I really enjoyed this week’s novel of The Shrouded Woman. I was looking forward to this week’s novel since it is the first one with a female author and I was intrigued if there was a noticeable difference between the previous books. One thing I noticed was a difference through the characters as the women were portrayed as more than just an object for the male gaze and actually showcased female characters with personalities.
I was really intrigued with the choice of the narrator being dead. It reminded me of a diary as it was a reflection of Ana María’s life. It revealed moments in her life that were happy, lonely, and regretful through a detailed perspective of each relationship which made it easy to engage with. A quote that really stood out to me was, “must we die in order to know certain things”? (pg. 176). It made me wonder about deeper aspects of death. Especially as Ana María had her siblings, her father, her first love, her husband, and her children visit her as she is deceased. I couldn’t imagine the feeling if she wanted to say something to them. It made me curious about the afterlife and the possibilities of what we may think or reflect. It also made me realize how short our connections can be and how we may fail to notice until it’s too late.
I found it interesting how the author captured Ana María’s relationships, especially her first love Ricardo. This quote also stood out to me, “I never knew. I only know that period following your departure was the most disordered and tragic in my entire life. Oh, the torture of first love, of the first disillusion! When one struggles with the past instead of forgetting it”! (pg. 167). This showcases how this first relationship truly affected her from ever moving on to having a successful relationship. Ricardo left her because he chose to pursue his career but she offered to move with him to remain together. This left me wondering was it a one-sided love and she was blinded by love to recognize it.
This was the type of novel I was expecting for this course and it went beyond my expectations. I am looking forward to this week’s discussion after skimming and noticing most of my classmate’s enjoyment of this read too! The question I pose to my classmates is since this is the first female author we’ve read so far, did you notice any differences in comparison to our last reads? Or do you think there was a purpose to make the main character a female?