For the final book of this course, I chose to read The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by José Eduardo Agualusa. I really liked this book. There was a lot going on that added so much detail to the plot. I especially liked the incorporation of Hossi’s journal entries and the letters between the characters. I always like when authors add different forms of writing to their writing. This in particular reminded me of Paris Peasant because I remember how Aragon incorporated menus and newspaper clippings. On another note, when Daniel Benchimol is dreaming about people that he has not met and events that have not happened yet it reminded me of Amulet and how while trapped inside the bathroom, Auxilio was able to recall memories from the future. However, unlike some of our other readings, I was glad that this one had a more happy ending for Moira, Daniel, and Karinguiri.
The book itself had a dreamlike quality on its own. I found it a little confusing to figure out whether I was reading something that was in the present or in a dream or in the past. It was such an interesting plot combining the political aspect of Angola with the idea of the dream lab technology taking pictures of dreams and how the two began to interact with each other. Dreams in this book were a way of connecting people with similar ideologies. I think Daniels’s daughter, Karinguiri was my favourite character because she was true to her beliefs no matter what. Even with her mother’s family’s disapproval, and being imprisoned she never gave up on what she thought was right.
I thought Daniel Benchimol’s relationship with Moira was interesting considering that he had been recently divorced from Lucrécia who had completely different values than Daniel. At the beginning of the novel, Daniel is upset because of his failed marriage and tells his friend how people shouldn’t marry for love, instead “if people always got married when lucid, they’d only ever do it out of self-interest, like [his] parents.” Then by the end of the novel, we see him re-establish what love means to him and how he can both be in love and have his self-interest in mind. While romance isn’t the most important theme, I thought this aspect of character development was nice to see for Daniel.
My question to the class is: What did you think of Moira and Daniel’s relationship?
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with Dreams, family, politics, relationships
For the final book of this course, I chose to read The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by José Eduardo Agualusa. I really liked this book. There was a lot going on that added so much detail to the plot. I especially liked the incorporation of Hossi’s journal entries and the letters between the characters. I always like when authors add different forms of writing to their writing. This in particular reminded me of Paris Peasant because I remember how Aragon incorporated menus and newspaper clippings. On another note, when Daniel Benchimol is dreaming about people that he has not met and events that have not happened yet it reminded me of Amulet and how while trapped inside the bathroom, Auxilio was able to recall memories from the future. However, unlike some of our other readings, I was glad that this one had a more happy ending for Moira, Daniel, and Karinguiri.
The book itself had a dreamlike quality on its own. I found it a little confusing to figure out whether I was reading something that was in the present or in a dream or in the past. It was such an interesting plot combining the political aspect of Angola with the idea of the dream lab technology taking pictures of dreams and how the two began to interact with each other. Dreams in this book were a way of connecting people with similar ideologies. I think Daniels’s daughter, Karinguiri was my favourite character because she was true to her beliefs no matter what. Even with her mother’s family’s disapproval, and being imprisoned she never gave up on what she thought was right.
I thought Daniel Benchimol’s relationship with Moira was interesting considering that he had been recently divorced from Lucrécia who had completely different values than Daniel. At the beginning of the novel, Daniel is upset because of his failed marriage and tells his friend how people shouldn’t marry for love, instead “if people always got married when lucid, they’d only ever do it out of self-interest, like [his] parents.” Then by the end of the novel, we see him re-establish what love means to him and how he can both be in love and have his self-interest in mind. While romance isn’t the most important theme, I thought this aspect of character development was nice to see for Daniel.
My question to the class is: What did you think of Moira and Daniel’s relationship?
Posted in Agualusa, Blogs | Tagged with Dreams, family, politics, relationships
Unlike the other stories we have read throughout this class such as Time of the Doves, Nada, or Bonjour Tristesse, I found this one much more light-hearted and not as heavy as the others. Not to say there wasn’t any significance in this book, but the events that took place were not as dark as …
Continue reading “José Eduardo Agualusa “Society of Reluctant Dreamers””
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Dreams, politics, relationships
Similarly to Proust’s novel, The Old Gringo was another novel that I already had on my TBR list before starting this class, so I’m glad to have had the opportunity/excuse to read it now. I did enjoy reading it, despite it feeling a little convoluted at times. The relationships in particular were a little difficult to follow because it sometimes felt like things changed and dynamics shifted without me really noticing. Somewhat like accidentally missing a couple episodes of a series and suddenly being confused.
