“Faces in the Crowd” was undoubtedly one of the most challenging books I have ever read in this class. This novel requires immense attention and sophistication as the narrator constantly switches back and forth from the perspective of the narrator to Gilberto Owen, a Mexican poet who is featured mostly in the latter half of the novel. Initially, I thought that the narrator and Owen have separate storylines featured in the same novel. However, upon further reading and reflection, I noticed that this trend has become more complex. On several occasions, I had to rewind and re-read the parts that I had overlooked, but seemed rather significant to the plot. For instance, Luiselli writes, “But the days those things begin to arrive – the blindness, the cats, the ghosts, the pieces of furniture… I knew it was the beginning of the end” (37), and “All novels lack something or someone. In this novel there’s no one. No one except a ghost that I used to see sometimes in the subway” (38). As for Owen, he says, “He replied that I was a ‘subwanker’ and that instead of going around looking for ghosts where there weren’t any, I should send him a poem about a subway…” (48). The multiple references to ghosts from both voices evoke a sense of unconsciousness and the blurred boundaries between fictionality and facts. The element of “ghosts” is shared by both voices as if they form a parallel narrative with one another. The fragmentation of memories from both characters brings about realism; at the same time, I don’t think it’s entirely appropriate for me to categorize Luiselli’s novel as a work of fiction. This novel transcends the conventional boundaries of what constitutes fiction or not.

The convergence of the two voices is most prominent toward the end of the novel, especially when the narrator and Owen seem to be in conversation with one another. The narrator says, “Autumn leaves are falling down and Papa’s missing” (76), and this is instantly replied by Owen “I feel the blazer that covers my eyes rising, the heart of the room entering and shaking my body, the excited voice of a little boy beating my face: Found!” (77). I think that this key scenario is when the two storylines ultimately converge as one; no one is stealing anyone’s light here. As the narrator’s son plays hide and seek in his own space, he discovers Owen, as evident by Owen’s line above. It seems that Owen has even become the father in the narrator’s storyline. Owen physically senses the boy beating his face; this makes me wonder if the characters finally perceive each other’s existence in the same space now. The idea of space alludes to the constant references to ghosts that I have previously mentioned since ghosts are not constrained by time and space. Hence, this allows Luiselli to deconstruct the linearity of time and utilize the idea of space to develop a parallel plot.

My question for this reading is: How does the anonymity of the narrator contribute to the idea of fictionality and fact featured in the novel?