Conclusion

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Time flies, three months have rushed by, and this blog is surprisingly the last one of the term. I’ve really enjoyed reading, writing, and discussing with all of you this term, and have heard so many interesting ideas and perspectives. My expectation for myself at the beginning of the term was to read as much as I could, because it was really a rare opportunity to have a complete course to give me a taste of works from different countries and cultures. Therefore, I have chosen 11 books for this term. Of course, there were some difficulties in the middle of the term, for example, too many midterms and slow reading speed. Now, coming to the last week of the term, I am also proud that I did stick to it and managed to read 11 books!

Also, I really like the format of the class. From reading, to reflecting, to discussing, I feel like I’m chewing on a book over and over again. Honestly, before this course, I usually just read a book once. However, when I needed to write a blog, I had to recall the main points of the book in my head again and try to organize the logic to complete the blog. While taking the class, I was also able to often pick up on details that I hadn’t noticed while reading, which deepened my understanding of a book over and over again. It’s a way of reading that I think I’ll continue to do, and I’ve been very impressed with these 11 books.

I have also improved my reading speed and time planning skills by taking this class. It’s actually quite a pain in the ass when homework, exams and reading are going on at the same time. So, I got into the habit of reading before bed. This habit of reading at a fixed time also allowed me to escape from stress.

My favorite book was The Shrouded Woman, where the writer switched back and forth between the three points of view as if she were making me watch a movie, and the book placed emphasis on portraying the female psyche and physiology and was written entirely from female’s point of view. The opposite of this is Money to Burn. What I hated most about its willingness was that I didn’t see any respect for women at all in this book, and I can’t say that the book was bad, I can only say that I felt uncomfortable when I read it as a female reader.

I was wondering what your least favorite book is?

 

 

 

Week 12: Faces in the Crowd

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In this work with autobiographical overtones, Luiselli mainly tells three stories: that of a woman novelist working on a work memorializing her youth in the midst of a mildly trivial domestic life; that of a woman living in New York City years ago who was obsessed with publishing a collection of poems by the Mexican poet Gilberto Owen and was not above resorting to deception in order to do so; and that of the poet Owen, whose marriage had failed, and who years ago was living away in Philadelphia, where he was gradually losing his eyesight in the throes of cataracts.

In this richly experimental work, Luiselli naturally and decisively cuts up the continuum of time and space in which the story develops, and the repeated shifts in narrative perspective create a natural sense of fantasy. The passages about family life are the closest thing to a shallow awakening in this dream, as a boy (“he’s neither the big boy nor the little boy ” (p2)) and his unexpectedly arrived sister occupy his mother’s daytime and workstations. “I” writes: “Novels need a sustained breath. That’s what novelists want. “ and “I have a baby and a boy. They don’t let me breathe. Everything I write is—has to be—in short bursts. I’m short of breath” (p4). Indeed, Faces in the Crowd is a work of short breaths, with a preference for thin, short sentences shaping the novel’s distinctive flavor, a dizzying array of rapidly shifting perspectives and angles, and stretches of coherent fiction are invariably interrupted repeatedly by the boy’s thousand and one questions. However, unlike many more “realistic” authors, Luiselli doesn’t complain about or dramatize the pressures of family life on creativity although a few light silhouettes can reveal this thing. Instead, her restrained and precise writing suggests to the reader the subtle interplay between everyday life and writing. For example, “I” declares that her work is “A silent novel, so as not to wake the children.”(p3) This statement, on the one hand, separates the moment of writing from the laborious, fragile, and innocent life, creating a bitter sense of distance, and on the other hand, it is also a self-conscious recognition of the youthful years under the pen, which sets the emotional tone before more of the story unfolds.

Faces in the Crowd provides us with a clever metaphor for the work itself. Author Valeria Luiselli writes of it, “a dense, porous novel. Like a baby’s heart.” (p28)

My question is: other than this novel, what other novel is made up of fragments?

