I was mentally preparing myself to experience extreme discomfort while reading “The Lover”, but I wasn’t as uncomfortable as I thought I would be. Of course, we shouldn’t dismiss the fact that this relationship was illegal, involving a minor, and disturbing at some parts, like when the girl is described as “his own child [that] […]
Posted in Blogs, Duras | Tagged with age, love, memory, race, relationships
“Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young, but I want to tell you I think you’re more beautiful now than then (p. 3). “ This is the classic beginning of The Lover by Marguerite Duras, where the aged narrator when her looks are devastated, longs for a lover who expresses the love that […]
Posted in Blogs, Introduction | Tagged with love, poverty, race, sex, Vietnam
Despite this book’s uncomfortable age gap relationship, I really enjoyed reading it. The way Duras writes “The Lover” hooked me the entire time. Her descriptions of the environment, like Saigon, to each complex and rich character, I felt so immersed in this novel. My heart was in this one! I really loved the first sentence […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with age gap, colonies, depression, family, France, race, saigon, social class, The Lover
Okay, I admit that the relationship is indeed poignant, and Duras does have a different flavor in taking this memory and writing a book about it. But the purity of the relationship is worth reconsidering; after all, the beginning of the protagonist’s relationship is based on the mutual benefits of money and beauty. Another thing […]
Posted in Blogs, Duras | Tagged with barrier, lover, race, Relationship
Hi everyone, this week I read “Black Shack Alley” by Joseph Zobel. The story follows José, who starts out living in Black Shack Alley, as he grows up with his grandmother M’man Tine. I found this book harder to get through than the other readings. Acce…
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with class, education, family, race
Hi everyone, this week I read “Black Shack Alley” by Joseph Zobel. The story follows José, who starts out living in Black Shack Alley, as he grows up with his grandmother M’man Tine. I found this book harder to get through than the other readings. Acce…
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with class, education, family, race
Hey everyone! I’m super excited to talk about this week’s reading “Deep Rivers” by Jose Maria Arguedas. The novel dives into the Peruvian Andean culture and surrounds the story of Ernesto, who is a young boy torn between two worlds. Ernesto’s upbringing is a blend of his indigenous Quechua traditions and Western education as he […]
Posted in Arguedas, Blogs | Tagged with class, Colonialism, family, history, language, life, power, race, story, trauma, youth
Black Shack Alley by Joseph Zobel was a touching read that had so many unique perspectives on growing up. At the core of this novel, we are taken through Jose’s journey of growing up, which is what we have seen in quite a few of the books we have read so far. However, Jose’s experiences […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Colonialism, education, family, Joseph Zobel, Martinique, race
This book was long. Yet so immersive and so interesting, with its integrated Quechuan words with their translations at the footnote. I found the usage of these untranslated words helped me understand and visualize the culture the author has tried to portray. In addition to the descriptions of towns, the churches, the bell ringing, lighting […]
Posted in Arguedas, Blogs | Tagged with alienation, childhood, Colonialism, culture, injustice, language, Music, postcolonialism, race
One thing that was interesting about this novel, similar to the others that we’ve read in this class, is that it is told from a child’s perspective and point of view. I expected that it would be a bit darker in a sense simply because of the fact that it deals with racism and plantations […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with childhood, description, Joseph Zobel, M'man Tine, race, racism, setting
