It’s crazy that we are wrapping up the course already! Thank you so much to Jon, Jennifer, and Patricio, for all the hard work and effort put into this course every week. This course was one of a kind and I’m so happy to have had the freedom to explore literature from the romance world.
My favourite books I read were Bonjour Tristesse, The Old Gringo, and Amulet, which is pretty surprising because they are all drastically different. The fast-paced family drama of Bonjour Tristesse is really what kind of book I expected from this course whereas The Old Gringo, and Amulet were more unexpected, powerful stories. I really enjoyed our class discussion of Bonjour Tristesse when we analyzed all the characters! It showed that the book wasn’t just a cliché romance plot set in the French summertime, it was deeply layered by the complex characters and their motives. Amulet definitely moved me because of it being based on a true story. Auxilios resilience and overall thirst for life through her friendships and poetry was really inspiring. Then set in the politically tense PRI era Mexico, it ended up moving me unlike any book in the course. The Old Gringo brought the aspects of both of my favourite books and brought it into one. Although the romance struck me as a little bit off putting, the journey of the old man as he ends up in an unlikely group of revolutionaries was exciting and intriguing. Although all of the books offered different perspectives, contexts, and stories, these 3 truly stood out to me.
At the beginning of the course one of my biggest concerns was translation and how that would effect the story. I’ve learned that some things simply can’t be translated as they lose their strong meaning. For example “Bonjour Tristesse” or “el pueblo unido jamás será vencido” (Amulet, p.75). But for the most part, the work of the translators has been seamless and the language difference didn’t have a negative effect on my reading experience. For the class, did any of you notice translation detriments in the books we read? Did that effect the way you read a certain book?
Overall, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this course. I feel like now I’m not afraid to pick up translated books from all over the world, and i’m looking forward to reading more in the future 🙂
Thanks again for an amazing semester!!