this book but why did the protagonist have to be so young?? I get that she’s reflecting back on her life but a 15-year-old having an affair with a 27-year-old? Ewwwwwwww! I was just hoping for a somewhat normal relationship but I guess that’s too much to ask for. I […] read full post >>

When I was first reading this book, I honestly did not know what to expect. I initially thought this was going to be something related to the main character being a spy (Hence the name trenchcoat). The story starts off with a dinner between friends. It’s a nice dinner with conversations between friends and peers. […] read full post >>

I think my first thought after finishing this story was how strange the situation felt, but also how familiar it seemed in a different way. Nowadays, people gather, have dinner, talk about random things, and often avoid discussing politics, even when the political situation around the world feels chaotic or upside down. The difference is […] read full post >>

is it any different under capitalism? #TheTrenchcoat #NormanManea read full post >>

Honestly… I’m still not entirely sure of what I just read. I’m so lost. The story felt chaotic and overwhelming, but also fascinating. The narration seems to jump around between various voices, descriptions, and conversations so quickly, making it a little hard to follow. But! Like lots of other stories I’ve read in this course, […] read full post >>

IM ALWAYS CONFUSED. Extremely lost once again… but it also seems like everyone in this story is also confused and stressed and repeating themselves so maybe it’s fine.. First of all.. The narration style really threw me off at first. There is SO much repetition. Characters say the same thing over and over but in … Continue reading im not sure.. read full post >>

“I think I'm paranoid read full post >>

This short story left me very confused and disoriented, with not much to grasp onto and characters also losing it, like Ioana gesturing towards hidden conspiracies and death that had existed  So it was relieving to know that the confusion and paranoia and gradual descent into madness is a feature, not a bug, of the […] read full post >>

WOW! I love the storytelling method of this book. It really allows me to know everything that is going to happen before I actually read the actual part of the plot. Great use of foreshadowing!! It may also due to the repetition, where she divided the entire story into fragments and glued them together while […] read full post >>

“Never again shall I..” “From now on I’ll…” “I shall…” “I’ll always have…” (pg. 34). I miss the childlike naivety of knowing everything. While this paragraph seems to be the narrator reflecting on her life, it can also be a manifestation of the young girl determined to be with a man who is majorly, inappropriately, […] read full post >>