Student Blogs

This was such an interesting story, including the writing style. Sentence after sentence was started with ‘and’ even when the sentences use it as a conjunction: “And I stuck up for Quimet’s mother and said yes, she had put salt in the food. And the neighbour said if she ate food that was too salty…” […] read full post >>

Quimet couldn’t have died fast enough. What an absolutely despicable good for nothing worthless man! While this novel was an easy read on the brain and for my understanding, it was also difficult to read because it was akin to watching a trainwreck in slow motion. I could tell where their relationship was going, and […] read full post >>

First off, I was so drawn in as Rodoreda’s style focused on the day to day working life and how it became shattered. Natalia’s focus on getting through each day in poverty and starvation really stood out to me as we could understand what exactly she had lost since the war. Her husband, her stability, … read full post >>

In most ways, the novel contained important commentary on life during a war and the daily struggles that slowly weigh you down, but in others, it felt like I wasn’t taking the right things away from it. For the first part of this book, I almost felt that I was missing something. Her sentence structure […] read full post >>

The Time of the Doves, reading about war here felt different in comparison to what I expected or usually read. Instead of focusing on the big picture like the battle scenes or larger consequences of the war, it focuses on the tiny details of everyday life that people usually seem to skip past –  loss, […] read full post >>

I’m seeing a pattern here with all these novels, the protaganists are just surviving every single god damn time and it’s always so emotionally heavy. The Time of the Doves left me feeling that emotional heaviness. Not because it was confusing or structurally difficult, but because of how quietly devastating it is. Everything happens slowly, […] read full post >>

I really didn't like Quimet lol. He did not make a good impression on me. I sensed that he was bad news from the get-go, and poor Natalia ended up being swept off her feet by him. It hurt my soul. The nickname was cute at first, but it became annoying ... read full post >>

I really didn't like Quimet lol. He did not make a good impression on me. I sensed that he was bad news from the get-go, and poor Natalia ended up being swept off her feet by him. It hurt my soul. The nickname was cute at first, but it became annoying ... read full post >>

Reading this book was a pain. Natalia’s stream of consciousness was worse than Proust- I think I enjoyed proust better. I swear there was like 20 pages of her just describing the bourgeois family’s house. I know the tiny details contribute to the setting and placing the reader, but the book was the slowest 200 […] read full post >>

 Hello all, and welcome back to the cottage.First of all, I hope all of you had a restful reading break, and enjoyed reading The Time of the Doves. As per usual, I find myself sitting down to write a little before making it to the end of the novel... read full post >>

 Hello all, and welcome back to the cottage.First of all, I hope all of you had a restful reading break, and enjoyed reading The Time of the Doves. As per usual, I find myself sitting down to write a little before making it to the end of the novel... read full post >>

I really loved this read. read full post >>

I actually really liked The Time of the Doves, and it has probably been the easiest book for me to read so far. Not because it is light, because it definitely is not, but because the writing flows so naturally. It feels like someone is sitting across from you telling you their life story in […] read full post >>

War and poverty has sucked the life out of these people. Even Cintet “…said how sad he was that peaceful, happy people like us had gotten mixed up in a piece of history like that” (pg. 63). Even as Natalia goes about her life without the passionate revolutionary feelings that Quimet possesses, war impacts her […] read full post >>

I enjoyed reading The Times of the Dove and it felt super easy to read. Typically the literature we have read in this course so far seems difficult to an extent where it might be hard to understand what you are reading or what is going on. However, I did not feel that way with […] read full post >>