Student Blogs

Norman Manea’s short novella called “The Trenchcoat” in the book “Compulsory Happiness” has a simple title that is straight to... read full post >>

There was a choice between Norman Manea’s The Trenchcoat and Carlos Fuentes’ The Old Gringo for this week’s reading. As the name of this blog post indicates, I chose the latter, but hen I heard about Norman Manea joining in on a class discussion, I questioned whether I made the right decision. However, although it would have […] read full post >>

 Similarly to Proust's novel, The Old Gringo was another novel that I already had on my TBR list before starting this class, so I'm glad to have had the opportunity/excuse to read it now. I did enjoy reading it, despite it feeling a little convoluted at times. The relationships in particular were a little difficult to follow because it sometimes felt like things changed and dynamics shifted without me really noticing. Somewhat like accidentally missing a couple episodes of a series and suddenly being confused. 

Harriet Winslow's relationships with Arroyo and the Gringo (who we later find is Ambrose Bierce unless you watch the lecture first) are notably difficult to follow. There were times when I couldn't figure out if Harriet was attracted to Arroyo, or faking it, or liked him, or hated him, or any combination of the four. The Gringo's relationship with her was strange too; an odd in-between of paternal and romantic that I can't quite decipher, though to be fair, neither can the characters themselves.

Other than romance, the main themes that stuck out to me in the novel were those of memory, trauma, bitterness, and revenge. All of those themes are tightly interconnected with each other, and also fit in nicely with many of the other books we have read as part of the course. I feel like almost (if not all) the novels we have read have had links with memory, predominantly negative memories and emotions, and this is no exception.

I know that others have mentioned the poetic aspect of the novel. Though my translation seems to have less of it than others', my favourite poetic snippet was at the end of Chapter 10 (my pdf has no page numbers :/ ) saying "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of felony". As far as I know, the usual lyrics of the song have the word "liberty" instead of "felony", so I find it very interesting that an American character would switch out the word used. I also find it apt because of the numerous examples, both contemporary and historical, of America and other Western countries being built off the backs of crime and injustice, where to hail freedom can be considered hypocrisy. 

As mentioned earlier, there seem to be times where two opposites are coming to a head, and we are confronted with both sides of one coin, so to speak. Love and hate, attraction and repulsion are two pairs, but the one that stood out to me most was Harriet's distaste for hiding jewels behind the figure of Jesus on the cross. I thought it was interesting because it was a contrast that wouldn't have immediately occurred to me without being pointed out, and it makes sense to me now that it has been pointed out. 

My question this week: what do you think could have driven the gringo to seek his death in Mexico?

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 Similarly to Proust's novel, The Old Gringo was another novel that I already had on my TBR list before starting this class, so I'm glad to have had the opportunity/excuse to read it now. I did enjoy reading it, despite it feeling a little convoluted at times. The relationships in particular were a little difficult to follow because it sometimes felt like things changed and dynamics shifted without me really noticing. Somewhat like accidentally missing a couple episodes of a series and suddenly being confused. 

Harriet Winslow's relationships with Arroyo and the Gringo (who we later find is Ambrose Bierce unless you watch the lecture first) are notably difficult to follow. There were times when I couldn't figure out if Harriet was attracted to Arroyo, or faking it, or liked him, or hated him, or any combination of the four. The Gringo's relationship with her was strange too; an odd in-between of paternal and romantic that I can't quite decipher, though to be fair, neither can the characters themselves.

Other than romance, the main themes that stuck out to me in the novel were those of memory, trauma, bitterness, and revenge. All of those themes are tightly interconnected with each other, and also fit in nicely with many of the other books we have read as part of the course. I feel like almost (if not all) the novels we have read have had links with memory, predominantly negative memories and emotions, and this is no exception.

I know that others have mentioned the poetic aspect of the novel. Though my translation seems to have less of it than others', my favourite poetic snippet was at the end of Chapter 10 (my pdf has no page numbers :/ ) saying "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of felony". As far as I know, the usual lyrics of the song have the word "liberty" instead of "felony", so I find it very interesting that an American character would switch out the word used. I also find it apt because of the numerous examples, both contemporary and historical, of America and other Western countries being built off the backs of crime and injustice, where to hail freedom can be considered hypocrisy. 

As mentioned earlier, there seem to be times where two opposites are coming to a head, and we are confronted with both sides of one coin, so to speak. Love and hate, attraction and repulsion are two pairs, but the one that stood out to me most was Harriet's distaste for hiding jewels behind the figure of Jesus on the cross. I thought it was interesting because it was a contrast that wouldn't have immediately occurred to me without being pointed out, and it makes sense to me now that it has been pointed out. 

