Author Archives: rebecca chan

Ferrante

My Brilliant Friend

Unlike the past weeks where I had doubts about which books to choose, I knew for a fact that I wanted to read Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend. In the beginning of the year, I had just finished the HBO original, Scenes from a Marriage, and the HBO adaptation of My Brilliant Friend was recommended under the “more like this” tab. I watched the trailer and was definitely intrigued, but with the hour long episodes and the show being filmed in Italian, I decided to hold off on watching it until after. Also, I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to book to film and tv adaptation (mainly because so many of them never do the books justice!) so I wanted to wait until I could read the book first before watching the show. So, when it came to choosing books for this class, I was very surprised to see this book in this class’ text list and knew that I had to read it!

Revolving around the friendship between Elena/Lenù and Lila, the novel is split into two parts: one about their childhood and one about adolescence. Initially, I found myself being a bit confused with the names since they are so similar. However, my version of the novel came with a few pages that provided a list of the characters and a brief description of who they were. With the amount of characters being introduced, that list definitely helped a lot with keeping track of who everyone was.

The friendship between Elena and Lila is a great example of how complicated and intense female friendships are. From the beginning of the novel, Elena makes the remark that she’s “the only one who knows what [Lila] means” and it becomes clear that Elena and Lila share a secret language that only the two of them can understand (10). Nevertheless, it is also apparent that their friendship is not all sunshine and rainbows as she soon makes the comment that she couldn’t find a single item that belonged to Lila. As Elena to ponder the question of whether that was because Lila didn’t give her anything or if she didn’t want to keep anything from her, the readers get a sneak peak of the tumultuous friendship between the two.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading the novel and felt like the friendship being described was very relatable. After finals, I’m definitely going to go and watch the HBO show and am excited to see how well the adaptation will be!

Here are some questions for everyone else!

Elena makes the note that although Lila was “darling” to her, Lila was often viewed as “only terrible” (31). So, do you think the dynamic of the friendship would be different if it was told through the narration of Lila?

 

 

 

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Conclusion

Wow, how has time passed by so quickly! It seems like it was just last week when I felt intimidated by the workload and was scrambling to place holds on the Vancouver Public Library websites for all the books I wanted to read. But nope, it’s now week twelve and I can’t believe we’re at the end now!

I’ll admit that I initially had mix feelings about taking this course. There was definitely a bit of anxiety in the beginning because I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve never taken a course where there is a contract grading system and I had was unsure if I could handle what I was signing up for.

Also, I felt a little bit wary about not liking the books and having reading them seem like a chore for each week. However, that wasn’t the case at all! Although there were some texts that felt disengaging, I also found myself enjoying many books that I wouldn’t have read otherwise! Just to list a few, I really enjoyed Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse and Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend. After reading all the books, it is also clear that despite being novels written by different authors, there are many overarching themes that link them all together. I think the connection that all the books had made the experience reading them a lot richer! I even appreciate the books that I didn’t enjoy as much because of what they add to the themes and ideas presented in this course.

What I also grew to like are the weekly discussion! Initially, the class time that we had on Zoom felt a bit awkward and lacklustre, however the in-person classes were really engaging and fun! The day when we played Wordle and tried to come up with the longest summary of Georges Perec’s W, or the Memory of Childhood, is probably my favourite (this may or may not be influenced by how chocolates were given as a reward)!

Lastly, I think I also grew to enjoy writing these blogs and also reading what everyone else has to say! Finals season is coming up really soon and I wish the best of luck to everyone 🙂

For the last time, here are some questions for everyone else:

What was your favourite book from this course? Do you think you would have read it if it weren’t for this class? Also, is there a book that you think deserves or doesn’t deserve to be one of the required texts?

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Cercas

The Game of Two Truths and a Lie in Soldiers of Salamis

Reading Javier Cercas’ Soldiers of Salamis felt like playing a game of two truths and a lie. On the very first page, the narrator starts off with stating three things that have happened to him, however, he later reveals that he’s lying as only “the first two are factual” (3).

The question of whether the novel is a work of fact or a work of fiction only continues as the book progresses. For instance, the book is split into three parts: part 1 and part 3 follow the narrator’s journey to write his “true tale” about how Rafael Sánchez Mazas a firing squad while part 2, titled ‘Soldiers of Salamis’, is presumably the novel that the narrator ends up writing.

