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 […]
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 […]
A. Initial Thoughts This is probably an unpopular opinion but I actually quite liked this book. Moravia’s straightforward writing, reflecting the post-WW2 shift to realism discussed in lecture, really appealed to me. It felt fresh, especially compared to the more decorative language in “Combray”. Additionally, I appreciated that the book primarily used internal monologue instead … Continue reading Agostino: The Cost of Adulthood (Feb 6)
I found this book an uncomfortable read… I immediately thought of the Oedipus complex, it’s so so very Freudian, but I tried not to think about it too much, because it made me ill, and instead appreciate it as best … Continue reading
Alberto Moravia, Agostino
This book for me was the best one yet. I swear being able to fully understand what I am reading makes it all the more enjoyable. In the lecture the professor talked about the power of fiction. I found it interesting that although this is obviously a work of fiction, it never felt as though […]
Questions on Paris Peasant
Amulet was a book that was hard to put down. I enjoyed the style of writing tremendously, throughout the book, even though the narrator told us that her memories were unreliable (a recurring theme in books we’re reading) I did not care. Every story she told was captivating and every character she introduced was dynamic and interesting. This was a horror story, like any story about a trauma. But like it was mentioned in the lecture, the unsettling aspects of the story happened ‘off screen’. We didn’t directly witness them. She was hiding in the bathroom and had very little idea what was going on outside – terrifying!
The characters I enjoyed reading about the most were the women. There was Elena, with whom Auxilio shared a lot of time and had a friendship she valued. Elena had a limp and she was in love with a man who was leaving soon. The last time Auxilio sees Elena, she contemplates running after her and giving her a hug. She decides against it and never sees Elena again, although she imagines seeing her in random places including on campus. Another interesting female character was Lilian who Auxilio seemed to be jealous of as she believed that she was the real mother of Mexican poetry. She was beautiful (and had all her teeth, she didn’t need to cover her mouth when she spoke!), she was living off of selling art and didn’t seem to struggle financially as much as Auxilio, she had many lovers which Auxilio hadn’t and she slept with Che Gevara (and thought he was ‘normal’, but what is normal!). What made her even more interesting is that we see her coming out of the painter’s house (I’m forgetting her name). The painter Auxilio was very excited to meet, wanted to stay at her house and was refused. Why was Lilian hiding in there? Why did the painter lie about having her there?
I’m generally not a big fan of realism, I read multiple books by Marquez and did not really enjoy them – not his popular ones anyway – the book that I enjoyed was Chronicles of a Death Foretold. However, I did not feel the same way about Bolano’s writing. I thought there was a lot of beauty in his choices of words even when describing the mundane. The details painted images in my memory and even though it was indeed a horror story, I found the writing to be calming and far from boring.
Amulet was a book that was hard to put down. I enjoyed the style of writing tremendously, throughout the book, even though the narrator told us that her memories were unreliable (a recurring theme in books we’re reading) I did not care. Every story she told was captivating and every character she introduced was dynamic and interesting. This was a horror story, like any story about a trauma. But like it was mentioned in the lecture, the unsettling aspects of the story happened ‘off screen’. We didn’t directly witness them. She was hiding in the bathroom and had very little idea what was going on outside – terrifying!
The characters I enjoyed reading about the most were the women. There was Elena, with whom Auxilio shared a lot of time and had a friendship she valued. Elena had a limp and she was in love with a man who was leaving soon. The last time Auxilio sees Elena, she contemplates running after her and giving her a hug. She decides against it and never sees Elena again, although she imagines seeing her in random places including on campus. Another interesting female character was Lilian who Auxilio seemed to be jealous of as she believed that she was the real mother of Mexican poetry. She was beautiful (and had all her teeth, she didn’t need to cover her mouth when she spoke!), she was living off of selling art and didn’t seem to struggle financially as much as Auxilio, she had many lovers which Auxilio hadn’t and she slept with Che Gevara (and thought he was ‘normal’, but what is normal!). What made her even more interesting is that we see her coming out of the painter’s house (I’m forgetting her name). The painter Auxilio was very excited to meet, wanted to stay at her house and was refused. Why was Lilian hiding in there? Why did the painter lie about having her there?
I’m generally not a big fan of realism, I read multiple books by Marquez and did not really enjoy them – not his popular ones anyway – the book that I enjoyed was Chronicles of a Death Foretold. However, I did not feel the same way about Bolano’s writing. I thought there was a lot of beauty in his choices of words even when describing the mundane. The details painted images in my memory and even though it was indeed a horror story, I found the writing to be calming and far from boring.
This was an interesting and enjoyable read for me. At first, I found it a bit difficult to get into, and was frustrated at my lack of knowledge of the geography of Paris which I felt would’ve aided in my understanding of Aragon’s musings of the city in the first twenty pages or so. However, […]
