“As in a game of chess, death advanced her queen. A few more moves should open the way to a checkmate, and the game will end.” (186) Is the wish for immortality a blessing or a curse? That answer seems simple. What begins as a celebration devolves into the unknown. Humanity’s fear of death is […]
This week’s book was Death with Interruptions by José Saramago and it really got me thinking about the topic of death, thinking about mortality in a whole new way. The story describes what would happen if people simply stopped dying, something that seems like it would be celebrated at first. But Saramago shows how the […]
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 […]
Jose Eduardo Agualusa’s novel, “The Book of Chameleons,” is an imaginative novel that explores the themes of identity and memory through the lens of a gecko living in the house of Felix Ventura. The gecko undergoes life with feelings and thoughts adjacent to those of humans, capable of processing human behaviours and interactions. This made […]
“Death with Interruptions” has to be the most complicated novel that I have read so far in this course, not because of its content, but its exploration of death. Apart from philosophical works by Kant, Plato, and Aristotle, I have rarely come across novels that centre on philosophical matters, so it took me quite a […]
This week’s novel is very different than any other novel as I never imagined that I would read a novel encircling the chronicles of ‘death.’ ‘Death with Interruptions’ is a novel about the first day of the new year when no one dies. Nobody in this world wants to die. so wouldn’t it be great […]
Jose Saramago, Death with Interruptions
Hey everyone! I am super excited to discuss this week’s reading because it is a CRIME STORYYY!! I personally love crime or murder mystery stories; the whole element of mystery and suspense is so engaging for me so this was definitely a great read. I think there is SO MUCH to talk about when it […]
Among all the novels that I have read so far, “Money to Burn” is definitely unique in the sense that its narrative style is not constrained to one single genre. Though I know that the novel is based on a true event that happened in Argentina, I find the constant switching of narration interesting; I […]
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 […]
