Student Blogs

“If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler” by Italo Calvino is definitely a unique novel that I have mixed feelings about. From the very first section of the novel, it was interesting that the story unfolded in a second-person point of view, addressing the reader as “you”. This initially made me more interested in continuing […] read full post >>

First of all, I will start by saying that the writing style of the book was defenitly confusing. Here I thought that this would be a super easy read cause it was only 77ish pages, but I was wrong. Especially at the beginning, I wasn’t really sure what the book was talking about. I had […] read full post >>

“Ah if only I could grab Macabea, give her a good bath, a plate of hot soup, a kiss on the forehead as I tucked her into bed. And cause her to wake up and find simply the great luxury of living.” (50) That was the most interesting introduction I have read so far in […] read full post >>

When I started reading this book, I was lost. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. It really took me a while to understand the mix of dialogue between the author and the story. Even the name Macabea is undefined, written by the author as she is writ... read full post >>

When I started reading this book, I was lost. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. It really took me a while to understand the mix of dialogue between the author and the story. Even the name Macabea is undefined, written by the author as she is writ... read full post >>

I’m confused… I’m always confused but I think I’m genuinely lost this time… I think I enjoyed this one… again, I am confused so I’m not sure… I found the narration really interesting, but a bit hard to follow! I felt like I was sitting beside someone who just kept talking and talking and spiralling … Continue reading ??? star read full post >>

I’m not really sure of what I just read. Is that the point? Maybe. From the very first page, this novel had felt different from anything else I have read in this course. It starts off with a drawn out introduction and I was kind of just thrown off, but also very intrigued? … I […] read full post >>

My first reaction to this book was that the narrator was so wishy-washy. read full post >>

When reading If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, my strongest impression was that I was constantly moving between different universes. The transitions were sudden and unexpected, almost like shifting through dreams. Each time I became fully immersed in a story, it would abruptly stop and another novel would begin. The experience felt like going […] read full post >>

It's my own desire / it's my own remorse / Help me to decide / Help me make the / Most of freedom and of pleasure / Nothing ever lasts forever / Everybody wants to rule the world read full post >>

Now that I have finished this novel, I noticed that it starts with “all the world began with a yes” (3) and the last word is also “yes” (77). Overall, I thought this book was interesting in that the author also seems to be a character himself. He knows his goal for writing is to […] read full post >>

 Wow. This was just sad. Are you kidding me? She gets hit by a car and dies after all of that? C’mon Rodrigo, you could’ve come up with a better than that. Macabea was a poor, naive, invisible girl who literally never complained and didn’t feel th... read full post >>

 Wow. This was just sad. Are you kidding me? She gets hit by a car and dies after all of that? C’mon Rodrigo, you could’ve come up with a better than that. Macabea was a poor, naive, invisible girl who literally never complained and didn’t feel th... read full post >>

Macabéa, ridiculed, bullied, deemed irrelevant. She “wasn’t an idiot but she had the pure happiness of idiots” (60).  She “got up early in order to have more time to do nothing” (26). She “didn’t know what she was just as a dog doesn’t know it’s dog” (19). She was “a hair in the soup [that] […] read full post >>

Reading Hour of the Star kind of made me wish that I, too, was hit by a Mercedes. The narrator’s incessant yapping in the beginning made it really hard for me to get into this book, which is honestly kind of an achievement given how short this story is. And then, when we finally get […] read full post >>