The first thing that struck me about the narrative, The Shrouded Woman was how different it was to the other two texts we have already read. There seemed to be an almost modern twist to the reflective theme that is brought out through the narrator’s voice. The novel being written in first person through the eyes of the beautiful, dead narrator Ana Maria adds to the intimate and emotional mood that lends itself to her reminiscing of her life and the different aspects of romance she discovered with each boy, from Ricardo to her best friend Fernando and then the bitter tragedy of her disastrous marriage to Antonio.

There is a wistful sort of sadness that lingers in the narrator’s tone as Bombal uses her to capture the personalised life of Ana Maria and the state of mind she might have as a now deceased person. I have to admit I found the book to be quite a bit of an emotional rollercoaster as Ana travels through love and its possibilities as well as the hurt it has inflicted on her, all edged with a subtle undertone of regret over things that could have been done differently, how her life could have had a different path but now it is too late.

I found the novel to be quite fascinating in its merging of death and time as they seem, to me, to be two concepts juxtaposed against each other; death seems like a finality and an end all to life while time, on the other hand, is endless and flows without any sort of restraint. Bombal also does a wonderful job at capturing the unspoken question of why people should focus on things that really matter to them in life which I believe ties into the themes of death and time as Ana Maria on her deathbed focuses on love which is highlighted to be the most important thing she held onto throughout her life.

Finally, there is the notion that the narrator is clearly happy to be dead while it is popular opinion that death is something to be mourned and always results in heartbreak. Bombal presents through Ana’s eyes that death can also offer offers a sense of peace and a chance to let go of the things one usually clings to while alive. Now the narrator simply contemplates her life without holding on to things that are stories of the past.

My question after reading this book would be how would one’s perception of death be altered after reading this book?