Harriet Winslow’s relationships with Arroyo and the Gringo (who we later find is Ambrose Bierce unless you watch the lecture first) are notably difficult to follow. There were times when I couldn’t figure out if Harriet was attracted to Arroyo, or faking it, or liked him, or hated him, or any combination of the four. The Gringo’s relationship with her was strange too; an odd in-between of paternal and romantic that I can’t quite decipher, though to be fair, neither can the characters themselves.
Other than romance, the main themes that stuck out to me in the novel were those of memory, trauma, bitterness, and revenge. All of those themes are tightly interconnected with each other, and also fit in nicely with many of the other books we have read as part of the course. I feel like almost (if not all) the novels we have read have had links with memory, predominantly negative memories and emotions, and this is no exception.
I know that others have mentioned the poetic aspect of the novel. Though my translation seems to have less of it than others’, my favourite poetic snippet was at the end of Chapter 10 (my pdf has no page numbers :/ ) saying “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of felony”. As far as I know, the usual lyrics of the song have the word “liberty” instead of “felony”, so I find it very interesting that an American character would switch out the word used. I also find it apt because of the numerous examples, both contemporary and historical, of America and other Western countries being built off the backs of crime and injustice, where to hail freedom can be considered hypocrisy.
As mentioned earlier, there seem to be times where two opposites are coming to a head, and we are confronted with both sides of one coin, so to speak. Love and hate, attraction and repulsion are two pairs, but the one that stood out to me most was Harriet’s distaste for hiding jewels behind the figure of Jesus on the cross. I thought it was interesting because it was a contrast that wouldn’t have immediately occurred to me without being pointed out, and it makes sense to me now that it has been pointed out.
My question this week: what do you think could have driven the gringo to seek his death in Mexico?
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with contrast, poetic, relationships, the old gringo
Similarly to Proust’s novel, The Old Gringo was another novel that I already had on my TBR list before starting this class, so I’m glad to have had the opportunity/excuse to read it now. I did enjoy reading it, despite it feeling a little convoluted at times. The relationships in particular were a little difficult to follow because it sometimes felt like things changed and dynamics shifted without me really noticing. Somewhat like accidentally missing a couple episodes of a series and suddenly being confused.
Harriet Winslow’s relationships with Arroyo and the Gringo (who we later find is Ambrose Bierce unless you watch the lecture first) are notably difficult to follow. There were times when I couldn’t figure out if Harriet was attracted to Arroyo, or faking it, or liked him, or hated him, or any combination of the four. The Gringo’s relationship with her was strange too; an odd in-between of paternal and romantic that I can’t quite decipher, though to be fair, neither can the characters themselves.
Other than romance, the main themes that stuck out to me in the novel were those of memory, trauma, bitterness, and revenge. All of those themes are tightly interconnected with each other, and also fit in nicely with many of the other books we have read as part of the course. I feel like almost (if not all) the novels we have read have had links with memory, predominantly negative memories and emotions, and this is no exception.
I know that others have mentioned the poetic aspect of the novel. Though my translation seems to have less of it than others’, my favourite poetic snippet was at the end of Chapter 10 (my pdf has no page numbers :/ ) saying “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of felony”. As far as I know, the usual lyrics of the song have the word “liberty” instead of “felony”, so I find it very interesting that an American character would switch out the word used. I also find it apt because of the numerous examples, both contemporary and historical, of America and other Western countries being built off the backs of crime and injustice, where to hail freedom can be considered hypocrisy.
As mentioned earlier, there seem to be times where two opposites are coming to a head, and we are confronted with both sides of one coin, so to speak. Love and hate, attraction and repulsion are two pairs, but the one that stood out to me most was Harriet’s distaste for hiding jewels behind the figure of Jesus on the cross. I thought it was interesting because it was a contrast that wouldn’t have immediately occurred to me without being pointed out, and it makes sense to me now that it has been pointed out.
My question this week: what do you think could have driven the gringo to seek his death in Mexico?
