Student Blogs

Norman Manea’s ‘The Trenchcoat’ is definitely a confusing read. I felt there was a lot of  what one of my high school literature teachers referred to as ‘invisible reading’ to be done. By this they meant that there is a story being told in between the lines and I have to agree that this was […] read full post >>

“If it is necessary, our atomized consciousness invents love, imagines it or feigns it, but does not live without it,... read full post >>

The Trenchcoat was a short but very enjoyable read. I often prefer to watch the lectures after I have read the book, however, this time I was not able to do that. Without the lecture and learning some basic information about the history of Romania, this book would have been even more confusing. The plot of the novella centers around a dinner party that was tedious and no one seemed to enjoy. The guests felt forced to be there, they did not like their hosts, especially Lady Di whom they perceived as pretentious and almost intolerable in her attempts to get along with people who weren’t like her. After leaving the party, the guests know that they wouldn’t be doing this again. However, Lady Di finds a trenchcoat left behind and calls the guests to find out whose it was. She gets frantic about finding out who the coat belongs to. But why?

I do not know what the trenchcoat signifies, and why it was also referred to as an overcoat and a raincoat. The conversations among the characters were missing things, and we often read only what one of the characters was saying at a time. I’m sure this has relevance, but I can’t figure out what it is. Another interesting aspect of this text is how some of the characters are not referred to by their names. It was hard to keep track of who was who, especially early on. I wonder if knowing more about the history of Romania would have allowed me to interpret more of this novel. I feel like if I did more research and went back to it, I would come out with more.

The ambiguity of the text did not take away from the feelings of unease imposed by the setting in which the characters were. The discomfort was looming over the whole time, even when normal day to day discussions were taking place which I found very interesting. It was not intended for the reader to understand every exchange, or ‘correctly’ interpret everything that was happening. The point was to show the discretion and secrecy that was imposed on people because of the danger looming about, ‘the walls have ears’.

While reading the book I was wondering how difficult it was to write something without writing it, that is, how did the need to avoid censorship affect the writing process for Manea?

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The Trenchcoat was a short but very enjoyable read. I often prefer to watch the lectures after I have read the book, however, this time I was not able to do that. Without the lecture and learning some basic information about the history of Romania, this book would have been even more confusing. The plot of the novella centers around a dinner party that was tedious and no one seemed to enjoy. The guests felt forced to be there, they did not like their hosts, especially Lady Di whom they perceived as pretentious and almost intolerable in her attempts to get along with people who weren’t like her. After leaving the party, the guests know that they wouldn’t be doing this again. However, Lady Di finds a trenchcoat left behind and calls the guests to find out whose it was. She gets frantic about finding out who the coat belongs to. But why?

I do not know what the trenchcoat signifies, and why it was also referred to as an overcoat and a raincoat. The conversations among the characters were missing things, and we often read only what one of the characters was saying at a time. I’m sure this has relevance, but I can’t figure out what it is. Another interesting aspect of this text is how some of the characters are not referred to by their names. It was hard to keep track of who was who, especially early on. I wonder if knowing more about the history of Romania would have allowed me to interpret more of this novel. I feel like if I did more research and went back to it, I would come out with more.

The ambiguity of the text did not take away from the feelings of unease imposed by the setting in which the characters were. The discomfort was looming over the whole time, even when normal day to day discussions were taking place which I found very interesting. It was not intended for the reader to understand every exchange, or ‘correctly’ interpret everything that was happening. The point was to show the discretion and secrecy that was imposed on people because of the danger looming about, ‘the walls have ears’.

While reading the book I was wondering how difficult it was to write something without writing it, that is, how did the need to avoid censorship affect the writing process for Manea?

read full post >>

The old gringo is another look at memory and trauma, recounting the story of an old man who leaves his life behind and has nothing to lose, and Harriet and Arroyo, all of whom are situated at the hacienda. What struck out to me was how some parts of the novel sounded poetic, especially with […] read full post >>

I found “The Old Gringo” by Carlos Fuentes to be about what I was expecting; a somewhat turbulent novel that is set around war. It was a bit confusing to read as the perspective seemed to change frequently, but how the chapters were broken into smaller parts helped organize the text a little more. Throughout … Continue reading Week 9: Fuentes’s “The Old Gringo” → read full post >>

Manea’s “The Trenchcoat” stirred up some discomfort in me, given the ambiguous nature of the text, but it was certainly an enjoyable read. The discomfort came primarily from moving across the pages in an unfamiliar setting, with unfamiliar characters, in … Continue reading → read full post >>

The novel “The Old Gringo” to me is like a lesson. Moreover, I think it is a lesson for all Ambrose Bierce, Harriet Winslow and Tomas Arroyo. All three escaped the reality, and converegd in the Hacienda, with the hope to find what they actually want in their not-so-pleasant life. To answer Dr.Beasley-Murray’s question in […] read full post >>

Hi! This week I’ll be reflecting on Norman Manea’s novella, The Trenchcoat. Right off the bat, I have to say... read full post >>

Manea, The Trenchcoat I do not have much to say about this novel as I felt lost throughout the whole book. It might be something that I missed at the start of the reading which then made me be lost through the reading but I just found it too confusing. I got lost between all […] read full post >>

My thoughts on the Trench coat… Although I was definitely feeling lost a lot of the time reading this novel, I did enjoy it. I think I quickly understood that the point of this story was not to fully understand every little conversation that was being exchanged, or what these characters were up to. Rather, it was to understand that these conversations had to be secret and discrete, given the country and time they were living in. 