Week 11: The Book of Chameleons

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Honestly, when I initially saw the title of this book, I wondered if this was a book about chameleons, and I was even ready for it to be a book about chameleon science books. But when I finished the book, it was amazing to realize that this book is neither a science book about chameleons nor a book with chameleons as a clue, even in this book, chameleons are only mentioned once. ” ‘Lies,’ he explained, ‘are everywhere. Even nature herself lies. What is camouflage, for instance, but a lie? The chameleon disguises itself as a leaf in order to deceive a poor butterfly. He lies to it, saying. Don’t worry, my dear, can’t you see I’m just a very green leaf waving in the breeze, and then he jets out his tongue at six hundred and twenty-five centimeters a second, and eats it,’ ” (p122)

What’s even more interesting is that there are two main characters in this book, one of which is a gecko, and the book goes so far as to anthropomorphize the gecko and narrate in its own voice. In my eyes, this gecko of Eduardo Agualusa has a special symbolism. We can find this gecko was a man in his previous life, “Once, when I was in my old human form, I decided to kill myself. I wanted to die, completely. I hoped that eternal life. Heaven and Hell, God, the Devil, reincarnation, all that stuff, was no more than slowly woven superstition, developed over centuries and centuries out of man’s greatest terror. (p63)” Agualusa intersperses the text with these human recollections, depicting the past of others through the eyes of the gecko while also clearly recounting the past of the gecko “himself”. In addition, the main character, Ventura, feels that “the gecko smiles like a human” when he talks to the gecko on several occasions. The anthropomorphic writing style of these insinuations adds a magical touch to the form.

In addition to this, the gecko’s past life was painful, and it did not want to reincarnate and become human again, and in combination with the context of the Angolan civil war and the text’s idea that the gecko tried to commit suicide when it was human, and the solitary chapter that describes its confrontation with the rat in the crevice of the wall, we even get a sense of the gecko’s tightened breathing as it confronts the enemy, and the kind of dark fear that it falls into as it gazes at the enemy, and how in the end, when the rat walks away, the gecko the next day doesn’t not show up at Ventura’s house as usual as a result. We can guess that the gecko is a human being in addition to all the humans in the text, that it has experienced everything and foreseen everything, and that even if it is reincarnated as a gecko, it will not be able to escape from the precarious moment.

My question is: why does this book have the gecko as the first narrator and not any other animal?

Week 10: Money to Burn

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The book is an adaptation of a real case that took place in Buenos Aires and Montevideo in 1965. There is no doubt that this is a crime novel. Personally, this book really made me feel uncomfortable. The book is filled with tons of crime, drug use, robberies, shootings, etc., and even beyond that, there are some descriptions of the criminals’ psychology. I’ve read a lot of novels where the author would simply describe the crime process and put more on how to catch the criminals or even the life of the criminals in prison. This is because it’s usually hard for readers to empathize with criminals, most of them won’t understand why the crime was committed, much less care about how it was committed, but would prefer to have a stable society. Another reason why my brow furrowed when I read this book is because I would feel uneasy about the crime, even though I knew it was just a novel and that the story didn’t happen to me.

I disliked this book even more from a female perspective. I did not see any respect for women in this book. The word “whores” is mentioned over and over again, as if there is no other word to describe women. When women are mentioned in this book, you don’t feel equal as human beings, but rather as tools for men to play with, laugh at, and have fun with! On the other hand, I don’t know if this insulting of women is a way of portraying criminals, or in other words, if this insulting of women is a deliberate attempt by the author of this book to make the characters in this book more fleshed out or realistic (we all know that it’s based on real life events), or if it’s just a way of portraying criminals (i.e., it’s a default of the author to say that most of the criminals insult women). I tried to figure out if the insults were necessary, but obviously I didn’t find an answer. All I felt was very uncomfortable.

In fact, before reading this book, I was expecting the constant pull of self-conscience and criminal behavior. But after reading it, I saw violent crime and political undercurrents, and even the presence of corrupt behavior within the police. It’s not that this is wrong, it’s just that I saw so much darkness in this book that I felt overwhelmed.

My question is: Are there any other classic crime novels besides this one?

