For the final week, I chose to read The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by José Eduardo Agualusa. I can’t believe this is my final blog post. It was a good novel to end off the term with. It was an enjoyable read, but at times I caught myself questioning what was real, imagined and what was being dreamed. It was interesting to see how dreams were illustrated in the sense of dreaming while asleep or daydreaming or having inspiring dreams about the future.
As the title suggests, this book is about dreams and dreamers. Set in Angola, with the hope that the younger generation can bring in a better future after the country’s brutal past. The protagonist, Daniel Benchimol, is an Angolan journalist who has just gone through a divorce and is struggling to make sense of his place in changing society while dealing with his daughter’s imprisonment as the result of protesting. I liked how Daniel was not always the centre of the novel, and we got to see each character grow and see what their dreams were about. There was a similarity with everyone’s dreams. They all dreamed about change or progression. For example, Daniel’s daughter acts out her dream for a better Angola. Their hope and strength came from their dreams. Their dreams were different from each other, but they were all a way of escaping reality and how they were forced to experience the changing times. Moira desires to dream her art to life. While Daniel’s desire is to make sense of Hossi’s dreamlessness.
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with dreaming, Dreams, politics
For the final week, I chose to read The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by José Eduardo Agualusa. I can’t believe this is my final blog post. It was a good novel to end off the term with. It was an enjoyable read, but at times I caught myself questioning what was real, imagined and what was being dreamed. It was interesting to see how dreams were illustrated in the sense of dreaming while asleep or daydreaming or having inspiring dreams about the future.
As the title suggests, this book is about dreams and dreamers. Set in Angola, with the hope that the younger generation can bring in a better future after the country’s brutal past. The protagonist, Daniel Benchimol, is an Angolan journalist who has just gone through a divorce and is struggling to make sense of his place in changing society while dealing with his daughter’s imprisonment as the result of protesting. I liked how Daniel was not always the centre of the novel, and we got to see each character grow and see what their dreams were about. There was a similarity with everyone’s dreams. They all dreamed about change or progression. For example, Daniel’s daughter acts out her dream for a better Angola. Their hope and strength came from their dreams. Their dreams were different from each other, but they were all a way of escaping reality and how they were forced to experience the changing times. Moira desires to dream her art to life. While Daniel’s desire is to make sense of Hossi’s dreamlessness.
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with dreaming, Dreams, politics
“The Society of Reluctant Dreamers” was an interesting one! There were a lot of aspects to this book surrounding the past/future, dreams, love, and politics. Personally I appreciated the letters being included in the pages because it made it feel very personable and you got to see how Moira and Daniel’s relationship formed. “To […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Dreams, politics, the society of reluctant dreamers
At first glance, the title of this novel caught my attention. I really wanted to leave off this semester on a more positive note – and thought that any novel to do with dreams must do so! This was actually one of my favorite books we have read this semester. I enjoyed every single page […]
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with dream, memory, politics
I liked this book, the intertwining storylines of politics, romance, and dreams made it an interesting read. While the dreaming and romantic narratives provided interesting psychological thought and emotional elements, the commentary on the political tension was my favorite element of this book. I enjoyed that the dream narrative was not imposed upon by Freud’s […]
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with Dreams, dreamworld, memory, politics, time, week 12
This novel confused me from the moment I read its title. Mainly because I couldn’t see the link between Dictatorship-era Spain and the actual Battle of Salamis. I still can’t, to be honest. The Battle of Salamis was a naval battle between the Persians and the Greeks like 2500 years ago. When I look it up to try and find an answer to my question, all I get is that it’s a “metaphorical allusion”. If anyone has any ideas as to why the title of the novel is what it is, please let me know.
Otherwise, I really enjoy the blend of fact and fiction, though I often have to remind myself that it isn’t meant to be taken literally; kind of like when I watch a biopic and then find out later that lots of the movie was just dramatised and doesn’t actually reflect reality. I find the unreliable narrator more likeable in this novel than others we have read with unreliable narrators (such as W, Or The Memory Of Childhood). Maybe because the narrative voice feels stronger here, I’m not sure. Either way, the process of reading this book felt like I was actively trying to suss out the reality from the fabricated, which made me feel like a more active participant in the telling of the story.
