I actually really liked The Time of the Doves, and it has probably been the easiest book for me to read so far. Not because it is light, because it definitely is not, but because the writing flows so naturally. It feels like someone is sitting across from you telling you their life story in a very honest and simple way.<\/p>\n
What stood out to me the most was Natalia\u2019s voice. The story feels so personal and intimate, like we are inside her thoughts the entire time. Even though the Spanish Civil War is happening in the background, the focus stays on her everyday life. We see her marriage, her children, her struggles with money, and the emotional weight she carries. That made the history feel more real to me. Instead of learning about politics or battles, we see how huge events quietly shape one ordinary woman\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
Quimet really frustrated me. From the very beginning, when he starts calling her Colometa, it feels like he slowly takes control of her identity. Natalia does not dramatically fight back. She just absorbs everything. Watching her slowly lose parts of herself was hard to read, but it was also what made the book so powerful. The pigeons especially felt symbolic to me. At first they seem harmless, almost romantic, but they quickly become overwhelming and suffocating, just like her situation.<\/p>\n
Even though the book deals with heavy topics like war, control, and poverty, I never found it confusing or difficult to get through. The simplicity of the writing made it even more emotional. It is quiet, but it stays with you.<\/p>\n
Discussion question: Do you think Natalia ever truly regains her sense of self by the end of the novel, or is she permanently shaped by everything she endured?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I actually really liked The Time of the Doves, and it has probably been the easiest book for me to read so far. Not because it is light, because it definitely is not, but because the writing flows so naturally. It feels like someone is sitting across from you telling you their life story in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107038,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16,17,15],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-pigeon","tag-rodoreda","tag-the-time-of-the-doves"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/asmasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/asmasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/asmasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/asmasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107038"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/asmasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/asmasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/asmasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/asmasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/asmasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/asmasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}