Student Blogs

I am grateful for the fact that as we read these books throughout the year, the time each is written in is getting more and more modern, and thus I feel like the language used is almost easier for me to understand as well. However what strikes me is the material of much of the … Continue reading Thoughts on The Lover read full post >>

Join us as we dive into the deep and seedy world of the tumultuous Bucharest. My question is, what was your experience of confusion and disorientation reading the book? how do you think it added or subtracted to the story read full post >>

This week’s reading was The Trench Coat. The book takes place in Romania under the communist regime and to be frank, I did not enjoy reading it. I was on the treadmill while reading the beginning section and what I captured was the copious amounts of drinking such as whisky and vodka, which coincidentally, is […] read full post >>

“very early in my life it was too late”. I feel like that quote in itself really encapsulates the tone of the book very well- the moodiness of the book, to the writing style being a sort of recollections of instances in her life past but sort of looking at it sometimes as if from […] read full post >>

When talking about illicit relationships that make all of us uncomfortable in some way or the other this class ate and left no crumbs, so did this book honestly. But this was definitely an interesting read, I also think it might be the best one so far. Duras’s story goes well beyond a straightforward romance […] read full post >>

I didn’t connect with this book as much as others in the past just because of its writing style. Since the start, I was very confused and felt like I did not understand something, so it took more time for me to get hooked and stay engaged. As I read about the Romanian cold war […] read full post >>

This book was really cool but also very bizarre and certainly very thought provoking. It was very hard to read and really made me constantly confused, though I still enjoyed it in the end. The author isn’t the best, and the writing style was often hard... read full post >>

This book was really cool but also very bizarre and certainly very thought provoking. It was very hard to read and really made me constantly confused, though I still enjoyed it in the end. The author isn’t the best, and the writing style was often hard... read full post >>

I want to start by saying this book surprised me in that the relationship with the older man was so readily accepted. The narrator explains the story as if the natural hierarchy is dismantled, which would be nice in theory but I believe she is deluded in her train of thought. In the lecture, it […] read full post >>

Hey everyone! This week we’re going to be discussing “The Trenchcoat” by Norman Manea and let me just say personally I really liked the novella/short story. I liked the allegory and mystery of it all sort of like a murder mystery dinner party (my favourite plot line) but with no murder? It was interesting that […] read full post >>

“Short, savory,… a brief but exquisite pleasure.” (202) This book felt just like this quote. However, I feel like there’s a lot in this book that went over my head. For the first half, I was just trying to keep up with who was married to who and who all these random mysterious characters were […] read full post >>

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend! This week, we read “The Trenchcoat” by Norman Manea. Personally, I found this to be a very interesting story. The author did a fantastic job delving into profound themes in a unique and unconventional way. I also enjoyed watching this week’s lecture. It was really […] read full post >>

Hello, I’m back at it yet again to talk a bit about this week’s book: The Trenchcoat by Norman Manea. On the whole, I found the book kind of confusing to read. The start feels like it throws us into the story very quickly, and we are left to try and figure it out on […] read full post >>

I am just going to go ahead and preemptively apologize because I know you are probably tired of reading this when it comes to blogs about The Trenchcoat by Norman Manea, but I’m confused. I wish I wasn’t, but I am; along with a little dissatisfied. This book had me almost as scrambled as the […] read full post >>

I'm at a bit of a loss on what to write about this week. I didn't particularly enjoy this novel very much, if I'm being honest it's probably one of my least favourite reads of the term so far. I found it a bit confusing, I didn't really get the point b... read full post >>