I really really enjoyed this reading. I think it’s my favourite so far. I loved how much information was packed into the 60 pages, and how much we learned about the shrouded woman, Ana Maria’s life. The more I read, the more I realized it wasn’t just about the life of Ana Maria but was […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Ana Maria, death, family, Hacienda, love, Maria Griselda, Shrouded Woman, Zoila
I really enjoyed this book and I wish I had more time to spend reading and enjoying it. I found there to be a lot of different dimensions within it, such as the relationships and dynamics between the girls and the other characters, the opposing classes, the use of language and education, the violence, the […]
Posted in Blogs, Ferrante | Tagged with childhood, class, death, education, family, memory, modernism, violence
Wow, lots to unpack with this one. This book was a rollercoaster, not unlike many of the books we’ve read in this course. Again, the narrator takes us through the messy pathways of her mind as she recounts memories, some good and some bad. In this case, most are decidedly bad. Auxilio’s experience of the […]
Posted in Blogs, Bolaño | Tagged with death, Imagination, memory, Mexico, sadness
This novel was interesting. I especially liked the conviction and control the narrator uses at the beginning. Letting us know she is in charge of telling the story. The opening lines of the text are so thought-provoking, as they preface the story as being of horror but refusing to tell it as such a story. […]
Posted in Blogs, Bolaño | Tagged with comfort, contemplation, control, conviction, death, horror, memory, Romance text, stress, Weekly Response
For this weeks book, I read The Old Gringo, by Carlos Fuentes. To be honest with you, I found this book to be a little bit confusing, but for a few different reasons. At the beginning of my reading, I found the old gringo’s motivation to be a bit strange; he has come to Mexico […]
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with Conflict, death, life, Mexico, reflection, relationships, repetition, revolution, the old gringo, Weekly Book Blog
I found “The Old Gringo” by Carlos Fuentes to be about what I was expecting; a somewhat turbulent novel that is set around war. It was a bit confusing to read as the perspective seemed to change frequently, but how the chapters were broken into smaller parts helped organize the text a little more. Throughout … Continue reading Week 9: Fuentes’s “The Old Gringo” →
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with death, life, memory, Poetry, relationships, repetition, Romance Studies, war, Weekly Posts
I’m not sure if it was just the version of the novel that I had, but certain parts of the story resembled poetry to me. Not only with how it was written, but how it was visually represented on the pages. With some sentences cutting short and then finishing them in subsequent lines that have […]
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with Civil war, death, death wish, existential, Poetry, relationships, Romance text, unknown, war, Weekly Response
This week’s reading on Carlos Fuentes’ The Old Gringo wasn’t at all what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be almost something similar to an autobiography like last week’s read of W, or Memory of Childhood. Although, I was much happier reading something that wasn’t an autobiography. I found this story really …
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with death, love, memory, reflection, repetition
Throughout the readings in this course, we have been repeatedly exposed to storylines set during periods of conflict and civil war. This novel is no exception as it occurs during the Mexican civil war. On the theme of war, we often see the accompanying theme of hopelessness. We learn early in the novel that the […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with death, love, tragedy, triangle, war
The Old Gringo was a book that caught my eye at the beginning of choosing our texts because it was somewhat a romance. I did not expect this book to be all about love, but more themes of war and violence in the story. The Old Gringo was an engaging text about a man known as “Old Gringo” who came to Mexico to die. At the beginning of the novel, there was repetition with the words, the old gringo has come to Mexico to die. I believe that this repetition forces the reader to know what the gringo’s intentions were at the start, to see later that at the end, he has somewhat found a purpose to live. The Old Gringo travels to Mexico, meets Arroyo, and asks him to join his army. After proving himself, Arroyo lets him join, and he meets a lady called Harriet. He quickly falls for her, despite not wanting to but lets himself anyways. Harriet feels like she must protect the old man, so she joins the army to assist onside. The Old Gringo gets into a fight with Arroyo, and Arroyo betrays him by forcing Harriet into a sexual relationship with him, or else he will kill the old man. This tricky love triangle arises in the novel because of conflict. Harriet agrees to this because she wants to protect the old man. Later the old man is found out to be the American author, and Arroyo and him get violent. The Old Gringo dies, and his American support allows a proper burial and charges against Arroyo. This wicked love story filled with violence, repetition, and memories brought me many feelings towards feeling sad for The Old Gringo because he was honouring his morals, and for Harriet because it is unclear whether she genuinely desired Arroyo. I feel hatred towards Arroyo; however, in the end, I feel somewhat bad for him because of the new life he will have to bear, and because he could have killed the old man for his misguided actions before but let him live, however in a painful way. One thing that still remains unclear for me is the repetition of “Now she sits alone and remembers.” I am confused as to who this is referring to. Whether it’s Harriet because the novel is in her point of view, or if it’s an outside character? My question is, what do you guys think the meaning is of the repetition of “Now she sits alone and remembers” is, and who maybe is the one remembering?
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with betrayal, death, lies, love, protection, romance, survival