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with contrast, poetic, relationships, the old gringo
For this weeks book, I read The Old Gringo, by Carlos Fuentes. To be honest with you, I found this book to be a little bit confusing, but for a few different reasons. At the beginning of my reading, I found the old gringo’s motivation to be a bit strange; he has come to Mexico […]
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with Conflict, death, life, Mexico, reflection, relationships, repetition, revolution, the old gringo, Weekly Book Blog
I found “The Old Gringo” by Carlos Fuentes to be about what I was expecting; a somewhat turbulent novel that is set around war. It was a bit confusing to read as the perspective seemed to change frequently, but how the chapters were broken into smaller parts helped organize the text a little more. Throughout … Continue reading Week 9: Fuentes’s “The Old Gringo” →
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with death, life, memory, Poetry, relationships, repetition, Romance Studies, war, Weekly Posts
I’m not sure if it was just the version of the novel that I had, but certain parts of the story resembled poetry to me. Not only with how it was written, but how it was visually represented on the pages. With some sentences cutting short and then finishing them in subsequent lines that have […]
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with Civil war, death, death wish, existential, Poetry, relationships, Romance text, unknown, war, Weekly Response
I found Fuentes’ novel, The Old Gringo, a little bit hard to read. The plot was convoluted, and I didn’t quite understand the nature of the relationship that most of the characters shared. However, reading the lecture notes definitely made me feel better because I realized that that was done intentionally.
Personally, I found the whole plot of the book kind of odd because of how the idea of the Mexican Revolution was romanticized in the old American’s mind. For example, when the narrator likens being a gringo in Mexico and dying there to euthanasia, I felt like the old man was undermining the ramifications of the Mexican Revolution. This is somewhat reminiscent of how people tend to treat wars that do not concern them directly as something that could serve their pleasure. Moreover, he chose to insert himself into the situation at his age just to die in a blaze of glory.
Additionally, I was kind of uncomfortable with Harriet Winslow’s role throughout the book. She played an important part in bringing the old man’s body back to the United States and was the sole survivor of all the events, but was largely treated as an object by Arroyo and the old man. Both of them viewed her as a means to an end, whether it was forcing her into the role of a lover or into a weird daughter/lover dynamic. Hence, I found this portion of the text was difficult to comprehend, no matter how hard I tried.
A fascinating aspect of this book is how it is a fictionalized work of an actual incident; following the actions of American writer Ambrose Bierce. I found this to be quite interesting, especially because of how he disappeared without a trace and how no one actually knew what happened to him. The notion that this text is a fictionalized narration of a series of events is intriguing because there is a minute chance that some of it could be true.
Overall, I found The Old Gringo to be a confusing read with many messages. I guess my question to the class would be: what are your thoughts on the old American’s decision to take part in a Mexican Revolution for no reason other than to die a glorious death? Do you think Harriet impacted him in an actual, real way?
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with relationships, war
I found Fuentes’ novel, The Old Gringo, a little bit hard to read. The plot was convoluted, and I didn’t quite understand the nature of the relationship that most of the characters shared. However, reading the lecture notes definitely made me feel better because I realized that that was done intentionally.
Personally, I found the whole plot of the book kind of odd because of how the idea of the Mexican Revolution was romanticized in the old American’s mind. For example, when the narrator likens being a gringo in Mexico and dying there to euthanasia, I felt like the old man was undermining the ramifications of the Mexican Revolution. This is somewhat reminiscent of how people tend to treat wars that do not concern them directly as something that could serve their pleasure. Moreover, he chose to insert himself into the situation at his age just to die in a blaze of glory.
Additionally, I was kind of uncomfortable with Harriet Winslow’s role throughout the book. She played an important part in bringing the old man’s body back to the United States and was the sole survivor of all the events, but was largely treated as an object by Arroyo and the old man. Both of them viewed her as a means to an end, whether it was forcing her into the role of a lover or into a weird daughter/lover dynamic. Hence, I found this portion of the text was difficult to comprehend, no matter how hard I tried.
A fascinating aspect of this book is how it is a fictionalized work of an actual incident; following the actions of American writer Ambrose Bierce. I found this to be quite interesting, especially because of how he disappeared without a trace and how no one actually knew what happened to him. The notion that this text is a fictionalized narration of a series of events is intriguing because there is a minute chance that some of it could be true.
Overall, I found The Old Gringo to be a confusing read with many messages. I guess my question to the class would be: what are your thoughts on the old American’s decision to take part in a Mexican Revolution for no reason other than to die a glorious death? Do you think Harriet impacted him in an actual, real way?
Posted in Blogs, Fuentes | Tagged with relationships, war