Week 9: The Lover

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“One day, I was already old, in the entrance of a public place a man came up to me. He introduced himself and said, ‘I’ve known you for years. Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young, but I want to tell you I think you’re more beautiful now than then. Rather than your face as a young woman, I prefer your face as it is now. Ravaged,”(p3)

A fifteen-year-old girl on the Mekong River is on a ferry from Sak Leh back to Saigon. Her mother runs a women’s college in Sa Lai, where she has a small residence for her vacation. She always took the car and the ferry from Sak Lek back to her boarding school in Saigon. Her family had come to Vietnam from France because of her father’s job transfer, and it had been a promising journey, but when he died, her mother had to open a girls’ college to support her daughter and two sons. When she was a child, her mother had spent all her savings to buy a piece of saline land in Cambodia. But the land authorities failed to tell her mother that the land, which was flooded by sea water for six months every year, was unsuitable for growing crops. Her mother and the locals prepared to build a dam, but were unable to do so until they went bankrupt.

On this river crossing at the age of fifteen and a half, the young girl befriends a wealthy Chinese businessman, a man twelve years older than her. One Thursday, the man takes her to a one-room apartment in the downtown area south of the city, where she gives up her virginity. The man is madly in love with her, and she needs his money for her bedridden mother.

In this work, the image of the “Chinese Lover” is obviously “mixed” in cultural identity, “feminized” in character and “servile” in behavior. “feminization” of the character’s personality and “slavishness” of the character’s behavior. When the girl and her lover meet for the first time, the rich Chinese businessman is dressed in a European-style suit and smokes an English cigarette as he gets out of his car. The young girl can tell at first glance that he is not white, but the man has studied in Paris, so he is able to pry at the young girl with all the details of the extravagant Parisian life. The man’s overseas experience and background greatly compensates for the racial gap in the young girl’s mind. At the same time, however, the man seems weak and lacking in masculine strength, a weakness that extends from the outside to the inside. He will moan and cry in a bad love; he wants to disobey his father’s order, but he keeps crying because he can’t find the strength of love to support him to overcome his fear. This also represents his inner sensitivity and his powerlessness to resist obedience and compromise. At the same time, we also see that he is only able to whisper his obedience and submission in front of his father.

My question is whether the complexity of identity that the author assigns to the male lover, i.e., the son of a wealthy Chinese businessman but with a background of studying in Paris, is a way to reflect the author’s ambivalence about different cultural identities, i.e., still having a sense of white superiority despite living in India?

Week8: The Hour of the Star

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She has never received a present; she has never received a letter in her life; she has never eaten in a restaurant; she has never eaten spaghetti; she is gentle and submissive; she never complains; the only thing she wishes for is to be alive; she fights off death by living very little; she doesn’t know what to live for; she lives to exhale and inhale and exhale and inhale; she lives to live; her life doesn’t matter; she doesn’t exist for anyone else; she’s just a accident; she has what she calls an inner life but she doesn’t know she has one; she never asks questions; she never thinks “I am me”; she is used to forgetting herself; she doesn’t pay attention to herself; she suffers every moment; for her, life is like a punch in the stomach. She is Macabea, the main character of this book.

Macabea was born with rickets, thinning hair, and a face just slightly stronger than dirt gray. Regardless of appearance, size, or health, Macabea does not seem to have the feminine gender appeal. But compared to the external factors of life, disease, and poverty, her internal handicaps are even more lamentable. She’s not an idiot, but she’s had a terrible life, and a big part of that is that she’s made a terrible life for herself. She slept in a cotton robe, stained with what was probably faded blood. She wasn’t very clean, rarely bathed, and smelled foul, and her roommate didn’t know what to tell her, so she didn’t end up saying anything. She didn’t have good hygiene habits, and she seemed to lack the inherent dignity of being an adult. But when we look at her upbringing in the context of her life, all the people she meets are just passing through her life and no one stays. Macabea’s life is like eating at a restaurant, where everyone else gets up and leaves when they’re done, leaving a table full of leftovers.

It seems to us that love, marriage and even sex are not all there is to a woman’s life, and that a woman has the right to choose them and the right to give them up. Women should have complete autonomy in their choices, and no one else has the right to say anything about it. But in this book, Macabea doesn’t. She desires it, but doesn’t have the right. She was born into misfortune, a person seen as unworthy of knowing, and has been in a situation all her life where she doesn’t deserve to be known. But when we think about it, if in reality there really is someone like Macabea, someone whose upbringing, whose heart, whose experiences we don’t know, what reason or obligation do we have to care for her? How is she to be treated and how will she build herself up without her ego, when her life has been so miserable and she has never felt true happiness?

