Student Blogs

Reading Nada felt emotionally heavy for me, not because of dramatic events, but because of how much is left unresolved. There is no intense plot pushing the story forward and no clear moment of triumph or closure. Instead, the novel feels like a reflection of real life, where things don’t always get better in obvious […] read full post >>

I'm quite confident in my prediction that the whole class thought of Freud when they opened this book up. The character dynamics undeniably parallel what is spoken about in Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, where famously claims that "while... read full post >>

I'm quite confident in my prediction that the whole class thought of Freud when they opened this book up. The character dynamics undeniably parallel what is spoken about in Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, where famously claims that "while... read full post >>

Reading Nada felt less like reading a novel and more like being dropped into someone else’s extremely tense family group chat, except it’s set in postwar Barcelona and everyone is emotionally unwell in a deeply artistic way. What got me wasn’t the plot (which I’ll spare you), but the feeling of the book: that constant […] read full post >>

ok first impressions I AM SLIGHTLY TRAUMATIZED?? I knew from the recap in class I would be getting into a surprising book and boy did it deliver! Sometimes Freud just keeps finding his way into my peaceful life… The main plot of this book is a son’s attraction to his mother and the overlapping emotions […] read full post >>

I think Nada was an interesting read and surprisingly I actually enjoyed reading it. The book starts off with Andrea arriving in Barcelona with a lot of hope in the middle of the night, which is later than her relatives had expected her to come. However, this hope and the positive feeling about her future […] read full post >>

“But he wasn’t a man” My question: How do you relate to Agostino? How do you not?   -LS read full post >>

When I first finished Nada, my immediate reaction was kind of anticlimactic. After a full year of Andrea’s life in Barcelona, she leaves feeling like she’s taken nothing away from the experience. She didn’t have a crazy transformation, didn’t really take away a clear lesson, and the story ended with no dramatic resolution. Just… nada. […] read full post >>

Song of the week: Mother – John Lennon Ew! That’s what I thought before I had even finished the first page and also what I was thinking while reading the 100 pages that followed. Surprisingly, this book was quite interesting despite all the weirdness. The fact that the main character, Agostino, is only thirteen years […] read full post >>

This time, I would recommend reading Nada when you are already feeling a lil… empty, it goes well with some mellow-ish tunes. This is not a comforting book and I do not think it is meant to be. Laforet does not guide you gently through Andrea’s life, she drops you into it and lets you […] read full post >>

This book really kept me on my toes. Every time I would go to read it I had no idea what was going to happen next but at the same time I did. This was such a weird read and I can’t possibly imagine how the author came up with this story. Maybe he was on drugs. I think Agostino... read full post >>

Even though I am shocked, I feel bad for Agostino too… From the beginning, I could tell the story started to go in a weird direction, especially when I read the depiction of how he feels proud of the attention his mother receives and the envy he imagines from others. And he feel disappointed when […] read full post >>

After reading Agostino, what stayed with me most was how uncomfortable and strange it made me feel, not because anything especially shocking happens, but because Moravia captures that awkward and unsettled feeling of being in between stages of life so well. Also, I do not think the novel gives us a clear “lesson” about growing […] read full post >>

Uncomfortable would be one way to describe how this book made me feel. Right off the bat, the taboo sexual undertones were impossible to ignore. Why do all roads lead to Freud??? The relationship between Agostino and his mother was especially confusing. One moment it felt like maternal concern, and the next I was questioning […] read full post >>

Reading Agostino felt worse than Proust for me. Besides the fact that it is uncomfortable in a way that seems very intentional, it lost my attention at many parts of the book. The way it is written felt repetitive or bland, yet there are some interesting parts in this story. “She wasn’t naked, as he […] read full post >>