I found some of the political takes to be quite interesting. A line that piqued my interest was ‘I don’t know what you think, sir, but to me a civilised country is one where people don’t have to waste their time on politics.’ (p21 of my pdf). This line made me think about the scope of politics and what exactly it means. My guess is that Aguirre (the guy who said the line) was talking more about political parties and who is in government, to which I don’t entirely disagree. But politics isn’t just that, it permeates every level of our society. I guess the statement also depends on who we are counting as “people”. If “people” means everyone who has historically been able to turn a blind eye to the reality of the politics around them in society, that is leaving out a huge chunk of the population. I don’t know, truthfully my thoughts on this sentence are still a little half-baked and I need to think through all of the possible scenarios and combinations before I can claim to understand my own opinion and where I stand.
With all that said, my question to you is: do you think a civilised country is one where people don’t waste their time with politics? Do you agree with Aguirre?
Bonus question: do you know why the title is Soldiers of Salamis?
Posted in Blogs, Cercas | Tagged with politics, Soldiers of Salamis, unreliable narrator
This novel confused me from the moment I read its title. Mainly because I couldn’t see the link between Dictatorship-era Spain and the actual Battle of Salamis. I still can’t, to be honest. The Battle of Salamis was a naval battle between the Persians and the Greeks like 2500 years ago. When I look it up to try and find an answer to my question, all I get is that it’s a “metaphorical allusion”. If anyone has any ideas as to why the title of the novel is what it is, please let me know.
Otherwise, I really enjoy the blend of fact and fiction, though I often have to remind myself that it isn’t meant to be taken literally; kind of like when I watch a biopic and then find out later that lots of the movie was just dramatised and doesn’t actually reflect reality. I find the unreliable narrator more likeable in this novel than others we have read with unreliable narrators (such as W, Or The Memory Of Childhood). Maybe because the narrative voice feels stronger here, I’m not sure. Either way, the process of reading this book felt like I was actively trying to suss out the reality from the fabricated, which made me feel like a more active participant in the telling of the story.
I found some of the political takes to be quite interesting. A line that piqued my interest was ‘I don’t know what you think, sir, but to me a civilised country is one where people don’t have to waste their time on politics.’ (p21 of my pdf). This line made me think about the scope of politics and what exactly it means. My guess is that Aguirre (the guy who said the line) was talking more about political parties and who is in government, to which I don’t entirely disagree. But politics isn’t just that, it permeates every level of our society. I guess the statement also depends on who we are counting as “people”. If “people” means everyone who has historically been able to turn a blind eye to the reality of the politics around them in society, that is leaving out a huge chunk of the population. I don’t know, truthfully my thoughts on this sentence are still a little half-baked and I need to think through all of the possible scenarios and combinations before I can claim to understand my own opinion and where I stand.
With all that said, my question to you is: do you think a civilised country is one where people don’t waste their time with politics? Do you agree with Aguirre?
Bonus question: do you know why the title is Soldiers of Salamis?
Posted in Blogs, Cercas | Tagged with politics, Soldiers of Salamis, unreliable narrator
I was not particularly expecting too but I absolutely loved this book. Part one and part three were definitely my favorite to read. It’s always such a thrilling experience to observe a character uncover pieces of a story bit by bit. It reminded me of a show I’m currently watching called ‘Inventing Anna’ where a […]
Posted in Blogs, Cercas | Tagged with journalism, latin america, perspective, politics, truth, war
Roberto Bolano’s “Amulet” is a unique tale which, in its focus on character development in a time of political violence, makes a more potent statement about human perseverance. The perspective is the student Lacouture hiding in the bathroom of UNAM from the army coming to crush the student protest movement. On the surface, it appears […]
Posted in Blogs, Bolaño | Tagged with Entries, memory, politics, violence
This was truly one of the best books not only that I’ve read during this course but just in general. “Amulet” by Robert Bolano is such a moving and inspiring yet painful and horrific story that deeply captivates the emotions of Auxilio Lacouture, a woman who is tragically stuck in a bathroom on the fourth […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with feminine, politics, Robert Bolano, Womanhood