My question this week: what do you think could have driven the gringo to seek his death in Mexico?

read full post >>

This novel written by Carlos Fuentes really brought more questions for me than answers. Which is something I enjoy while reading. One thing that I did notice was that it was difficult to follow along with the story since it was difficult to stay engaged with the reading as I got lost in the words. […] read full post >>

Like some of my peers in the class, I also watched the lecture before reading the text, and I feel like I will continue to do so for the remainder of the readings. The context of the Romanian communism and the censorship that Manea had to endure to write and publish this story is something […] read full post >>

The start of this work interested me as it began in media res and I was excited to have a plot driven novella. At the beginning, with the talk of how people don’t have parties anymore and are ready to kill for a drop of gas, I was drawing parallels to our current situation today. […] read full post >>

In The Old Gringo, Mexican author, Carlos Fuentes, sets his story during the violence and war period of the Mexican Revolution. Peculiarly, instead of focusing on a Mexican protagonist, Fuentes instead chooses to focus the plot of his novel on a North American character named Ambrose Pierce, who was a real historical figure. In his […] read full post >>

The Old Gringo was definitely one of my favorite reads so far in this course. The book title really caught me off guard and I was surprised with how the storyline went. Knowing that the term “gringo” is used by the Latino community to describe a caucasian white male. If I may add, a caucasian […] read full post >>

I found The Trenchcoat by Norman Manea to be a bit difficult. I felt lost at times and I was unsure of what was happening in the book at moments. The plot begins with a dinner party in which the guest feel awkward and obligated to be there. Perhaps because Ioana’s husband Ali is co-workers … read full post >>

    

      I am very glad I watched part of the lecture video *before* reading this novel. Having a little bit of context about what was happening in Romania made things make a lot more sense than they would have had I been reading blind. Even still, this novella was pretty confusing, not because I couldn't understand the writing it seemed by design, I can reread a page and still be left feeling confused even while understanding context and what had occurred plot wise. I get the sense it was intentional, a reflection of the time the book was set in and it seemed obvious that most of the characters didn't fully understand what was occurring either. There was a overarching feeling of fearful uncertainty thinly veiled by social niceties like those that were seen at the dinner. 

    Initially, I was pretty confused by the first section of the novella, a conversation occurring sometime in the future that had absolutely no context at the time. As soon as the trench coat Dina found was mentioned, I formed a little theory that these two were connected. I was very pleased to find that I was correct and it was in fact carelessly (or possibly not carelessly?) left by one of these confidential agents. To me, this makes the trench coat a symbol of mistrust. Something left behind as a symbol of the governments mistrust in its people, to go to such lengths as using other peoples homes for meetings/interviews without permission and also the mistrust the people had for their government that was not supporting them how it should and went behind their back to report about *them*. 

    When it comes to the ending, I found it to real fit together with the title of the collection of these novels 'Compulsory Happiness.' Laughter, usually a pretty obvious sign of joy, but in a context where it was once again a thin veil to cover the grim reality the characters were living in. Laughing at the situation, or maybe laughing to try to ignore it and pretend everything was fine.

Overall, I enjoyed this novella it was really interesting and I also never hear much about Romania in general so it was cool to read something from there. I am very interested to see what Manea has to say on Thursday, about the book but also about his experiences and anything else. I don't think I have ever had the chance to hear an author talk about their life/writing live before so it'll be cool. I have a somewhat unrelated question for Manea: How did moving to the U.S. affect your writing? I can imagine that there was some culture shock and I wonder how that may have changed how you viewed things.

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      I am very glad I watched part of the lecture video *before* reading this novel. Having a little bit of context about what was happening in Romania made things make a lot more sense than they would have had I been reading blind. Even still, this novella was pretty confusing, not because I couldn't understand the writing it seemed by design, I can reread a page and still be left feeling confused even while understanding context and what had occurred plot wise. I get the sense it was intentional, a reflection of the time the book was set in and it seemed obvious that most of the characters didn't fully understand what was occurring either. There was a overarching feeling of fearful uncertainty thinly veiled by social niceties like those that were seen at the dinner. 

    Initially, I was pretty confused by the first section of the novella, a conversation occurring sometime in the future that had absolutely no context at the time. As soon as the trench coat Dina found was mentioned, I formed a little theory that these two were connected. I was very pleased to find that I was correct and it was in fact carelessly (or possibly not carelessly?) left by one of these confidential agents. To me, this makes the trench coat a symbol of mistrust. Something left behind as a symbol of the governments mistrust in its people, to go to such lengths as using other peoples homes for meetings/interviews without permission and also the mistrust the people had for their government that was not supporting them how it should and went behind their back to report about *them*. 

    When it comes to the ending, I found it to real fit together with the title of the collection of these novels 'Compulsory Happiness.' Laughter, usually a pretty obvious sign of joy, but in a context where it was once again a thin veil to cover the grim reality the characters were living in. Laughing at the situation, or maybe laughing to try to ignore it and pretend everything was fine.

Overall, I enjoyed this novella it was really interesting and I also never hear much about Romania in general so it was cool to read something from there. I am very interested to see what Manea has to say on Thursday, about the book but also about his experiences and anything else. I don't think I have ever had the chance to hear an author talk about their life/writing live before so it'll be cool. I have a somewhat unrelated question for Manea: How did moving to the U.S. affect your writing? I can imagine that there was some culture shock and I wonder how that may have changed how you viewed things.

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As much as I liked the actual story that Carlos Fuente writes about in his historical novel The Old Gringo, I can’t say I enjoyed this novel as much as other texts we have read thus far. I found the … Continue reading → read full post >>

I really liked this book. It’s definitely one of my favourites of the ones we’ve covered. We’ve read a few books that are based on memory, and we’ve discussed how fickle memory can be and what kind of story is created when it is strung together by a collection of memories. However, The Old Gringo […] read full post >>

blog#9 – the Object of Anxiety — I’ll admit that I am not very good at remembering character’s names when reading, especially during the part I have to read in dialogue. But in this book, many characters have a kind of tic or catchphrase that they say which I thought was really interesting. Whatever their […] read full post >>