The very first emotion when I finished this reading was enjoyment and a little excitement. Because the book takes readers through fluctuational stories along with emotional up and down. The book consists of two storylines; a fictional story about an island called “W” and a story based on the narrator’s own childhood memory. The contrast between those two stories is intensified by their fiction and the realities the narrators incorporated, but somehow, we see some themes are shared in these two stories. The main theme I identified from this book was a memory. As the story written in the print script instead of italics is the story yielded by his own memories, the way it narrates is straightforward and sensibly subjective whereas the story written in italics is some kind of testimony of someone. In the reality-based story, I feel like he is likely to recall his bad memories more precisely and frequently, which is relatable to us, such as the scar on his lips made by a ski stock by his friends and the peer’s condemnation of him locking up a little girl in the cabinet. Moreover, even though he said he does not know how the religious education proceeded upon him (94), he well describes the moment he got “purified” by the headmistress when he intentionally wore the casual uniform instead of the sailor suits. Given that the story about the island “W” is corresponding to the story of his childhood that was affected by the second world war, the clear recall of his bad memory might be reflected upon the story of “W”. For example, the culture of W in which the athletes fight to earn and declare the entitlement instead of his or her name is related to that his forged identity was acquired through the hard work of his mother. In addition, the relationship between the athletes and the official board members is somewhat associated with his memory of religious education. The oppressive hierarchy power described in the W might have come from it as well. According to Perec, the story of W was written at the age of thirteen, but the in-detail descriptions of the harshness and cruelty of the island such as the minefield around each village seem to have incorporated his own observation of the concentration camps after childhood. The contrast between his protected life and the harsh life in the W looks like some kind of reminder of how he managed to have it.

My questions are followings:

1. What is the effect of describing the places in detail along with his memory?
2. What kind of role did the specific sports rules on W play in the whole story?