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RMST 202 Literatures and Cultures of the Romance World II: Modern to Post-Modern
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book review

The Challenges of Motherhood and War – “The Time of the Doves” by Rodoreda

To begin, the novel “The Time of the Doves” by Merce Rodoreda was a roller coaster of emotions as it had immense imagery and thought-provoking concepts. The novel is quite dark and heart-wrenching as there are very few happy moments and quite a lot of sad and hard ones. Throughout the semester we have read […]

Posted in Blogs | Tagged with #hardship, #read, blog post, book review, europe, novel, romance

The Harsh Realities of the Early Twentieth Century – Black Shake Alley

For this week’s reading, I read the novel “Black Shack Alley ” by Joseph Zobel. Before choosing this novel, I read a preface on it which deeply caught my attention and interest. I enjoy reading novels about real-life events/ history which is what this story entailed. The novel truly lived up to its expectations making […]

Posted in Blogs | Tagged with #oppresion, blog post, book review, europe, novel, reading, romance

Innocence Lost , Realities Found by Alberto Moravia

This book started off with a seemingly idyllic scene, as a young boy enjoys a carefree vacation with his mother on a sunny beach. Initially, their relationship appears wholesome and healthy. However, I noticed a few chapters later, this wasn’t really the case. Throughout the book, I didn’t how I felt towards the narrator, sometimes […]

Posted in Blogs | Tagged with book review, book-reviews, books, parenting, writing

GIVE ME AN APEROL SPRITZ AND SEND ME TO AN ITALIAN SEASIDE RESORT TO HAVE A VACATION ROMANCE PLEASEE (hopefully I don’t have any developing and highly impressionable children with me :P)

Hey everyone, I hope you are all doing well this week! I have just finished reading “Agostino” by Alberto Moravia, and it was different. Compared to some of the other lengthier novels we’ve read it was for sure easier to follow and had a pretty simple storyline. Regardless, there was an in-depth story with a […]

Posted in Blogs, Moravia | Tagged with book review, book-reviews, books, desire, family, fidelity, history, Italy, life, narrative, perspective, sexuality, story, Travel, youth

What it Means to Have Nada

Nada, or Nothing when translated from Spanish, is a heart-wrenching, dramatic novel by Carmen Laforet that details a family’s life in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Laforet details the class divide, what it means to go hungry, and different kinds of love. We follow Andrea, a student, navigating her strange family and different […]

Posted in Blogs | Tagged with book review, book-reviews, books, Carmen laforet, family, fiction, Haunted-Houses?, Hunger, love, madness, nada, Spain

The Case of a Dysfunctional Family – Nada by Carmen Leforet

For this week’s reading, I read the novel “Nada” by Carmen Leforet. I would like to start by saying, wow what a journey this book was to read. This book was dark and far from being light-hearted as it focused on gut-wrenching issues that families faced after the Spanish Civil War such as domestic struggles, […]

Posted in Blogs | Tagged with blog post, book review, europe, love, nada, novel, reading, romance

Agostino by Alberto Moravia

Agostino by Alberto Moravia is not the usual coming-of-age novel. The story revolves around the adolescence of a 13-year-old Agostino in the midst of puberty. The novel revolves around sexuality and emotions that the boy faces and how he tackles this uneasiness. Agostino is a mama’s boy and loves her however when a prospective suitor […]

Posted in Blogs | Tagged with adoloscence, Alberto Moravia, book review, book-reviews, books, coming of age, Italy, reviews, sexual frustration

Week 4 – Navigating Life and Death with Ana Maria

Overall, I think this is my favourite read so far. The title “The Shrouded Woman” alone was both interesting and captivating. It almost added an air of mystery to the narrative. I found that it had more of the structure that I was familiar with, similar to the standard structure that I have seen before […]

Posted in Blogs | Tagged with book review, book-reviews, books, fiction, romance

Ana Maria – A Glimpse of her Life

To begin, “The Shrouded Women” by Bombal has been my favourite novel thus far in the course. Although it might be too early to claim a favourite (it is only the third novel I have read), I think this is going to be a hard one to compete with. The reason I say this is […]

Posted in Blogs | Tagged with #romantic, blog post, book review, love, novel, reading, romance

The Shrouded Woman by Maria Luisa Bombal

The Shrouded Woman by Maria Luisa Bombal focuses on the life story of Anne Marie who is actually on her deathbed. Anne Marie is quite literally a femme fatale as the story starts with her being dead and at the time narrates her story along with the story of people paying their regards to her. […]

Posted in Blogs | Tagged with book review, literature, María Luisa Bombal

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