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For this week's reading, I read The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda. It was an easy read to get lost in. It felt like an emotional rollercoaster as I read the book. The past tense narrative of Natalia made it seem like she was reliving these momen... read full post >>

My first impressions when starting this novel was that I was not going to enjoy it. I found myself often bored at the beginning until about midway through. I understood Natalia’s frustration when it came to the doves, as I felt that if dirty birds were flying around my house, I too would eventually be …

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 Reading this book was in a word.. frustrating. I normally quite enjoy novels without a plot, it’s always exciting reading a person’s unfiltered, unaltered thoughts and that’s what I expected when I started to read this book. I was also excited that G.H addressed me asking me to hold her hand. It is hard to explain why I enjoyed that so much at the beginning but later came to be repulsed by it. She was stuck in that room with the cockroach and I was stuck listening to her ramblings. 

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G.H is rich, privileged, creative and bored. She walks into the room of the cleaning lady who has lived with her for years. As she walks into the room, she has trouble remembering her name and face. She lived in a bubble and did not care much about things around her. This may not be because she’s self-centered, but rather because her head is such a mess! I hate saying this as someone who claims to be interested in psychology but how else could I refer to this? I sit with G.H in that room with a cockroach as she starts losing her sense of self and sense of reality. I had to picture the white and later yellow matter oozing out of the cockroach. The cockroach that was stuck between life and death just like she was stuck inside her head between reality and psychosis. 

Whenever I start a novel, I avoid reading or knowing anything about it. I think it makes for a much different experience. Last week, reading Bonjour Tristesse, I started reading thinking Tristesse was a character’s name and kept waiting for them to show up, ha! In this case however, I wish I knew that I was going to be reading 160 pages of random ramblings leading up to her EATING the roach! 

Earlier in the book some of the things she said made very little sense to me, while others I could relate to. However, halfway into the book, I did not want to relate or agree with anything she said! When I finished the book, I thought I just didn’t like it, but as I am reflecting now I realize that it had aroused very strong feelings in me. Not positive feelings, mind you. And that’s what makes it hard to allow myself to be interested in her thoughts and perspective on what it means to be human. What God is. Tedium. Love. Abandonment. All the topics that otherwise I would love to hear someone’s thoughts on, but not her! I’m wondering if you’ve also had strong feelings towards G.H as well? Do you pity her? Loathe her? Like her? Normally, she would be someone I’d feel bad for but I really don’t and I can’t articulate why. 

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 Reading this book was in a word.. frustrating. I normally quite enjoy novels without a plot, it’s always exciting reading a person’s unfiltered, unaltered thoughts and that’s what I expected when I started to read this book. I was also excited that G.H addressed me asking me to hold her hand. It is hard to explain why I enjoyed that so much at the beginning but later came to be repulsed by it. She was stuck in that room with the cockroach and I was stuck listening to her ramblings. 

x

G.H is rich, privileged, creative and bored. She walks into the room of the cleaning lady who has lived with her for years. As she walks into the room, she has trouble remembering her name and face. She lived in a bubble and did not care much about things around her. This may not be because she’s self-centered, but rather because her head is such a mess! I hate saying this as someone who claims to be interested in psychology but how else could I refer to this? I sit with G.H in that room with a cockroach as she starts losing her sense of self and sense of reality. I had to picture the white and later yellow matter oozing out of the cockroach. The cockroach that was stuck between life and death just like she was stuck inside her head between reality and psychosis. 

Whenever I start a novel, I avoid reading or knowing anything about it. I think it makes for a much different experience. Last week, reading Bonjour Tristesse, I started reading thinking Tristesse was a character’s name and kept waiting for them to show up, ha! In this case however, I wish I knew that I was going to be reading 160 pages of random ramblings leading up to her EATING the roach! 

Earlier in the book some of the things she said made very little sense to me, while others I could relate to. However, halfway into the book, I did not want to relate or agree with anything she said! When I finished the book, I thought I just didn’t like it, but as I am reflecting now I realize that it had aroused very strong feelings in me. Not positive feelings, mind you. And that’s what makes it hard to allow myself to be interested in her thoughts and perspective on what it means to be human. What God is. Tedium. Love. Abandonment. All the topics that otherwise I would love to hear someone’s thoughts on, but not her! I’m wondering if you’ve also had strong feelings towards G.H as well? Do you pity her? Loathe her? Like her? Normally, she would be someone I’d feel bad for but I really don’t and I can’t articulate why. 

