The thing about this novel that really fascinated me is how a story can revolve around something as simple as a trenchoat in midst of the Romanian World War II. The story focuses less on the war (compared to) but works with monotony, boredom, repetition and habit. “The Trenchcoat,” becomes more than just an article of […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with books, fiction, norman manea, reviews, romanian world war 2, The Trenchcoat, writing
By far the shortest and most uncomfortable read at this point in the semester, The Lover by Marguerite Duras is a novel about the clandestine relationship between a 27-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl. The prose in this book is beautifully written, as an autobiography with Duras recalling her time in Saigon. She captures the […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with "whore", age-gaps, book review, book-reviews, books, colonialsation, complicated-family-relationships, family, fashion, fiction, France, gross, icky, love, Marguerite Duras, reading, Vietnam
I did not expect going into this novel, for it to be an interactive book, involving us as readers in the story. Also going into the book, I didn’t know what role we would play in the story as the writer of the book would continuously tell us what kind of reader we should be, […]
Posted in Blogs, Calvino | Tagged with books, fiction, if-on-a-winter's-night-a-traveler, Italo Calvino, reading
Having completed the reading of Rodoreda’s novel The Time of the Doves, I found myself deeply moved by the narrative, particularly as it is told through the lens of Natalia’s experiences in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War who undergoes hardships not only as a result of the turmoil of the war but also a […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with book review, book-reviews, fiction, true-crime, writing
The Time of Doves by Mercè Rodoreda is set in Barcelona during the time of war. The story covers all aspects of war from deaths to the family of the soldiers left behind. The protagonist of the story Natalia is shown to be a people pleaser who breaks up with her fiance to marry a […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with book review, domestication, fiction, italian-literature, Italy, literature, merce Rodoreda, Spanish Civil War, the time of doves
Hello everyone! Hopefully, you all had a great reading week and enjoyed reading The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda. This novel is a story full of emotion and hurt detailing the protagonist Natalia’s life through the Spanish civil war. The novel is written in a way that folds the emotion into the words […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with book review, book-reviews, books, children, coping, death, doves, emotion, fiction, Historical Fiction, merce Rodoreda, sadness, Suffering, Time of the Doves
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
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
This book for me was the best one yet. I swear being able to fully understand what I am reading makes it all the more enjoyable. In the lecture the professor talked about the power of fiction. I found it interesting that although this is obviously a work of fiction, it never felt as though […]
Posted in Blogs, Bombal | Tagged with class, family, fiction, gender, love, modernism, Realism
What may come across as a mysterious book, told from the perspective of a ghost, is a beautiful exploration of a woman’s life and her relationships told in a very interesting way. The Shrouded Woman by Maria-Luisa Bombal is a modernist text that seeks to push the boundaries of what a novel is and who […]
Posted in Blogs, Bombal | Tagged with book review, book-reviews, books, death, Family-Drama, fiction, ghost, love, relationships, romance
