I can’t believe this was the last book of the class! Honestly, I didn’t enjoy reading it that much. I felt confused and disoriented. It wasn’t until the day after I finished it and watched the lecture video and read other people’s blog posts that I realized I actually did like it. This book is made up of many different parts, multiple narratives, POVs, and timelines. It’s when it all came together that I was able to sit back and actually fully be able to reflect on what I read. I’m definitely not 100% sure of everything, but I have an appreciation for the writing.

The young woman narrator starts off the book reflecting back on her years spent in New York. She lives like a ghost, not really inhabiting her apartment, or going anywhere but the office, the library, and the cemetery near where she lives. Her life “currently” is as a mother of two young children, who are never referred to by name, which I found odd and don’t know why we never got their names, who seem to suck the life out of her. It is in a similar way she feels like a ghost as well, only really “living” to take care of the children and rarely leaving her house.

It is also in a similar way in which Gilberto Owen’s, a Mexican poet that the young woman is interested in who resembles a ghost as well. He actually starts to fade away and doesn’t show up in photos! Their storylines seem to melt together as the book goes on, and I questioned who was the true narrator and at what timeline we were in.

There were continuous mentions of ghosts and dying through of the book, with both the young woman and Owen referring to how they died multiple times through out their lives. It is in this way the book gets its title, Faces in the Crowd, from a poem from Ezra Pound about seeing a dead friend in the subway. I got similar feelings from this book, like seeing a ghost slipping from your view. The young woman seems to invent the past and we don’t know what actually happened and what is true. Her memories and the narration feel like a far away memory that is fading from view, so much so that you can’t remember what is actually true or not (kind of similar to the way Owen experiences blindness and how he refers to life as rubbing him away).

They seem to be mirrors of each other in a way, the young woman and Owen. The woman sees Owen on the subway multiple times and later Owen sees a woman who resembles the young woman on the subway as well. They seem to trickle into each other’s lives, almost like a loop with no set beginning of end. Is it the young woman writing the story or is it Owen writing? I wrote down in my notes that they seem to each be writing about each other, without knowing it. They each haunt each others lives as well as mirror them.

The last few pages of the book stood out to me as well. Each part shorten and “switched” back and forth from the young woman to Owen’s very rapidly, almost like they were in discussion with each other. This is when the stories really melt into each other, where events in Owen’s life seem to bleed into the young woman’s. So much so that after reading the last line of the book, I was like, is Owen the husband of the young woman/the father of the children? While it was a bit confusing, I liked the effect it created and it was a very unique way of writing I have never experienced before. The ending felt almost satisfying in a way.

All in all, I feel like I have much more to say, but don’t know how to convey it. This book really made me think! It’s definitely not the type of book I would choose for a relaxing afternoon, but overall did enjoy reading it. I am looking forward to discussing it in class so I can get a better understanding!

My question for today refers back to the young woman and her husband. Did you also think Owen was the husband at the end? Did the husband actually go to Philadelphia or stay at home? Which parts of the story did you think the young woman was making up?