My question is why did the author choose a male writer figure to be the narrator of Macabea’s story?

Week7: The time of the doves

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The book follows the life of a working-class woman named Natalia against the backdrop of World War II. Her relationship with her husband is at the center of the book. The novel reflects the traditional gender roles of the time, where women were expected to be caregivers and homemakers. We can find that in this book, Natalia’s life completely revolves around playing the role of wife and mother in the family life.

Early in the novel, Natalia’s early life of love and romance is depicted; Natalia meets Quimet while working as a seamstress, and their courtship and early marriage is depicted with a sense of romance and hopefulness; Quimet is initially charming and attentive, and Natalia is both kind and gentle, and of course, probably a little bit of girlish naiveté. She wears a white dress that matches almost all fictional depictions of heroines, as if it also foreshadows romantic and innocent love. Rightfully so, Natalia is drawn to Quimet, seeing him not only as charismatic, but also as a way out of her predicament.

But married life didn’t last long. In page 44, we can find “I made it to the bedroom and he followed me in and threw me on the floor and pushed me under the bed with his feet and jumped on top of the bed. When I tried to get out he’d slap my head above. ‘Bad girl!’ he shouted. And no matter where I tried to get out, whack! his hand would hit my head. ‘Bad girl!’ From then on he played that joke a lot”. The author’s use of the highly ironic word joke shows how a woman is hurt but not worth it to her husband, which can be quickly carried away with just the word joke. Is this really a joke? Of course not, it is evidence of Quimet’s abuse of his wife and his violent tendencies; Quimet does not treat his wife as an individual human being, but rather with disdain and disrespect. At the same time, there are two occurrences of the “bad girl”, is Natalia really bad? Of course not. Then why does Quimet emphasize it twice? I think there are two reasons. First, it’s because he’s trying to make a decent excuse for abusing his wife. And second, I think it’s a reflection of his controlling nature. He wants to “tame” his wife to be a “good wife” in his eyes. I use the word “tame” here because I feel that he does not respect his wife as a person, but rather oppressively demands that she follow his thoughts and will completely. What a terrible thing to do! It’s also completely patriarchal.

My question is: do you think this book is feminist fiction?

Week 6: Black Shack Alley by Joseph Zobel

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This book is a novel written in 1950 by Martinican author Joseph Zobel. The book paints a vivid picture of life on the French-colonized Caribbean island of Martinique through the eyes of a young boy named José. Through the eyes of the young protagonist, José, Zobel masterfully captures the struggles, hopes, and dreams of the marginalized inhabitants of Black Shack Alley.

Essentially, Black Shack Alley is a story of resilience and determination in the face of adversity. Against a backdrop of poverty and racial discrimination, Jose’s journey is fraught with hardships and struggles. However, despite the many obstacles he encounters, Jose remains steadfast in his pursuit of education and a better life. His unwavering determination serves as a beacon of hope in the midst of dark circumstances, inspiring readers to believe that it is possible to overcome even the most daunting challenges.

One of the most compelling aspects of Black Lodge Lane is Zobel’s vivid and evocative portrayal of Martinican culture and society. From the bustling Fort-de-France market to the vast sugar cane fields that dominate the landscape, Zobel’s prose transports readers to the heart of Martinique, immersing them in the sights, sounds, and smells of the island. Through his richly detailed descriptions, Zobel brings to life the vibrant tapestry of Martinican life, inviting readers to experience firsthand the joys and sorrows of its inhabitants.

Underneath this vibrant exterior, however, lies the harsh reality of poverty, oppression, and inequality. Zobel unapologetically tackles the injustices faced by the residents of Black Shed Alley, portraying with unwavering honesty the systemic racism and economic exploitation that pervades Martinican society. Through José’s eyes, the reader is confronted with the stark disparity between the privileged elite and the disenfranchised masses, highlighting the deep-seated inequalities that continue to plague the island.

Yet, despite his bleak situation, José refuses to succumb to despair. His indomitable spirit and unwavering optimism is a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit, reminding readers of the transformative power of hope and perseverance. In the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, José’s determination to carve out a better future for himself and his community becomes a source of inspiration and encouragement, encouraging readers to believe in the possibility of realizing meaningful change.

