Student Blogs

After reading Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli, I learned that identity is not something fixed, but something constantly shaped by memory, imagination, and the stories we tell ourselves. The author shows how the boundaries between past and present or reality and fiction can be confusing to people so easily they can overlap. The narrator shifting […] read full post >>

Faces in the Crowd was definitely my favorite book we have read so far. It gave me a strange but interesting feeling, mostly because parts of the narrator’s life felt surprisingly relatable. When she describes her younger self living alone in New York, it made me think about what it means to be a young […] read full post >>

One of the first things that stood out to me in My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante is how intense Lila and Lenù’s friendship is. It’s not just a normal “best friend” situation, it’s kind of messy. There’s a lot of jealousy, competition, and comparison going on. I kept noticing how much Lenù bases her […] read full post >>

I did not expect My Brilliant Friend to stress me out this much, but the relationship between Lenù and Lila is honestly one of the most obsessive, intense friendships I have ever read about. They both seem to be measuring themselves against each other the whole time. I felt like Lenù, especially, was living her […] read full post >>

With our narrator saying “It all began in another city and another life” makes me think of how many people grow up in a place that shapes them, and may end up moving away to a place that suits them better (p. 1). “…in that apartment, in that other city” (p. 5). Choosing an environment […] read full post >>

Wow. I think we can all agree that My Brilliant Friend had quite the brilliant end. If someone wrote a 100-hundred-page thesis on the significance of Marcello wearing the shoes laboured over by Lila that Stefano bought, I would read it front to back. In a way, I feel like I already did by reading […] read full post >>

I pray I never become a living ghost read full post >>

 When I read the beginning of My Brilliant Friend, I have already known I would like this book. It is not the disappearance, but Lila's way of making herself disappear. She wanted to disappear without leaving a single trace. She wanted nothing of ... read full post >>

 When I read the beginning of My Brilliant Friend, I have already known I would like this book. It is not the disappearance, but Lila's way of making herself disappear. She wanted to disappear without leaving a single trace. She wanted nothing of ... read full post >>

"A horizontal novel, told vertically. A novel that has to be told from the outside in order to be read from within" (61).Ok, I wanna start this post just to express how confused I am with this book. Like, genuinely reading this was incredibly difficult... read full post >>

"A horizontal novel, told vertically. A novel that has to be told from the outside in order to be read from within" (61).Ok, I wanna start this post just to express how confused I am with this book. Like, genuinely reading this was incredibly difficult... read full post >>

THIS IS AN EARLY POST, as on my contract I chose Constance Debre’s Love Me Tender as my final read. read full post >>

In a Station of the Metro: The apparition of these faces in the crowd: Petals on a wet, black bough. - Ezra Pound read full post >>

I have listened to a podcast about people commenting on Elena Ferrante’s writing before I read this book. People said they were impressed by how honest Ferrante’s writing is. Therefore, when I was reading this book, I attempted to find clues and check if the book is really honest. The Childhood section was quite satisfying, […] read full post >>

“The subway, its multiple stops, its breakdowns, its sudden accelera- tions, its dark zones, could function as the space-time scheme for this other novel.” (58) This book is a difficult, obscure read. Even after going through it a few times to write this post, I still struggled with distinguishing who wrote which section Unlike some […] read full post >>