The thing about this novel that really fascinated me is how a story can revolve around something as simple as a trenchoat in midst of the Romanian World War II. The story focuses less on the war (compared to) but works with monotony, boredom, repetition and habit. “The Trenchcoat,” becomes more than just an article of […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with books, fiction, norman manea, reviews, romanian world war 2, The Trenchcoat, writing
Carlos Fuentes, The Old Gringo
Posted in Fuentes lecture, Lecture Videos | Tagged with C20th, history, Marx, memory, Mexico, politics, repetition, revolution, war, writing
Marguerite Duras, The Lover
Posted in Duras lecture, Lecture Videos | Tagged with Asia, autobiography, Colonialism, gender, love, post colonialism, power, race, sexuality, Vietnam, writing
What a nice and short book this week :)) “The Hour of The Star” by Clairice Lispector was very interesting for me to read. Although at times I did not understand the experimental writing style of the book, it very quickly became the highlight of this reading for me. It felt a lot like the […]
Posted in Blogs, Lispector | Tagged with Characters, poverty, story-telling, writing
Georges Perec, W, or the Memory of Childhood
Posted in Lecture Videos, Perec lecture | Tagged with C20th, childhood, France, life, politics, postmodernism, postmodernity, resistance, war, writing
Having completed the reading of Rodoreda’s novel The Time of the Doves, I found myself deeply moved by the narrative, particularly as it is told through the lens of Natalia’s experiences in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War who undergoes hardships not only as a result of the turmoil of the war but also a […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with book review, book-reviews, fiction, true-crime, writing
Joseph Zobel, Black Shack Alley
Posted in Lecture Videos, Zobel lecture | Tagged with C20th, childhood, Colonialism, development, education, labor, language, literacy, Martinique, postcolonialism, race, work, writing
This book started off with a seemingly idyllic scene, as a young boy enjoys a carefree vacation with his mother on a sunny beach. Initially, their relationship appears wholesome and healthy. However, I noticed a few chapters later, this wasn’t really the case. Throughout the book, I didn’t how I felt towards the narrator, sometimes […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with book review, book-reviews, books, parenting, writing