This story was unfolding in a time where the government seemed to have a lot of control of its citizens. For example, gas was limited to 30 litres a month (and could sometimes be bribed with a tip, sometimes not and if you had extra money, of course). There was also extreme censorship on information released to the people, and if something abnormal popped up there was a question in regards to “how did that slip past the censor?”.  One quote that stood out to me as well and was a bit disturbing to read was “I'll be tall, healthy, clean and neat, without even needing a bit to eat.” Not exactly sure what this means, but perhaps that they also restrict food for their citizens and for children in schools. 

Although this mysterious ‘raincoat/trench coat’ had me confused in regards to what its significance was, I knew that this character that found it would not have been so disturbed by its random appearance without some sort of reason. Perhaps there was some sort of connection to one of the individuals that attended the dinner party that night. I definitely got strange vibes between the group. It seemed forced so I question why this dinner had to happen in the first place (and not just to exchange that article for the journal that could be done at the door).

I sensed that some of the people gathered had some interesting backgrounds. This especially felt true when I'm not sure who but someone said “When you go up the ladder, you push it a little here and there. You knock a few guys down a rung, you do a few things in the darkness too, when nobody watching” 238. I think this speaks to the fact that there has been shady behaviours between these people, especially knowing that some of them hold powerful roles in politics. Therefore, I think that this trench coat signifies that some sort of realization, potentially not a good one, has been puzzled together… This makes me question, why did this awkward dinner party have to occur in the first place? Was there something being discussed or exchanged that we are unaware of? Or did they simply think it was time to get together knowing it had been a while?

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My thoughts on the Trench coat… Although I was definitely feeling lost a lot of the time reading this novel, I did enjoy it. I think I quickly understood that the point of this story was not to fully understand every little conversation that was being exchanged, or what these characters were up to. Rather, it was to understand that these conversations had to be secret and discrete, given the country and time they were living in. 

This story was unfolding in a time where the government seemed to have a lot of control of its citizens. For example, gas was limited to 30 litres a month (and could sometimes be bribed with a tip, sometimes not and if you had extra money, of course). There was also extreme censorship on information released to the people, and if something abnormal popped up there was a question in regards to “how did that slip past the censor?”.  One quote that stood out to me as well and was a bit disturbing to read was “I'll be tall, healthy, clean and neat, without even needing a bit to eat.” Not exactly sure what this means, but perhaps that they also restrict food for their citizens and for children in schools. 

Although this mysterious ‘raincoat/trench coat’ had me confused in regards to what its significance was, I knew that this character that found it would not have been so disturbed by its random appearance without some sort of reason. Perhaps there was some sort of connection to one of the individuals that attended the dinner party that night. I definitely got strange vibes between the group. It seemed forced so I question why this dinner had to happen in the first place (and not just to exchange that article for the journal that could be done at the door).

I sensed that some of the people gathered had some interesting backgrounds. This especially felt true when I'm not sure who but someone said “When you go up the ladder, you push it a little here and there. You knock a few guys down a rung, you do a few things in the darkness too, when nobody watching” 238. I think this speaks to the fact that there has been shady behaviours between these people, especially knowing that some of them hold powerful roles in politics. Therefore, I think that this trench coat signifies that some sort of realization, potentially not a good one, has been puzzled together… This makes me question, why did this awkward dinner party have to occur in the first place? Was there something being discussed or exchanged that we are unaware of? Or did they simply think it was time to get together knowing it had been a while?

read full post >>

I’m not sure if it was just the version of the novel that I had, but certain parts of the story resembled poetry to me. Not only with how it was written, but how it was visually represented on the pages. With some sentences cutting short and then finishing them in subsequent lines that have […] read full post >>

At our last class, Professor lightly hinted that I often overanalyze texts to find a deeper meaning that perhaps might not exist so I carried this with me in the reading of this text. Without the lecture as a precursor, this text was nearly incomprehensible with a familiarity necessary to understanding the setting of the […] read full post >>

This week’s reading on Carlos Fuentes’ The Old Gringo wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be almost something similar to an autobiography like last week’s read of W, or Memory of Childhood. Although, I was much happier reading something that wasn’t an autobiography. I found this story really …

Continue reading "The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes"

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