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This novel made me feel a range of emotions including shock, anger, disappointment, and sympathy for Natalia’s character. I noticed... read full post >>

To start off, what was this? Honestly I have no clue. “The Passion According to G.H.”  Clarice Lispector was so abstract and very manic, but I found it quite fascinating. The whole book surrounds this mental breakdown of the rich artist narrator after she kills a cockroach. Wow, what a sentence. I definitely understand why […] read full post >>

Hey Everyone, I hope you all had a restful reading break. I spent the past week really taking my time to read The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda. This book has somehow taken the longest for me to read so far, possibly because I had the most time to read it. I found […] read full post >>

‘The Time of the Doves’ by Mercé Rodoreda had me very emotionally involved the entire story. While I had to take breaks to manage reading the stream-of-consciousness style writing, I could not help but react emotionally to what was happening the s... read full post >>

‘The Time of the Doves’ by Mercé Rodoreda had me very emotionally involved the entire story. While I had to take breaks to manage reading the stream-of-consciousness style writing, I could not help but react emotionally to what was happening the s... read full post >>

Wow! Well, this was not necessarily the longest book, it absolutely put my head into a blender (this is the only expression that felt applicable). While I do feel like I enjoyed the book, it made me just as confused at the first week of blog posts. I feel as though the author did a […] read full post >>

This week, I chose to read The time of the Doves by Merce Rodoreda.

I pity and feel bad for Natalia. However, I also believe she kind of deserved what had happened to her. Since she is the one that made the decision of breaking her engagement with her fiance, Pere, to be with Quitmet. This may be due to the lack of advice she had received since her mother had passed away for a long time and her dad is remarried. She is alone. 

Quitmet is a controlling and abusive man. He ordered Natalia around a lot and also seemed to have gaslighted her by saying he saw her on the street with Pere when she wasn't with him. He demanded an explanation, apology and called “all women were crazy and they weren’t a nickel” (p32) when Natalia was just trying to explain herself. Quitmen is not caring and doesn't seem to respect Natalia. When Natalia was pregnant and tried to sleep, he would do anything to wake her up. After the birth of their son, Quitmet was annoyed at how he needed to make a new bedpost because Natalia broke it while giving birth. 

“...when my father remarried a few years later there was nothing left for me to hold onto” (p28). Despite knowing Quitmet did not treat her well, she is still with him. I believe it may be due to the fact that she is able to find a sense of belongingness and someone to hold onto when she is with Quitmet. The pros are greater than the cons for her. 

After receiving the message from the militiaman that “Quitmen and Cinet had died like men’ (p137), Natalia didn't want to think Quitmen had died and wanted things to go back to how it always had been. This made me wonder if it's because she couldn't get over the death of her husband or she is afraid of the ideas on ‘things changing’.  

One of the biggest twists for me was the name Maria. Quitmet mentioned Maria many times to the point where Natalia began to take it seriously and thought about her in many situations. She would think Maria could clean the dishes better when she's washing the dishes, etc (p46). It also made me wonder who this mysterious Maria is. However, it turns out that “Quitmen had never known a girl named Maria. Never” (p121).

Which leads to my questions for the class: Do you think think ‘Maria’ represents/symbolizes anything? Is there a reason why Quitmen kept mentioning ‘Maria’?

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This week, I chose to read The time of the Doves by Merce Rodoreda.

I pity and feel bad for Natalia. However, I also believe she kind of deserved what had happened to her. Since she is the one that made the decision of breaking her engagement with her fiance, Pere, to be with Quitmet. This may be due to the lack of advice she had received since her mother had passed away for a long time and her dad is remarried. She is alone. 

Quitmet is a controlling and abusive man. He ordered Natalia around a lot and also seemed to have gaslighted her by saying he saw her on the street with Pere when she wasn't with him. He demanded an explanation, apology and called “all women were crazy and they weren’t a nickel” (p32) when Natalia was just trying to explain herself. Quitmen is not caring and doesn't seem to respect Natalia. When Natalia was pregnant and tried to sleep, he would do anything to wake her up. After the birth of their son, Quitmet was annoyed at how he needed to make a new bedpost because Natalia broke it while giving birth. 