I’m not familiar with the history and the accuracy of what’s written, but the writing style of the second part of the novel mirrors what you would expect from a biography. Meanwhile, although the first and third part of the novel features real life individuals such as Roberto Bolaño, these two parts seem to be works of fiction. However, the narrator, also named Javier Cercas, makes numerous claims throughout the book that he is writing “is not a novel” but rather “a story with real events and characters” (161).

Notably, Bolaño replies to Cercas by saying that a novel and true tale are essential the same since  “all good tales are true tales, at least for those who read them, which is all that counts” (161). I found this statement fairly interesting and applicable to the rise in popularity of movies and tv shows based on true events/stories. In the past few months alone, there have been multiple shows  based on real life individuals: Pam and Tommy, Inventing Anna, and The Dropout. These shows, regardless of whether they are fully accurate or not, serve the goal of being entertainment so the line that separates them from being fact or fiction blurs and becomes irrelevant. Additionally, the disclaimer ahead of each Inventing Anna episode, “This whole story is completely true. Except for all the parts that are totally made up”, feels like it could be a tagline for Cercas’ book as well.

Alas, here are some questions for everyone else!

Near the beginning of Part three, the narrator makes the note that despite multiple rewrites and edits, he felt as if his book was “insufficient” and was “missing a part” (138). While reading Part two, did you feel the same sentiments? Also, do you think Part 2 is necessary for the book? Would the novel work if it was just published without the inclusion of Part two?

Also, when you watch movies/shows that are based on real life events or individuals, do you care if the events being portrayed are true or not?

 

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Bolano

Amulet

Roberto Bolaño’s Amulet starts the novel starts off with a thrilling note as the first few lines are: “This is going to be a horror story. A Story of murder, detection, and horror” (1). However, the narrator, who is later revealed to be a Uruguayan woman named Auxilio Lacouture, makes the quick distinction that the story won’t appear to have those traits because of her narration.

I agree with that statement because this book did not feel like a horror story or even fit its description of being a “story of a terrible crime”(1). Instead, I found that this book felt like reading a stranger’s diary. In particular, since there are many references that the narrator makes to real life individuals and historical contexts that I’m not familiar with, I felt lost at times. The best example of this is on page 159 where the narrator makes a series of prophecies about historic figures and how they will regain a sense of relevancy in the future. Nevertheless, apart from Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf, I wasn’t aware of who the other individuals were. However, interestingly enough, the dates for the years when everyone else is supposedly prophesied to become significant are still decades away. So, maybe in 2045, I’ll be aware of who César Vallejo and Jorge Luis Borges are and read their books underground?

Moreover, I noticed that chapters would often start with a line that would directly relate back to the last line of the previous chapter. For instance, chapter four ends with “Although I could also have gone crazy” (41) and leads to chapter five starting with “But one thing stopped me from going crazy” (43). With the combination of this novel’s short length, it made it a fairly quick read.

Hence, since Bolaño made such an effort to link each chapter, I began to question why he chose the name the book “Amulet”. Until the last line, “And that song is our amulet”, there isn’t any other mention of the word amulet (184). However, since amulets are supposedly objects or tiny trinkets that possess magical capabilities to protect individuals from diseases and dangers, could it be a direct reflection to the novel’s first line? To elaborate, my thoughts are that maybe the narration style of Lacouture acts as an amulet that keeps the tone lighthearted and prevents it from becoming like a classic horror story.

That concludes my thoughts about this novel, but here are some questions for everyone else!

When authors make references to real world individuals/events that you are unaware of, do you google it to gain the context or do you ignore them? Do you think those references affect your ability to be engages or understand the novel? Also, what are your thoughts on why Bolaño decided to name the novel “Amulet”?

 

 

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Fuentes

The Old Gringo

There was a choice between Norman Manea’s The Trenchcoat and Carlos Fuentes’ The Old Gringo for this week’s reading. As the name of this blog post indicates, I chose the latter, but hen I heard about Norman Manea joining in on a class discussion, I questioned whether I made the right decision. However, although it would have been interesting to hear directly from an author about their book, I ended up really enjoying reading Fuentes’ novel.

What made me choose this novel in the first place was because of its description on the “Which texts” page of the course website. The Old Gringo was described to be the “closest we have here to a romance” and I was excited to see how it would play out.

The main romance of this novel is between the Old Gringo and Harriet. However, the connection between the two constantly switch from being portrayed either as romantic or like a father-daughter relationship. A really great example of this is that the Old Gringo, himself, describes seeing Harriet as an “elegant thirty-one-year-old woman who reminded him of his daughter, and his wife when she was young” (140). Despite the character’s own confusion about how he feels about Harriet, within just a few pages, he “kissed her like a lover” (146). To make things even more confusing, after that moment, Harriet tells the Old Gringo that “in you I have a father” (147). However, it is seemingly decided that the relationship leans towards being a romantic one as the Old Gringo comes to the conclusion that Harriet is a “beautiful woman who could be his wife or his daughter but was neither, only herself, at last” (147).

