Andrew Andrew

Hey Everyone! This week's book is "The Lover" by  Marguerite Duras. This book was an interesting read because it was very strange yet it kept me wanting to read more. It felt like one of those forbidden reads where I wanted to see if the nameless 27 year-old Chinese man would end up with 15 year-old Duras. Initially, when I was in the first half of the book,  I definitely thought it was weird that Duras was accepting the advances of a 27 year-old Chinese man. The way they met on the ferry crossing the Mekong river and how, initially hesitant, but still accepted his invitation to give her a ride home on his black  Limousine was very careless of her. I understand her being curious about his wealth and status, however, it felt like she was so absentminded.  Then, I got to around the 50th page and I started to understand more and more why Duras did the actions she did. Understanding more of her background, having a very controlling mother, a very abusive, addicted, gambl...

This book is utter confusion. At the first half of the book, I was super confused about what I was even reading. I could barely make out the situations that were being described in the book in my head and just couldn't grasp what the book was even talking about. There were times where the author (Lispector) wrote herself into the story which made it difficult to understand who's perspective I was reading as she would just rant about Macabea and her thoughts and suddenly come back to the story.  Reading it was pretty depressing but, I was trying to empathize why she became the way she did. Macabea's life story felt like she was a side character to her own story. Her life is marked by a series of mundane routines and chance encounters, each seemingly devoid of significance. Both her parents passed away pretty early on in her life and her aunt raised her throughout her childhood. She became a symbol of oppression and abuse in Macabea's life shaping how she thought even wh...

The time of the doves is the read for week 7 and I have a lot of things to share with you guys! Definitely my favorite read of this course so far. Initially, reading it, I felt more irritated than anything while reading the first part of the novel. Natalie abandoning her fiance, Pere, for a walking "black" flag, Quimet felt so wrong to me. How Quimet even treated her when they first met was so questionable to me, asking her if she had broken up with Pere and also how quick he proposed to her and wanted to introduce Natalie to his family. Maybe on that time period it was the societal norm for a marriage to happen that quick, but, it just didn't sit right with me especially because of Quimet's behaviour.  After their marriage, there was a moment when Quimet mistakenly believed he saw Natalia meeting Pere on the street. He confronted Natalia aggressively, accusing her of wrongdoing and demanding an apology vehemently. He was just very controlling and restrictive as a par...

Maris Luisa Bombal's "The Shrouded Woman" blurs the line between life and death as it starts off with the protagonist, Ana Maria, narrating her own funeral. It follows her reflecting about her memories, her relationships of friends, family and lovers while lying on her deathbed surrounded by the people she knew she was alive.  I felt a bit empathetic and found myself slightly cheering for Ana Maria when she was pursuing her love for her first love, Ricardo. Despite the potential consequences she might face , she still decided to embrace her desires and pursue a romance with him. Her boldness went against the societal norms and expectations set in the mid 20th century which offered her a glimpse to what life could've been. For Ricardo, he was described as a man who was charismatic and alluring, drawing Ana Maria into a deep romance in the beginning, but it was suddenly cut short, leaving her with a sense of longing and loss. Ricardo's departure, driven by his pursu...