This novel had me spiralling fro numerous reasons; however, for the purpose of this blog post, I shall focus on the contrasting chapters alone. It is rare that I come across a reading that I relate to so closely and envy the author for their ability to encapsulate a rare feeling so vividly. The feeling of displacement between two worlds is what I was able to extract from this text and although I often start my posts with a summary, I will jump right into my reflections for this week. To effectively dissect the text I will refer to the dystopian and the autobiographical sections separately.

Now I would like to pre-curse my thoughts with the warning that in no way is the narrator’s trauma anywhere near mine however I believe every living individual has lived a life that has distinguished for them a threshold of trauma. In the case of the dystopian narrator, a deleterious turn of events took the shape of his father dying in battle and his mother dying at the hands of Nazis with no emotional capacity to properly mourn. The switching between memories and dystopia is disorienting but I cannot help but wonder about authorial intent. I know that was a big buzz term in our previous week’s class. How we should acknowledge that an author’s work is often more powerful than the author. The pieces they put out and the interpretations they bring are many more than the author could have intended.

I know in my circumstances, I was once a victim of war. I had constructed little worlds in my mind that I was the main citizen of, with complex plots and characters that were more realistic than fantastical. I would escape from my home to a place I called home. When these two homes begin to merge, the line between the real and the unreal becomes blurry. You find solace in each world from the other and lose balance of what you once knew. The nature of the narrator’s life is excruciatingly depressing and real that as a reader I found myself skipping ahead to the dystopian parts to give my mind a break. Even then, I wouldn’t be comforted knowing what the inevitable coming chapters would bring. When one lives a life that can no longer be pinpointed, outlined, controlled, or predicted, life beyond the physical realm may not be heaven but at least it’s not “here”.

My questions for the class:

Is your imagination an escape or a way to make real or an unreal situation?

Simply put, what did you take from the book? What were your initial concluding thoughts?