Also, I found out that there is a film adaptation of this novel that stars Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda. The trailer for the movie also seems to lean towards portraying the relationship to be romantic. Additionally, I watched this one scene of the movie and although the age gap is more apparent, it’s clear that the two characters are lovers.

Anyways, here are some questions for everyone!

What are your thoughts on the relationship between the Old Gringo and Harriet? Did you read it as more of a paternal relationship or a romantic one? Also, from the lecture video, I learned that Ambrose Bierce, the Old Gringo’s identity,  is actually a real person. Why do you think Fuentes chose to base his character on a real person instead of creating a complete fictitious one?

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Perec

W, Or the Memory of Childhood

With two narratives being told in alternating chapters, I felt a bit lost at times while reading Georges Perec’s W, or the Memory of Childhood. I personally found that the switches between the fictional story of W and Perec’s memoir sections to be a bit disruptive and made it difficult to maintaining the flow of reading.

There is W, the fictitious story that starts off with a mystery about of Gaspard Winckler. Although there were some parallels with both the narrator of W and Perec being adopted after the death of their parents, I wasn’t able to catch up on too many connections between the two stories.

However, in the second part of the story, with the introduction of the island W, there were some clear references to Nazi concentration camps. The island seems a bit odd at first with it being described as “a land where Sport is king, a nation of athletes where Sport and life unite in a single magnificent effort” (67).

As the book furthers, the island becomes more and more disturbing. From the age of 14, boys are put into rigorous training programs at four villages where they train for the games. Additionally, the stakes of those games are also fairly high as losers can either be punished with humiliating acts such as being forced to run nude or be sentenced to death. The latter option is brutal as the athlete would be stoned to death by the crowd and then have his corpse on “displayed for three days in the village, suspended on the butcher’s hooks….before being thrown to the dogs” (111).

Moreover, although women on the island of W don’t have to compete in the games, their fates are filled with horrors too. Instead of heading to the villages, they are sent to the Women’s Quarters where their days are filled with doing tasks such as making the tracksuits, and domestic chores. The only time that they are permitted to leave the Quarters is during the Atlantiads; a disturbing monthly even where women have to run nude around a track and the athletes are sent out to chase them and when they catch up, it often results in their rape. All in all, I found the story of W quite disturbing, although I think that could have been the intention of the author as he grapples with the horrors Nazi camps.

With that said, here are some questions for everyone:

Why do you think the title is W, or the Memory of Childhood instead of W, and the Memory of Childhood? Is this supposed to reference the blurred lines between the non-fiction and fiction parts of the story? Also, do you think that the stories would make sense if they were published as two different texts?

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Rodoreda

The Audacity of Quimet

Although Mercè Rodoreda’s The Time of Doves was a fairly easy read with its short chapters and simple narrative style, I found myself getting frustrated with a particular character. In particular, my frustration wasn’t caused by the actions of the narrator, Natalia, but instead revolves around her love interest, Quimet.

Quimet displayed a few red flags in the beginning of the novel, but as the story preceded, he only got more insufferable. To start, when he first meets Natalia, Quimet, despite knowing that Natalia had a fiancé, makes the bold claim that he’ll marry her by the end oof the year.

However, he soon goes from calling Natalia his “queen” to treating her like crap, for a lack of a better word (17). Although it starts off quite innocent, small incidents such as Quimet being unforgivingly late to a date with Natalie soon build up to fits of jealous anger. For instance, he demands Natalie to quit her job because he thinks that her boss is hitting on her and when Natalie protests, he “grabbed [her] neck and shook [her] head from side to side” (25).

That should have been a red flag for Natalie to end the relationship for good, but somehow Natalie manages to forgive Quimet and the toxicity of the relationship only grows. His jealousy fits only continued as he later falsely claims that he saw Natalie with Pere and makes her kneel and apologize to him.

The relationship doesn’t get any better when they get married with Quimet continuing to treat Natalie poorly and make up  excuses for why he can’t do better.  At this point when my empathy for Natalie also shifted to a bit of frustration for why she didn’t choose to end the relationship earlier. Quimet has only displayed traits that make him a walking red flag, yet Natalie seems to look past them.