My question is: How do you see the relationship between education and breaking through to change your destiny? With limited conditions and resources, what is the breakthrough that will change your destiny?

Week 5: Agostino by Alberto Moravia

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To be honest, I didn’t feel so much at ease with this novel as I was disturbed by the realization that it was filled with desire and sex. The book focuses on the exploration of the tumultuous journey from childhood innocence to the precipice of adulthood, the exploration of adolescence, the exploration of physical structure and psychological maturity, and the exploration of innocence and desire. At the heart of the book is the story of a young boy in the throes of puberty named Agostino, whose sexual awakening triggers a series of emotions. The author uses a sun-drenched summer beach as the backdrop, using the beauty and quiet of the setting to set off the turmoil and turmoil of the adolescent boy’s psyche.

Agostino’s relationship with his mother is at the center of the novel, and she plays an important role in his life, both as a source of comfort and constraint. Their relationship is one of possessive love, a counterweight to dependence and defiance, and is at the center of Agostino’s journey of self-discovery. In the midst of a sensitive adolescence, Agostino finds himself longing for both autonomy and his mother’s approval, a contradiction that mirrors the pervasive struggle for independence and identity.

Throughout the narrative, Agostino’s burgeoning awareness of his own sexuality is depicted with a mixture of fascination, confusion, and apprehension. As he encounters the sensuality of the beach environment and the allure of the young girls who populate it, Agostino is drawn into a world of desire that both enchants and intimidates him. His interactions with these figures serve as a catalyst for his own awakening, prompting him to confront the complexities of his burgeoning desires and the social norms that govern them.

At the same time, Moravia explores the ways in which sexuality is intertwined with power dynamics and social hierarchies. Agostino’s fascination with Berto, for example, is not only rooted in a desire for intimacy but also in a longing for the freedom and autonomy that Berto represents. Similarly, his interactions with the girls on the beach are imbued with a sense of longing and longingness, as he grapples with the complex interplay of attraction and apprehension.

My question is: Have you ever experienced the confusion of adolescence, which can be physical or psychological? How did you get out of the confusion of adolescence, gradually form a sound personality and finally grow into the present shape?

Week 4: The Shrouded Woman by Maria Luisa Bombal

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The Shrouded Woman is a book centered on the perspective of a recently deceased, shrouded woman who has not yet been buried, and depicts the spiritual conversations, memories, and inquiries or questions that arise between this woman, lying on her hearse, and those who come to offer their condolences. Leaving the novel behind and entering the imagination, when a person dies but his soul is still in the world, we often say that this person must have some unfulfilled wishes or obsessions, and generally speaking, probably not some very good memories.

In this book, the author utilizes many ways of narrating with the perspective constantly shifting. We can think of these perspectives as lenses, the first of which can be described as a bystander’s perspective, or “God’s perspective”, which presents the reader with an overall view of the dead woman and the people who have come to offer their condolences. The second perspective is that of the dead woman, who looks at the mourners from her point of view, especially those who have hurt her, in order to engage in some dialog and ask questions. The third point of view is that of the mourners, who express what they want to say to the woman from their point of view. These memories build up the woman’s life, from her girlhood, with her companions, her sisters, her first love, to her marriage, with its wreckage and loathing of her husband, and her admirers, to her children, and finally to her death. In this recollection, the three perspectives shift back and forth.

It is her husband who gets the most ink in this book. When she was newly married, her husband was very nice to the woman, but the woman was a little resistant to the marriage, so after a while the woman got angry and ran back to her mother’s house, but when the woman went back to her mother’s house for a while, she realized that life wasn’t what she had imagined it would be like, and she was looking forward to her husband picking her up and hoping to have a good life with her husband again. But when she waited for her husband with joy, she was greeted by his cold words, and even she later realized that the tenderness of the newlyweds was pretended by her husband, and thus, hatred was born out of love. In this description, a woman’s physical and psychological thirst for her husband is depicted, and there are also some descriptions of sex, which may also be an important breakthrough in Latin American literature.

My question is: in this book, there are a lot of perspective shifting, did you read some other novels with perspective shifting?