Student Blogs

This one reminded me of my best friend Rachel. (warning: this is a trauma dump) In “My Brilliant Friend”‘, Ferrante illustrates class, gender and language through the friendship of two little girls as we progress to see them turn into adolescent women. Since Jon had already discussed the societal problems in this book, I would … read full post >>

Hello everyone, welcome to the last book week of my blog. The book in question is My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Interestingly, Elena Ferrante is merely a pseudonym as the author’s true identity is unknown. The real author is said to have grown up in Naples, and the intimate portrayal of the city in […] read full post >>

With this being the last week of reading for this course, I’ve read 11 books throughout this which greatly surprised me since I am not an avid reader in any way and still the books here some I found fairly interesting.  Back to this week’s reading, Valeria Luiselli’s novel “Faces in the Crowd” offers an […] read full post >>

Hello everyone. Welcome to the last book of this class. This week’s book was Faces in the Crowd, by Valeria Luiselli. This was, without a doubt, the most difficult book I read in this course. I honestly did not like it so much, but I got through it. In Mexico City, an unnamed narrator, stifled […] read full post >>

To be honest, I found this novel really confusing. I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t like it either. So please excuse me if I am not as insightful as I would want to be.  In Mexico City, a lady contemplates her history while in a house and a marriage she cannot truly occupy or […] read full post >>

Faces in the Crowd has been one the most confusing novels I have read in a while. The novel finely blurs reality from fiction, making it even more complex for me to understand. The novel follows the story of a lady ( unnamed but I assume that it is the author herself ) and her […] read full post >>

Here we are, (technically) my last blog post EVER for RMST 202. I know we still have our conclusion blog posts to write, but this is the last blog post on the last book of the course. Now, THAT is a milestone to celebrate, but it’s very bittersweet. I feel like I say this every […] read full post >>

For my final reading this semester, I read “Faces in the Crowd” by Valeria Luiselli. As I am sure many of us can relate, this book was quite confusing and to some extent hard to follow along. I did not seem to get into the book like I hoped to and found myself putting it […] read full post >>

‘Faces in the Crowd’ by Valeria Luiselli is a strange novel about a young Mexican woman living in New York who becomes obsessed with the Mexican poet Gilberto Owen’s life. This novel is something very different than what I have read before. To be honest, I did not like this novel because it was a […] read full post >>

“I know I need to generate a structure full of holes so that I can always find a place for myself on the page, inhabit it; I have to remember never to put in more than is necessary, never overlay, never furnish or adorn.” (Luiselli, 10) Describing a book that profoundly impacts you can feel […] read full post >>

There are only so many books I can read with horrible male characters. This book was frustrating to read. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante was really not my cup of tea, but I did like it just a little bit. First, the “friendship” between Lila and Elena was so toxic. The first 30% of […] read full post >>

“Faces in the Crowd” was undoubtedly one of the most challenging books I have ever read in this class. This novel requires immense attention and sophistication as the narrator constantly switches back and forth from the perspective of the narrator to Gilberto Owen, a Mexican poet who is featured mostly in the latter half of […] read full post >>

The final book that I have read for this class, “Faces in the Crowd”, was one of the most confusing books I have read. Although I found it much easier to read because the writing incorporated more modern words, I finished the book not really grasping the whole concept. There were many different themes of […] read full post >>

This book gave me the biggest headache ever, but in a good way. I think. Multiple times throughout the book I thought to myself, either I’m an idiot or the author was on crack when she wrote this. It genuinely felt like I read 10 books in one sitting. The first half of this book […] read full post >>

Valeria Luisell’s novel, “Faces in the Crowd,” was intricately written from the perspective of two different narrators originating from different cities and periods. The author didn’t introduce nor warn the readers of the back-and-fourth narration occurring throughout the story, so I was very confused about the events transpiring until more than halfway through the book. […] read full post >>