“...when my father remarried a few years later there was nothing left for me to hold onto” (p28). Despite knowing Quitmet did not treat her well, she is still with him. I believe it may be due to the fact that she is able to find a sense of belongingness and someone to hold onto when she is with Quitmet. The pros are greater than the cons for her. 

After receiving the message from the militiaman that “Quitmen and Cinet had died like men’ (p137), Natalia didn't want to think Quitmen had died and wanted things to go back to how it always had been. This made me wonder if it's because she couldn't get over the death of her husband or she is afraid of the ideas on ‘things changing’.  

One of the biggest twists for me was the name Maria. Quitmet mentioned Maria many times to the point where Natalia began to take it seriously and thought about her in many situations. She would think Maria could clean the dishes better when she's washing the dishes, etc (p46). It also made me wonder who this mysterious Maria is. However, it turns out that “Quitmen had never known a girl named Maria. Never” (p121).

Which leads to my questions for the class: Do you think think ‘Maria’ represents/symbolizes anything? Is there a reason why Quitmen kept mentioning ‘Maria’?

read full post >>

I was passionately engaged while reading The Time of the Doves, mainly for two reasons. First of all, I really enjoyed the narrative of the novel. I felt like the first-person narration of Natalia made the narrative more credible. Normally, first-person narratives are less credible than a “neutral” third-person view, but since this story was […] read full post >>

This is the first novel that I have a physical copy of and the feeling of holding a book and flipping through the pages was so different compared to scrolling through the pages on a computer, so I was looking forward to reading this novel. This week I chose to read The Time of the […] read full post >>

 While reading the first part of this book, I was often confused and puzzled by the relationship between Quimet and Natalia because Natalia and Quimet didn't seem happy and happy in their life together. Quimet doesn't seem to care much about the heroine's feelings, nor does he know how to respect the heroine. He would call her "Poor Maria," although he never explained to the hesitant Natalia who she was; his unfounded suspicion hurts Natalia; he wants the hostess to quit her favourite bakery job because of his doubts. When I read this part, I was puzzled about why the heroine abandoned her honest fiancé and chose to marry such a new acquaintance and was often angry with Quimet's behaviour. In my opinion, the heroine makes choices too fast.

But then I realized that this might be because of the background of the heroine's era, family background, and the people's attitude. When Natalia needed someone to marry, and everyone around her recommended Quimet, as a beautiful girl who lost her mother and her father remarried, it was difficult to resist the opinions of those around her with a firm attitude. In the process of marriage and relationship, it can be seen that Natalia will also regret and be bewildered by such a choice. She will doubt whether she chooses Quimet is correct and whether this kind of life is what she wants. But even with some hesitation, she had no choice, so she accepted this continuation of life, and as a typical image of a woman at that time, she continued her daily life as her husband's state and mood changed. After the female protagonist gave birth, pigeons entered their lives. The arrival of the pigeons seems to make the atmosphere in the house smooth and lively. Natalia and her husband will name each pigeon, build the loft together, and enjoy the pigeons flying over the roof. At this time, their relationship seems to become warm Peaceful. But it didn't last long.

Natalia's image in the first part is naive and peaceful, similar to the article's tone, without any thrilling big event or central life turning point. The article reads as if watching the heroine's life from the sidelines. Most of the time, the female protagonist's thinking is not as divergent as the protagonists in other stream-of-consciousness novels we have read before. Although the book is narrated in the first person, the overall sense of flow is not very strong, so in the bland plot of the book, It is even more challenging to detect the fluctuation of the heroine's thinking.

However, the peaceful days did not last long. The troubles of living in the second half of the book also follow; the husband's business gradually deteriorates, the problems of raising children are increasing, and Natalia is struggling with a tedious job like a maid. Natalia was getting tired of the pigeons in the house. Compared with the previous article, her mood became hesitant and dazed, and the book showed more Natalia's conscious feelings in this part. And this stream-of-consciousness style of writing became more apparent with the events that followed the start of the war. Natalia seems to let her consciousness begin to flow through her life only when she feels sad and distressed. 

My question for this article is: have you noticed a turning point in Natalia's life that started to change? Did these turning points bring about a change in Natalia's writing style?

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