Student Blogs

The Old Gringo was a book that caught my eye at the beginning of choosing our texts because it was somewhat a romance. I did not expect this book to be all about love, but more themes of war and violence in the story. The Old Gringo was an engaging text about a man known as "Old Gringo" who came to Mexico to die. At the beginning of the novel, there was repetition with the words, the old gringo has come to Mexico to die. I believe that this repetition forces the reader to know what the gringo's intentions were at the start, to see later that at the end, he has somewhat found a purpose to live. The Old Gringo travels to Mexico, meets Arroyo, and asks him to join his army. After proving himself, Arroyo lets him join, and he meets a lady called Harriet. He quickly falls for her, despite not wanting to but lets himself anyways. Harriet feels like she must protect the old man, so she joins the army to assist onside. The Old Gringo gets into a fight with Arroyo, and Arroyo betrays him by forcing Harriet into a sexual relationship with him, or else he will kill the old man. This tricky love triangle arises in the novel because of conflict. Harriet agrees to this because she wants to protect the old man. Later the old man is found out to be the American author, and Arroyo and him get violent. The Old Gringo dies, and his American support allows a proper burial and charges against Arroyo. This wicked love story filled with violence, repetition, and memories brought me many feelings towards feeling sad for The Old Gringo because he was honouring his morals, and for Harriet because it is unclear whether she genuinely desired Arroyo. I feel hatred towards Arroyo; however, in the end, I feel somewhat bad for him because of the new life he will have to bear, and because he could have killed the old man for his misguided actions before but let him live, however in a painful way. One thing that still remains unclear for me is the repetition of "Now she sits alone and remembers." I am confused as to who this is referring to. Whether it's Harriet because the novel is in her point of view, or if it's an outside character? My question is, what do you guys think the meaning is of the repetition of "Now she sits alone and remembers" is, and who maybe is the one remembering? 

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Manea’s “The Trenchcoat” was an enjoyable novella to read, although it left me fairly confused. Most things seemed to have a hidden meaning that was often going over my head. Especially after learning about all the censorship talking place at this time, it confirmed that likely what was being read was meant to be perceived […] read full post >>

“What, what the… what the hell is it with that raincoat?” (p.253)   This story made much more sense when the context is explained in the lecture. I read the initial part blind and found myself thoroughly confused but also very tense and intrigued (in a good way); it conveyed an unnatural feeling that something […] read full post >>

Well.. although this may have love within the story, I did not consider it a love story. While I initially chose this novel as the mention of love within its description, I continued reading it captivated by tragedy (and because I had to!)  It still astonishes me the assumptions I had before starting this course […] read full post >>

This week’s read was The Trenchcoat, by Norman Manea. To me, this short story was probably the trickiest piece to read so far. It was written using all of these subtle insinuations and half-hidden meanings that lurked behind the character dialogues and mundane, surface-level activities of these characters. It was like every line had another meaning to it and it was up to the readers to see through it. It wasn’t a long story, but it required me to concentrate on every passage for me to understand what was really happening. It was quite abstract and I felt as if I had to decode the sentences. 

Certain passages were just non-stop, broken ramblings by the characters and it felt easy to get lost in what was being said. I even restarted from the beginning at one point because I felt like I didn’t absorb it the first time through. 

In the lecture video, the significance of the appearance of the trenchcoat was one of the points of discussion. As I was reading it, the trenchcoat gave me the vibe of being a forgotten, accidental clue of the slightly scary, grimy things that are happening just underneath the boring mask of monotonous everyday life. Just below the layer of stilted conversation, fake niceties and polite friendships, there’s something big and dark churning and the trenchcoat fell out of it simply by mistake. It was not meant to be seen by the hostess, but it was and it acted as the last drop in the nearly overflowing vase of her fragile mental stability.  The near desperate search for the proprietor of the coat truly demonstrates the depth of the paranoia that lay in the subconsciousness of the hostess. The smallest dent in the mask of normality caused her entire surface to shatter and fall apart.

I find it interesting that the author himself is from Romania. It always has more depth when the writers themselves have a personal connection to the characters, the history or the true events of the setting from which the story unfolds. It makes me think about what kinds of influences would trickle into my writing were I to attempt to write a short story or a novel of some kind. I wonder what factors in my life would fuel my pen and come to life in my storytelling. I’m excited to hear from the author himself and listen to him discuss his writing. I think it’s going to be quite interesting. 

