“If you were able to tame a lion, then your husband, a mere man, does not exceed your powers” (pg. 115) This was the story told to newly wed brides, to reassure that one does not need love potions to “tame” their husband if they can “tame a lion”. First of all, the fact that […]
I am deeply disturbed. The story follows three women forced into polygamous marriages, starting with Ramla, who has just finished high school and found true love, only for her parents to marry her off to a fifty-year-old rich man because money. Then there’s Hindou, Ramla’s sister, who is married to her alcoholic, abusive cousin, who […]
It is scarily interesting how much Natalia’s nickname Colometa foreshadowed the way her life would turn out to be and how her first husband, Quimet would later treat her. Pigeons, being wild animals that became domesticated for human usage align much with what the protagonist experiences after marrying Quimet. She is formed into the ideal wife and forced to care…
Reading The Time of the Doves didn’t feel like following a dramatic war story. Instead, it felt like being placed inside someone’s everyday struggle to keep going. The novel follows Natalia (often called Colometa), whose life is shaped not by political speeches or battlefield scenes, but by marriage, poverty, motherhood, and the slow exhausting life […]
feb 22, 2026 I loved reading Time of the Doves. This book might be my favorite one so far, it was just beautiful. I loved it on a personal level, I related a lot to Natalia’s feelings while reading especially with my experience of growing up under political unrest and fleeing political prosecution to come […]
Carmen Laforet, Nada
Stories have to start somewhere, but even stories have stories. To answer the question of “backstories”, and how important they are to novels, well they are quite significant, even if not directly shown. For example, to understand the atrocious history of the Spanish Civil War, we find a backstory to give context to Andrea, our […]
First things first, this was so much easier to read than Proust’s Combray. This would be a type of book I would pick up when I am in a sad/depressed mood. That made it a little difficult to read because … Continue reading
This week’s book made me feel like dropping to my knees and praising the sun in the sky. I actually ENJOYED the novel; who could have thought!! However, let’s not get it twisted, I was sometimes still confused throughout the story. You’d think our main character would be a chameleon, right? Wrong, he is a […]
A whole lot of sex and rape. This has been so far one of my favourite novels to read. I think this is due to my love for true crime, and psychology. My passion for true crime was satisfied through the exciting pursuit of the robbers by Silva. Additionally, the use of evidence in police […]
