For this week, I read The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. I was excited to read this book because when I was examining the notes for which texts to read it was stated this book was “the closest we have here to a romance if that’s your thing.” Romance is definitely my thing when it comes to the novels I choose to read. However, although The Old Gringo did have a love story it also had other themes that overshadowed the romance, like the concepts of power, war, revolution and so on. Overall, I did enjoy the story. It was an easy read by how few words were on each page, but that could just be the PDF I used to read the book. But even with that, I felt Fuentes had put a lot of repetition to add importance to the dialogue to get us readers thinking throughout the novel.
The book’s narrative is framed as a collection of memories belonging to Harriet, who “sits alone and remembers.” The Old Gringo and Arroyo are shown in a complicated love triangle with Harriet Winslow, an American who had come to Mexico as a teacher for the children. I did not like Arroyo’s intentions with Harriet for all the wrong reasons instead of connection like she and the old gringo had. He was only trying to pursue Harriet to get back at the old gringo for betraying him and was the only way to hurt him instead of killing the man. After all that, the two men inevitably die as they cross the frontier of their differences, the old gringo killed by Arroyo, who was also shot by Villa for overstepping his boundaries of power.
The relationship between Harriet and the old gringo is confusing for me because for the old gringo Harriet was his love interest. Then with Harriet, I was unsure how she viewed the old gringo. Harriet agrees to the relationship with Arroyo so she could protect him. And she buries him under her father’s name, so I was unclear on how Harriet viewed the old gringo if she saw him as someone, she could pursue a love relationship with or saw him as she cared about him as an older guardian relationship.
For this week, I read The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. I was excited to read this book because when I was examining the notes for which texts to read it was stated this book was “the closest we have here to a romance if that’s your thing.” Romance is definitely my thing when it comes to the novels I choose to read. However, although The Old Gringo did have a love story it also had other themes that overshadowed the romance, like the concepts of power, war, revolution and so on. Overall, I did enjoy the story. It was an easy read by how few words were on each page, but that could just be the PDF I used to read the book. But even with that, I felt Fuentes had put a lot of repetition to add importance to the dialogue to get us readers thinking throughout the novel.
The book’s narrative is framed as a collection of memories belonging to Harriet, who “sits alone and remembers.” The Old Gringo and Arroyo are shown in a complicated love triangle with Harriet Winslow, an American who had come to Mexico as a teacher for the children. I did not like Arroyo’s intentions with Harriet for all the wrong reasons instead of connection like she and the old gringo had. He was only trying to pursue Harriet to get back at the old gringo for betraying him and was the only way to hurt him instead of killing the man. After all that, the two men inevitably die as they cross the frontier of their differences, the old gringo killed by Arroyo, who was also shot by Villa for overstepping his boundaries of power.
The relationship between Harriet and the old gringo is confusing for me because for the old gringo Harriet was his love interest. Then with Harriet, I was unsure how she viewed the old gringo. Harriet agrees to the relationship with Arroyo so she could protect him. And she buries him under her father’s name, so I was unclear on how Harriet viewed the old gringo if she saw him as someone, she could pursue a love relationship with or saw him as she cared about him as an older guardian relationship.
Norman Manea’s The Trenchcoat presents the traumatic excruciation of living under the communist regime for several decades in 20th century Romania. In the opening section, the discussion about temporality is noteworthy. The future is described as a conjugation of uncertainty. It is associated with the past and present, on a scale that can be reduced […]
Posted in Blogs, Manea | Tagged with paranoia, politics, power, suspicion
This week’s reading of W or The Memory of Childhood was reflective and insightful about the author’s experience. At the start of the book, I was confused for a while about the significance of the second story about Gaspard Winkler, but as the story of W progressed I was able to start comparing it to Perec’s experience. I loved the style the author wrote this novel in. The autobiography paired with the fictional island of W gave the text different elements that provide the reader more to think about.