Here are my two potential questions for the author, Mr. Norman Manea. What is your favourite book genre (or one of your favourites) and why? Did you start writing when you were young or was being an author something that was unplanned and just ended up happening in your life?

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This week’s read was The Trenchcoat, by Norman Manea. To me, this short story was probably the trickiest piece to read so far. It was written using all of these subtle insinuations and half-hidden meanings that lurked behind the character dialogues and mundane, surface-level activities of these characters. It was like every line had another meaning to it and it was up to the readers to see through it. It wasn’t a long story, but it required me to concentrate on every passage for me to understand what was really happening. It was quite abstract and I felt as if I had to decode the sentences. 

Certain passages were just non-stop, broken ramblings by the characters and it felt easy to get lost in what was being said. I even restarted from the beginning at one point because I felt like I didn’t absorb it the first time through. 

In the lecture video, the significance of the appearance of the trenchcoat was one of the points of discussion. As I was reading it, the trenchcoat gave me the vibe of being a forgotten, accidental clue of the slightly scary, grimy things that are happening just underneath the boring mask of monotonous everyday life. Just below the layer of stilted conversation, fake niceties and polite friendships, there’s something big and dark churning and the trenchcoat fell out of it simply by mistake. It was not meant to be seen by the hostess, but it was and it acted as the last drop in the nearly overflowing vase of her fragile mental stability.  The near desperate search for the proprietor of the coat truly demonstrates the depth of the paranoia that lay in the subconsciousness of the hostess. The smallest dent in the mask of normality caused her entire surface to shatter and fall apart.

I find it interesting that the author himself is from Romania. It always has more depth when the writers themselves have a personal connection to the characters, the history or the true events of the setting from which the story unfolds. It makes me think about what kinds of influences would trickle into my writing were I to attempt to write a short story or a novel of some kind. I wonder what factors in my life would fuel my pen and come to life in my storytelling. I’m excited to hear from the author himself and listen to him discuss his writing. I think it’s going to be quite interesting. 

Here are my two potential questions for the author, Mr. Norman Manea. What is your favourite book genre (or one of your favourites) and why? Did you start writing when you were young or was being an author something that was unplanned and just ended up happening in your life?

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I really really really liked this book. W, or the Memory of Childhood by Georges Perec is part traditional novel, part autobiography, part whatever Perec felt like writing and damn convention. The novel revolves around two disparate narrative, one being … Continue reading → read full post >>

This week’s reading was something else compared to what I had read the other weeks. I first went into the... read full post >>

W, or The Memory of Childhood By George Perec is a novel that contains two narratives at the same time. This is what initially made the novel sort of difficult to read for me read. It did begin to confuse me more and more when the narrations were not making sense of each other. However, … read full post >>

Let me start by saying I apologise for the late post. I was caught up in another assignment and completely lost track of time. About the novel, I found it to be a very interesting and even somewhat appealing read in small degrees. I am well aware that I use the word ‘interesting’ about almost […] read full post >>

I really enjoyed reading W, or the Memory of Childhood by Georges Perec! It was the first book I sat through and finished in a day. The novel felt extremely personable and familiar. From the first few pages, the reader is engaged. “For years, I took comfort in such absence of history”, hold tremendous weight […] read full post >>

I found W or the Memory of Childhood to be a fairly fascinating and enjoyable read. I felt that the story was interesting to follow, however, I cannot say that I find it flowed very well. Something as a reader … Continue reading → read full post >>

 I first heard of Georges Perec as a young teen scrolling through Tumblr when I stumbled across a post about another novel of his, A Void, where he avoids the letter 'e' throughout the novel. I was pleasantly surprised when I realised that we'd been assigned his work. Similarly to others whose blog posts I have read, I initially struggled with the two storylines but got used to it fairly quickly. Apparently these two storylines are supposed to depend on each other, rendering each one incomplete without the other. Truthfully, I haven't been able to discern why they are so dependent on each other, though I hope to understand the text a little further after some class discussion. 

I think an important feature of the text is that it has an unreliable narrator, who is telling this story based on unreliable memories and this fictional world of W that he created in his head. I always think an unreliable narrator can be a refreshing twist on the experience of reading a book because it makes you question what you're being told rather than just taking everything at face value. 

