I’m not sure if it was just the version of the novel that I had, but certain parts of the story resembled poetry to me. Not only with how it was written, but how it was visually represented on the pages. With some sentences cutting short and then finishing them in subsequent lines that have been spaced out. Sometimes even stretching a couple sentences over half of a page to a full page with so much spacing. I liked it though. It gave me something to engage with more. A wall of text on each page can feel overwhelming, so this broke it up a bit and allowed me to take time to process things better.

The story as a whole was not so interesting to me though. I’m usually into mystery-type of stories, but maybe more recent ones that I can relate to more. This novel tackled some concepts, like a civil war and a death wish that Bierce had. Which objectively didn’t intrigue me. Although war is an important concept, it’s just not something I find compelling to read about. And the fact that Bierce had a death wish was dispiriting. I could never bring myself to such a thought – I actually, disregarding reality, would like to live as long as the world does. Even though that may not be such a pleasant experience, that’s something that sparks my curiosity – like what it would be like so long from now – I want to be there for it.

Furthermore, the way the relationships are depicted as the novel plays out are strange. The whole forceful sexual encounters and incestual-seeming (but not) bond between the old gringo and Harriet. It wasn’t easy to wrap my mind around. It was disturbing, but also just difficult to understand how one could be attracted to someone that they felt was like their daughter. That was just not something I’d properly thought about before – I guess it had caught me off guard.

I wouldn’t say I enjoyed nor disliked the text. This novel was just a story with an odd concept. Maybe I would have been able to connect to it if I knew more about that era and how the times were.

For this week my question is, what do you think drives one to a death wish? It could be the unknown, or the fact that you do know there is an end. Maybe you would have to be in some sort of existential state of contemplation. Let me know!