From the very beginning “The Passion According to G.H” felt like a downward spiral of emotion. It took me quite a while to understand and situate myself in the narrative, often having to reread pages to even comprehend what was happening. The writing style felt like manic overthinking. For example, on pg.12 she backtracks her own usage of the phrase “billows of muteness”for almost a whole paragraph, making it feel like continuous word vomit. In addition, the amount of grand existential questions posed on the reader felt overwhelming, to a point where I just had to put the book down to take a breath. Like “Before I entered the room, what was I?” (pg.27). It almost feels like this book is a voice recording or a direct transcription of thought rather than carefully crafted sentences. However, I did like how in her writing the author referred to the reader directly (“for now I cling to you” pg.11) which gave the experience a personal feel. The writing style really contributed to the memorability of the book for me because I’ve never read anything quite as chaotic.
What immediately stood out to me was that the narrator is scared of everything. Scared of freedom (pg.5), scared of passion (pg.7), scared of truth (pg.11), and even scared of simply being (pg.5). This opened up the book in an unexpected way that sets the narrator up for her mental breakdown after the cockroach incident. I also found lots of contradictions that the author refers to which reminded me of our discussions of “Nada” by Laforet. She talks about how finding is getting lost and how gaining something is losing another and vise versa (pg.12). Another example, “all sudden understanding closely resembles an acute incomprehension” (pg.11). Meaning that understanding opens up a door of misunderstanding. I found this theme of comparing opposites very interesting.
A quote that really stuck with me was: “Creating isn’t imagination, it’s taking the great risk of grasping reality” (pg.12).
I think it’s interesting coming from the narrator who is a very wealthy artist. Because it’s not actually her art or creation that sends her into a mental breakdown of realizing her privilege, it’s the cockroach. Her version of “grasping reality” is becoming aware of her privilege in Rio De Janeiro where there are “six hundred thousand beggars” (pg 109). It also contributes to what I was saying before about comparing opposites (imagination vs reality). It made me wonder can the author actually grasp this reality of poverty from their penthouse suite?
Lastly, another small thing I noticed is that the last sentence of each section (or “chapter” if you could even call it that) is also the first sentence of the next. Why do you thing the author made that choice? How does it contribute to the fluidity of thought of the text? I can’t wait to read others’ thoughts on the book and how they interpreted it!