I found the parts where the narrator was explaining all the different sports teams and rules a little difficult to follow (not surprising because I'm a little like that when it comes to real teams, forget fictional ones) and became a little lost in the significance of explaining it all in such detail. A potential answer that comes to mind is that it's all just a coping mechanism; there might not be an inherent significance in the sports teams and all the rules and regulations, but simply the fact that it's so detailed shows the amount of time the narrator must have spent inside his own head as an escape from the world around him. Considering that Perec's parents were killed in the Second World War and the Holocaust, it is unsurprising that some of his work should be informed by trauma. 

Throughout the novel there is an interesting discussion of names, where they come from, and the importance we attach to them. My favourite part was when he was discussing the nicknames that were first given to individuals, before eventually being passed down and becoming a status symbol and evolving even further. It makes me want to imagine our own society using names in that same way; I'm not convinced it'd be entirely practical but it would be a fun thought exercise. The question I now pose is: what do you think the significant of all the sport-talk is?

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 I first heard of Georges Perec as a young teen scrolling through Tumblr when I stumbled across a post about another novel of his, A Void, where he avoids the letter 'e' throughout the novel. I was pleasantly surprised when I realised that we'd been assigned his work. Similarly to others whose blog posts I have read, I initially struggled with the two storylines but got used to it fairly quickly. Apparently these two storylines are supposed to depend on each other, rendering each one incomplete without the other. Truthfully, I haven't been able to discern why they are so dependent on each other, though I hope to understand the text a little further after some class discussion. 

I think an important feature of the text is that it has an unreliable narrator, who is telling this story based on unreliable memories and this fictional world of W that he created in his head. I always think an unreliable narrator can be a refreshing twist on the experience of reading a book because it makes you question what you're being told rather than just taking everything at face value. 

I found the parts where the narrator was explaining all the different sports teams and rules a little difficult to follow (not surprising because I'm a little like that when it comes to real teams, forget fictional ones) and became a little lost in the significance of explaining it all in such detail. A potential answer that comes to mind is that it's all just a coping mechanism; there might not be an inherent significance in the sports teams and all the rules and regulations, but simply the fact that it's so detailed shows the amount of time the narrator must have spent inside his own head as an escape from the world around him. Considering that Perec's parents were killed in the Second World War and the Holocaust, it is unsurprising that some of his work should be informed by trauma. 

Throughout the novel there is an interesting discussion of names, where they come from, and the importance we attach to them. My favourite part was when he was discussing the nicknames that were first given to individuals, before eventually being passed down and becoming a status symbol and evolving even further. It makes me want to imagine our own society using names in that same way; I'm not convinced it'd be entirely practical but it would be a fun thought exercise. The question I now pose is: what do you think the significant of all the sport-talk is?

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 I found the novel "W, or the Memory of Childhood" by Georges Perec to be an extremely interesting read for me. I found myself getting lost in the memories of his childhood and the descriptions and the way he had forgotten some of it and was sharing what he could remember was really descriptive and something that I found added a lot fo context to the novel. One thing that confused me was that the cities were being represented by Ws or Rs and just single letters in general. This is something that i found myself questioning throughout the novel based on the significance or meaning of the singular letters. I also was confused by what XX or X was being used to represent whether it was to represent the cities in France or streets, etc. 

My question is why do you think just letters were used to represent places or cities throughout the text?

One thing that surprised me in this novel was when Otto Apfelstahl had sought out the narrator to help find the original Gaspard Winckler even though Otto Apfelstahl had known and was clear about the fact that the narrator had just used his name and had no other clues or hints leading back to the case of Gaspard Winckler being missing. This was something that was interesting to me because the level of work he had to do to have the conversation with the narrator and the effort he put in to track him down did not seem to match up with the abilities the narrator was known to have to help Otto Apfelstahl and his team come closer to finding the original Gaspard Winckler. Another thing that was a bit confusing for me was when the narrator had talked about the place referred to as W. W seemed to be an olympic village or city, which I found very interesting, though I found it difficult to adjust to the different storyline n the novel. Overall, this novel was very interesting to me and I think the mixture of the two stories together added a lot of beauty and realism to the text. I was able to see what was going on in the plot and also have a deeper understanding of the childhood and experiences that he had which definitely created a positive impact on the story. This also led me to understand the text a lot more and have a deeper understanding of the narrator and his life. This novel was very unique to other texts that I have read.

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