This book was beautiful and vivid! It was truly a pleasant read for me. The run-on sentences had me stumble a few times, but made for truly lively imagery. My favourite line of imagery is ‘a drop of oil would run straight down her back’ (p. 169).

At the end, I was wondering how Natalia’s life would have been if she married instead. I was worried for Natalia at first when she met Quimet and said ‘he said if I wanted to be his wife I had to start by liking everything he liked’ (p.22). What a great start to a relationship with bold statements like these and changing her name upon meeting her! At times, their relationship seemed loveless to me, but Natalia was so imprinted by Quimet. This could also be because those were fundamental years of her life, riddled with war, poverty, and suicidal ideation. I feel like if she had been married to any man during that period, she would have the same attachments and flashbacks. I would love to hear other interpretations, though. Do you think Natalia truly loved Quimet and vice versa?

Something that I thought was sweet was the tie between when Father Joan tells Natalia ‘in all the marriages I’ve performed – all the good ones, that is – the bride wore a wedding gown’ (p. 39) and the ending where Natalia says ‘in a good marriage the bride always wears a wedding gown’ (p. 188). Natalia’s past, the good and the bad, always follows her and ultimately helps her find peace in the ending. This is quite evident in the symbolism of the birds and flowers. I had difficulty understanding the true symbolic meaning of the doves as I felt that it changed situationally. I hope that we will get to discuss this part in class. I also struggled with the symbolism of the balls in the church on pages 150 and 151, so if you are reading this and have any insights, please share!

At the end I still wanted to know who is Maria to Quimet? I wish there was more of a background for why he was the way he was. I thought that the ending was sweet with Natalia’s description of her touching Antoni’s belly button. On page 63, the midwife tells her that ‘the belly button is the most important part of the body’ about Antoni Jr./Toni. There are a few references following this, but have this action at the ending shows how Natalia carries the same values and lessons.