I was not expecting to like Soldiers of Salamis as much as I did but I was pleasantly surprised. In all honesty, I don’t know much about the Spanish Civil War so I enjoyed that this book explained the political/social context of Spain in the 1930s, making it a little easier to understand. At times, I […]
Posted in Blogs, Cercas | Tagged with memory, politics, religion, war
I overall enjoyed the message of this book and what it taught me, and I appreciated that it was a very quick read. As I often do, I loved the descriptions in this novel, particularly on p. 87, the little red fruits that “when they hit their target they’d disintegrate…staining the victim’s clothes with what […]
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with identity, past, power
I think this is the first book that I’ve read where I genuinely I have no idea what happened. It’s like when you’re reading and you zone out and then you’re like ‘what did I just read?’ and you go back to read it again. That was me but with the entire book. Halfway through the book I was like…
I know you’re all wondering — if I could reinvent my life from the start, would I? Well, I think I quite like my life the way that it is. But would I also like to try my luck at living the nepo baby dream? Yeah, I think I would. The Book of Chameleons by […]
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with book-reviews
Maybe I’m learning to enjoy reading these types of book more, but I feel I’m enjoying each new book more than the last. I wasn’t considering this to be a particularly emotional book so I was kinda shocked when I burst into tears reading that Eulalio had passed. I think in many of the books […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Delusion, friendship, Scorpions are assholes, The Book of Chameleons
I’ll begin by saying that I really enjoyed this novel, mainly because I see a lot of parallels between The Book of Chameleons and the hit Netflix series Better Call Saul, and I honestly think that Agualusa inspired some of the core ideas behind Vince Gillighan’s work (the producer of Better Call Saul). I’m a […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with bible, christianity, Faith, God, jesus
I read this week’s book before watching the lecture video and I had the strongest feeling that the drinks pairing was going to be coffee. If I had actually paired the drink it may have helped me enjoy it more and stay awake while reading it lol. Although pretty readable I found this book to […]
Posted in Blogs, Cercas | Tagged with Soldiers of Salamis
I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever read a book that made me feel this disoriented but also weirdly impressed at the same time. Like I started this thinking it would be a normal story and then suddenly I’m being narrated to by a gecko and no one is acting like that’s unusual. I had to […]
The fact that the title of this very book is “Book of Chameleons”, should send red flags all over, after all this is, in fact, not a book about chameleons. Chameleons are the symbol of masking, of a facade, I mean that’s how they survive in nature. It’s quite on brand that there are no […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with animals, fiction, identity, memory
One thing that stood out to me most when reading The Book of Chameleons was the idea of identity and how it is seen as something malleable. In the book, identities can be changed, created, or invented from nothing. Félix Ventura’s job is literally creating new identities for his clients. In this way, the book […]
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with identity, memory, storytelling
