Hey everyone! First of all, I literally cant believe we’re almost done and this is our last book. In a way it feels like it has been so long and challenging but the fact we have read SO MANY BOOKS in such a short time is crazy to me. Personally, I had to really dedicate […]
‘My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante was by far my favourite book of the semester. Why? Because it was well written, intense, and most of all, relatable. The story follows two girls from childhood through adolescence, Elena and Lila, who are two unlikely friends that have an intense, competitive, and tough friendship due to their […]
The story of My Brilliant Friend revolves around the friendship of Elena and Lila, while also touching on the themes of gender, poverty, and class. Elena, the narrator of this book, is a studious girl who excels in school. She is a typical “good” girl who follows expectations and does what she is told. On […]
Elena Ferrante checks your mailbox, I’m sending you a check for emotional damages. Holy fuck I loved this book. This genuinely might be one of my favourite books I’ve read this semester, and maybe on of my favourites books in a while. It’s in this novel’s simplicity is where I found the most connection to […]
Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli depicts a woman living in Mexico City with her husband and children, writing a novel about a woman living in New York City. It is not clear whether this story is the past life of the writer, or if these memories are just fictitious creations. Just like the […]
LAST BOOK LETS GOOOO!!!! This has been a wild ride. I’d like to thank my classmates, teachers, and TAs for their hard work and for reading so many blogposts and also to us for reading the books and for writing all the blog posts. Good job all. We made it. Also this class significantly contributed […]
This one reminded me of my best friend Rachel. (warning: this is a trauma dump) In “My Brilliant Friend”‘, Ferrante illustrates class, gender and language through the friendship of two little girls as we progress to see them turn into adolescent women. Since Jon had already discussed the societal problems in this book, I would …
Djaïli Amadou Amal, The Impatient
Valeria Luiselli, Faces in the Crowd
I was very excited to read “Death with Interruptions” since I thought the idea of imagining a world without death was so fascinating. This book is obviously fictionalized, but many aspects of it feel very realistic. Death is such a complex idea that is imagined very differently across various individuals, cultures, and religions. For myself […]