The narration from Perec’s perspective showed fragments of his childhood memories. He lost both of his parents to World War II at a very young age. I think the trauma caused him to repress his memories as he was often not sure about all the specifics in his own memories. A lot of the language in this narrative was hesitant, words like vague, hazy, and many I don’t remember or I don’t recall. The author says it himself on page 68, “What marks this period especially is the absence of landmarks: these memories are scraps of life snatched from the void. No mooring. Nothing to anchor them or hold them down. Almost no way of ratifying them. No sequence in time, except as I have reconstructed it arbitrarily over the years.”
In the second narrative the army deserter, Gaspard Winckler journeys to the island W, where a brutal version of the Olympic games takes place. This story combined with Perec’s life story highlights the fight for survival so many people, Perec included had to face. The brutality and cruelty in these games, I think, are somewhat of a metaphor for the concentration camps and the treatment of the Jewish people along with the other prisoners held by the Nazis. While reading about the W it seems impossible or only fiction for a society to function as this one does. I was slow to understand why it was even in this book, but from the middle, towards the end, it became clear that W was referencing power relations and the extent of oppression groups of people can be shown by other groups. On the last page, the excerpt from David Rousset’s Univers concentrationnaire we see that the harsh reality Perec illustrates in the fictional W is taken directly from real events.
My question for the class is: How does comparing the conditions faced in WW2 to W help Perec or the reader process these events?
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with life, memory, power, war
This week’s reading of W or The Memory of Childhood was reflective and insightful about the author’s experience. At the start of the book, I was confused for a while about the significance of the second story about Gaspard Winkler, but as the story of W progressed I was able to start comparing it to Perec’s experience. I loved the style the author wrote this novel in. The autobiography paired with the fictional island of W gave the text different elements that provide the reader more to think about.
The narration from Perec’s perspective showed fragments of his childhood memories. He lost both of his parents to World War II at a very young age. I think the trauma caused him to repress his memories as he was often not sure about all the specifics in his own memories. A lot of the language in this narrative was hesitant, words like vague, hazy, and many I don’t remember or I don’t recall. The author says it himself on page 68, “What marks this period especially is the absence of landmarks: these memories are scraps of life snatched from the void. No mooring. Nothing to anchor them or hold them down. Almost no way of ratifying them. No sequence in time, except as I have reconstructed it arbitrarily over the years.”
In the second narrative the army deserter, Gaspard Winckler journeys to the island W, where a brutal version of the Olympic games takes place. This story combined with Perec’s life story highlights the fight for survival so many people, Perec included had to face. The brutality and cruelty in these games, I think, are somewhat of a metaphor for the concentration camps and the treatment of the Jewish people along with the other prisoners held by the Nazis. While reading about the W it seems impossible or only fiction for a society to function as this one does. I was slow to understand why it was even in this book, but from the middle, towards the end, it became clear that W was referencing power relations and the extent of oppression groups of people can be shown by other groups. On the last page, the excerpt from David Rousset’s Univers concentrationnaire we see that the harsh reality Perec illustrates in the fictional W is taken directly from real events.
My question for the class is: How does comparing the conditions faced in WW2 to W help Perec or the reader process these events?
