Question:
What are your thoughts on The Trenchcoat’s ending being open-ended? Also, what are your thoughts on the actual trenchcoat, what do you think the reality is, and what does it represent?
-LS
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with anxiety, Mistrust, oppression, surveillance
After reading the Trenchcoat, I feel quite confused. I feel like the other books I’ve read for this course have been easier to follow, with plots and settings, as well as distinct characters. In this novel, there are so many characters that I cannot keep track of who is speaking, or their names. The Learned […]
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with politics, Symbolism, Uncategorized, writing
I’m not sure how to feel about this book, or is it even a book? Maybe this work is better classified as a short story. Regardless, the fast, fleeting nature of this piece helped capture the sentiments of the members of the working class, the “proletariats,” during the unfortunate times of war. The start […]
“The Trenchcoat” by Norman Manea was another piece of literature that left me confused. From the very beginning, I felt overwhelmed by the number of characters appearing one after another, whilst also trying to understand what was going on. On top of the fact that there were multiple characters, there were also characters that appeared […]
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with trenchcoat, Uncategorized
I felt too dumb for this book, like I completely and entirely missed the point, confused and certain I was missing something, that I should be able to wade through the language and symbols to find the underlying meaning much better than I was actually able to. The use of names in this book confused […]
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with ambiguity, confusion, political climate, repetition
The Trenchcoat by Norman Manea is probably my favourite reading of the course so far. One reason I liked it was that I was finally able to read a story in one sitting. Lately a lot of the readings have felt extra long so it was nice to sit down and finish a story from […]
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with paranoia, Uncategorized, uncertainty
Honestly… I’m still not entirely sure of what I just read. I’m so lost. The story felt chaotic and overwhelming, but also fascinating. The narration seems to jump around between various voices, descriptions, and conversations so quickly, making it a little hard to follow. But! Like lots of other stories I’ve read in this course, […]
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with names, Uncategorized, uncertainty
This short story left me very confused and disoriented, with not much to grasp onto and characters also losing it, like Ioana gesturing towards hidden conspiracies and death that had existed So it was relieving to know that the confusion and paranoia and gradual descent into madness is a feature, not a bug, of the […]
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with Authoritarianism, identity, language, politics, representation
The Trenchcoat by Norman Manea was a book which had importance and meaning, hidden by the disguise of normalcy. At first read, the book depicts the drama and relationships of many characters, and displays their conversations over dinner parties, and in the privacy of their homes. It is only in the small details where one […]
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with censorship, class, communism, history, life, politics, revolution, Symbolism, war
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
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with Commies, intelligence agents watching u, JFK, paranoia, Pizzagate, Qanon
