I didn’t really read much into the meaning of this book. However, I did like the magical realism of the book’s setting. The main characters are a reincarnated chameleon (which, when I first started reading, Agualusa didn’t intentionally reveal the identity of the narrator until it brought it up on its own, which made me chuckle in spite of myself the moment I learned about it) and Felix, a man who makes his living selling antique books and his ability to fabricate the past for people. Honestly, I loved the scenes where Felix and Eul\u00e1lio shared and exchanged dreams and watched sunsets together, and it gave me a sense of calm and fullness, like in the following passage:<\/p>\n
“…he goes to the kitchen and comes back with a glass of papaya juice, he sits on the sofa, and shares the sunset rites with me. <\/span> We talk. <\/span> Or rather, he talks, I listen. <\/span> Sometimes I laugh \u2013 this seems enough for him. <\/span> I get the sense that there’s already a thread of friendship holding us together”. (p.4)<\/span><\/p>\n Okay, now comes the part I don’t really get. Why change the past?<\/strong><\/p>\n Let’s take Bachmann as an example. He takes his new identity and lives with it, even changing his accent and clothes to fit his new identity better. So is he real himself now? Does changing one’s identity guarantee a smooth life path in the future? In my personal opinion, a person’s life is constantly being recorded and rewritten every moment (every moment of living can be a change). Who cares what your past was like except yourself? So again, what is the point of changing the past? Can I interpret this behaviour as a kind of escape and disapproval? Also, instead of changing the past, it is better to keep the past in mind, to be constantly reminded of how one’s future can be changed from past experiences.\u00a0The past is not a stain, it’s a \u201cteacher\u201d creates a future of infinite possibilities.<\/p>\n I wish I could say more about it, but I don’t have anything else to share because this book really confused me…<\/p>\n Question for Discussion:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThis seemed perfectly possible to me. A name can be a curse. Some are dragged along by their name, like muddy river waters after a heavy shower, however much they may resist they’re propeUed toward their destination . . . Others, on the contrary – their names are like masks that hide them, that deceive. Most have no power at all, of course. I recall my human name without any pleasure – but without pain either. I don’t miss it. It wasn’t me.\u201d \uff08p. 40\uff09<\/p>\n What does the past mean to you? If it were you, would you change your past? Why or why not?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I didn’t really read much into the meaning of this book. However, I did like the magical realism of the book’s setting. The main characters are a reincarnated chameleon (which, when I first started reading, Agualusa didn’t intentionally reveal the identity of the narrator until it brought it up on its own, which made me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96386,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[63,64,67,68,66,65],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agualusa","tag-chameleons","tag-dreams","tag-lie","tag-magical-realism","tag-past","tag-reincarnation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ccrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ccrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ccrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ccrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96386"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ccrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ccrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ccrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ccrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ccrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ccrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}