I quickly realized why José Agualusa’s “The Book of Chameleons” was titled as such: many character’s take on different colours, changing based on their environments. Even the first-person narrator isn’t a chameleon, but a gecko. As stated in the lecture, the Portuguese original title means “The Seller of Pasts,” referencing the albino, Felix Ventura. The […]
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with death, Dreams, lying, memory, psychic
“The only thing about me that doesn’t change is my past: the memory of my human past. The past is usually stable, it’s always there, lovely or terrible, and it will be there forever” (55). This whole book left me thinking a lot about an essay I did in first-year philosophy class, where I wrote […]
I think the style of this novel was quite refreshing because it was different from what we’ve previously read. The short sections (can I even call them chapters?) honestly made it easier to read, I felt like I was going through the novel faster than before because it was like little short anecdotes rather than […]
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with The Book of Chameleons
… I think this is one of those books where I was interested the whole time, but also never fully trusted what I was reading. Which I think was on purpose? The novel felt less like reading a normal novel and more like following someone’s obsession in real time. The narration kept pulling me in … Continue reading salami
There were no chameleons in this book, but there was a talking gecko. The original title in Portuguese is Seller of Pasts, which honestly aligns more directly with what the story is actually about. But “chameleons” works in a deeper, more theoretical way that I think fits the themes of the novel better it’s just […]
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I liked this one! I felt like I read it in mere minutes, it went by so quick. I really felt this book, felt it sweating and sweet as I read it, as our gecko narrator scurries along the wall “like a tick on its host’s skin” and describes how the sun “silenced the birds, […]
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with history, literature, memory, war
The first thing that came to mind when reading this book was a reading I did for a SOCI class by Baudrillard “Simulacra & Simulations: Disneyland”In which Baudrillard argues that in a modern society, we no longer live in reality but we …
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The first thing that came to mind when reading this book was a reading I did for a SOCI class by Baudrillard “Simulacra & Simulations: Disneyland”In which Baudrillard argues that in a modern society, we no longer live in reality but we …
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#JavierCercas #SoldiersofSalamis
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I see before me pieces of the human condition, bound together by the umbrella of a narrative that does not quite make any sense. Names reel in and out of sight, like stars in a black river flowing tear-like across the immensely lonely regions of the wo…
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with fiction, Home, identity, life, literature, memory, reality
