Wow! This book was so heartwrenching but amazing! the character-building and descriptions were truly encapsulating. Natalia\u2019s life was so beautifully captured, and I felt so immersed in the story. I\u2019ll admit at the beginning I was not into the book that much because of Quimet and how much I disliked him. I was upset at Natalia for marrying him, but it’s not really her fault because he was a literal manipulator and abuser. But one thing I really admired about this book was how complex the characters were. Each person is not entirely painted as good or bad, even Quimet. Each person is described as individually deep and complex in their own way. I think in this way it made the story even more relatable and able to capture the heart of the reader. I know it captured me!<\/p>\n
Doves were definitely a key part of this story and highlight the start of the darkest point in Natlalia\u2019s life. Even the nickname Quimet gives her the first time they meet, Colometa, meaning little dove. this is almost like a warning of foreshadowing what Quimet\u2019s presence will bring her. It’s a starting juxtaposition, the meaning of doves being freedom and how much they “chained” Natalia to a life she hated. Her “time of the doves” was her lowest point, and a time where she found herself shrinking away, Natalia says, “I felt like they’d emptied me out of myself and filled me with something very strange. (pg 30)<\/p>\n
I was confused about what the war\/revolution was that was taking place. I am unsure about a lot of history, especially about war, and I felt kind of lost during this part. I thought it had something to do with the poor revolting against the rich, but the words \u201cred\u201d and \u201cfascism\u201d were used which pointed me to a more political answer. This war and the absence of Quimet triggered Natalia\u2019s intense struggle and the saddest part is that she is so desperate she plans to kill her children and herself to spare them. I took this quote from the text because it hit home how desperate Nat was and how much her family meant to her. \u201cIf we had to die we’d die together\u201d(pg 86). Also, the quote \u201cWith their ribs sticking out and their bodies all lined with bright blue veins, I decided to kill them.\u201d (pg 70). This part made me very sad.<\/p>\n
I actually didn\u2019t think there would be a \u201chappy\u201d ending for Nat, but the grocer was her saving grace. With his help, she was able to have a home again, and food to eat and to feed her children. I cannot even begin to imagine how that would feel, especially for the kids, to go from starving and dying to suddenly having your own room and a new set of everything. But this book truly captured the human spirit.<\/p>\n
My question for discussion today is about Nat and her kids – would you do anything different than Nat? Would you send Toni away to camp or even plan to do what Nat would do with the acid? What lengths would you go to protect your children?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wow! This book was so heartwrenching but amazing! the character-building and descriptions were truly encapsulating. Natalia\u2019s life was so beautifully captured, and I felt so immersed in the story. I\u2019ll admit at the beginning I was not into the book that much because of Quimet and how much I disliked him. I was upset at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86768,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[41,44,18,40,42,43,38,39],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-time-of-the-doves","tag-colometa","tag-dovecote","tag-family","tag-motherhood","tag-quimet","tag-spain","tag-time-of-the-doves","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/gracemeadowsrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/gracemeadowsrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/gracemeadowsrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/gracemeadowsrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86768"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/gracemeadowsrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/gracemeadowsrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/gracemeadowsrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/gracemeadowsrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/gracemeadowsrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/gracemeadowsrmst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}