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with life, memory, power, war
Georges Perec’s W, or the Memory of Childhood reveals the irreparable experience of trauma in rather mysterious ways. When reading it, I feel that the entire novel is associated with a special technique frequently used in filmmaking, named montage. Perec used different locations, perspectives, and narrative methods to enhance the willingness of the readers’ deep […]
Posted in Blogs, Perec | Tagged with childhood, memory, politics, power
Mercè Rodoreda’s The Time of the Doves presents processes of multifaceted change during the Spanish Civil War through the lens of the life of an ordinary Catalan woman named Natalia. Setting in Barcelona, this is the first Catalan novel I have read. It is particularly noteworthy to consider the relevant background of the work. From […]
Posted in Blogs, Rodoreda | Tagged with gender, politics, power, urbanism
Zobel’s Black Shack Alley is a fascinating look into the impacts of colonialism throughout childhood in Martinique, and the racialization and trauma that comes with it. It seemed to me while I read that José did not frequently dwell on and confront notions of race, but it was clear that race and struggles with identity pervaded much […]
Posted in Blogs, Zobel | Tagged with Colonialism, identity, power, race
Bonjour Tristesse by Sagan has so been my favourite text so far. I love how Sagan used characters we could relate to because of age and gender. The main character was a young girl raised by a single parent. At first, I initially thought that I would relate to this character because I am a young girl who also lost a parent and was raised by a single parent. However, her experience was catastrophically different from mine. Her father was very laid back, and my mother, who raised me, was much more like Anne in the story. My mother was rigorous and always wanted me to put school first before anything. If I put myself in Cecile’s situation, I can see how I would like to push Anne away to keep her hedonistic and chill lifestyle. My younger self always dreamed of having a life with no stress. Raymond, her father, definitely influenced her way of living and the idea of love. Her father had a mistress but also was going to marry Anne. Growing up as a young child, this would have affected her way of seeing and understanding love because we always get the first dose of love by watching how our parents love each other. A question I have is, would Cecile maybe have loved Cyril in the end if she didn’t grow up with her playboy, hedonistic father?
The way that Cecile schemed her plot to get Anne and her father to part their ways was shocking. I would never think she would use her lover to make her father jealous. This surprising plot intrigued me into reading and finding out what happens at the end. Cecile’s story and inner self-thoughts portray her as an immature, scared teenager for her future. As young university students, we can all relate to this, as we are coming of age just like Cecile in Bonjour Tristesse’s text. I can relate to her feelings of self-doubt and worries for the future. As a young student, I am worried about what will happen after I graduate and also just anxious about providing for myself and learning to be an adult and one day take care of my child and raise them. Growing up with someone like Anne has made me appreciate the skills I have learnt, and even though the “hedonistic” life is more pleasurable, I am more mature than Cecile because I was lucky to have a mother who cared about my success.
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with anxiety, betrayal, family, greif, guilt, hedonistic, jealousy, love, power
Bonjour Tristesse by Sagan has so been my favourite text so far. I love how Sagan used characters we could relate to because of age and gender. The main character was a young girl raised by a single parent. At first, I initially thought that I would relate to this character because I am a young girl who also lost a parent and was raised by a single parent. However, her experience was catastrophically different from mine. Her father was very laid back, and my mother, who raised me, was much more like Anne in the story. My mother was rigorous and always wanted me to put school first before anything. If I put myself in Cecile’s situation, I can see how I would like to push Anne away to keep her hedonistic and chill lifestyle. My younger self always dreamed of having a life with no stress. Raymond, her father, definitely influenced her way of living and the idea of love. Her father had a mistress but also was going to marry Anne. Growing up as a young child, this would have affected her way of seeing and understanding love because we always get the first dose of love by watching how our parents love each other. A question I have is, would Cecile maybe have loved Cyril in the end if she didn’t grow up with her playboy, hedonistic father?
The way that Cecile schemed her plot to get Anne and her father to part their ways was shocking. I would never think she would use her lover to make her father jealous. This surprising plot intrigued me into reading and finding out what happens at the end. Cecile’s story and inner self-thoughts portray her as an immature, scared teenager for her future. As young university students, we can all relate to this, as we are coming of age just like Cecile in Bonjour Tristesse’s text. I can relate to her feelings of self-doubt and worries for the future. As a young student, I am worried about what will happen after I graduate and also just anxious about providing for myself and learning to be an adult and one day take care of my child and raise them. Growing up with someone like Anne has made me appreciate the skills I have learnt, and even though the “hedonistic” life is more pleasurable, I am more mature than Cecile because I was lucky to have a mother who cared about my success.
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with anxiety, betrayal, family, greif, guilt, hedonistic, jealousy, love, power