Going back to when Quimet and Natalie took a three week break because of the argument regarding her boss, Natalie had showed  signs of regrets for ending her previous relationship. During that time, she also compares her relationship with Quimet to the one she hade with Pere and her only complaint about Pere was that he was “too caught up in his job” (25).

So, I’m wondering why she didn’t attempt to get back with Pere? Although she may physically spend time with Quimet, he clearly doesn’t value her presence as he would “talk like [she] wasn’t there” so what made a relationship with him more attractive than one with Pere (28)?

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Sagan

xoxo, Cecile

Françoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse was a very fun read, but I quickly grew to have conflicting feelings about the main protagonist. In fact, many of Cécile’s thoughts and actions reminded me a lot of Blair Waldorf from the tv series, Gossip Girl (the one that first aired in 2007 – not to be confused with whatever mess the 2021 version was). The two characters share many similar traits that make them endearing but also infuriating at the same time.

Firstly, both Cécile and Blair are privileged teenagers who have the same tendency to scheme and manipulate situations to their liking. Cécile’s claim of how she loves the “pleasure of driving in a high-powered car, of buying a new dress, records books [and] flowers” (19) mirrors the extravagant and luxurious life that Blair Waldorf lives in New York City as a wealthy heiress.

Furthermore, Blair’s mother, Eleanor Waldorf, is a successful fashion designer that also shares a few similarities with Anne Larsen. In addition to how they share the same career, there are also many parallels between their relationships with Cécile and Blair. For instance, although both of Blair’s parents are alive, her parents are separated so she mainly lives with her mother in New York City’s Upper East Side. Blair clearly looks up to her mother and craves her validation yet finds herself annoyed at her when she doesn’t meet her expectations. One example of this is when Blair disapproves of her mother’s decision to marry a man and creates a whole scheme as an attempt to break off their engagement.

This is very similar to how Cécile “greatly admire[s]” Anne for being a smart and beautiful woman (10) yet found herself “irritated by the discovery that she was vulnerable (15-16). Her disappointment from finding out that Anne is in love with her father and their plans for marriage leads her to create a scheme involving her father’s ex-lover, Elsa, and Cyril, a man who’s infatuated with her. In the end, her plan succeeds, but it also results in a tragedy with the death and possible suicide of Anne. Cécile is left feeling describing her father and herself as “alone and unhappy” (128). However, Cécile later finds herself “happy” (129) when she falls in love with Anne’s cousin and her father moves on to a new lover.

This ending leaves me with a lot of questions for what Cécile’s life beyond the story’s end:

Do you think Anne’s death will have any impact on Cécile’s growth as a person? Will she be less inclined to scheming or do you that it’s inevitable that she’ll repeat the cycle? Also, do you think Cécile’s behaviour stems from her own insecurities?

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Nada, Week 4

Carmen Laforet’s Nada

Although I made the choice of choosing to read Carmen Laforet’s Nada over Alberto Moravia’s Agostino weeks ago, I began to question whether I made the right decision when I saw the amount of blogs written on Moravia’s novel instead of Laforet’s.

What drew me to read this book initially was the description that the professor gave. The “Which texts” page on the course website mentioned how we might relate to the protagonist since she is also a university student. Since this book was published in 1945, I was curious to find out whether the protagonist’s experiences would still be relevant today.Nevertheless, I continued to read Nada and was not disappointed at all!

To start, although it was interesting to follow the story of a young woman in university, I was quickly more intrigued by the gothic and mystery tone of this book. For instance, on just the fifth page, the protagonist, Andrea, goes from describing her stay at Barcelona to be an “exciting adventure” to a “nightmare” (5).

Since I have a tendency to visualize books while I’m reading them, many of the passages in this text also set a haunting tone and image in my head. For instance,  Andrea’s first impression of how the home “seemed like a witches’ house” and how her bed “resembled a coffin” leads me to imagine the apartment to be similar to a haunted house (8) (9). In addition, with descriptions such as Juan having a “face full of hollows, like a skull in the light” and Andrea’s aunts being “ghostly women”, I could also imagined them to resemble characters from a Tim Burton movie (6).

Also, I noticed how many of the chapters left on a cliffhanger of some sorts that made the story feel engaging and exciting to read. This was a shift from many of the other books, because there was an actual narrative structure to follow through. Furthermore, after every chapter, the reader is able to learn a little bit more about every character and what their intentions are. One character that I was particularly intrigued about was Román. Since the beginning of the book, there was a lot of mystery revolving around him and I was confused about what his intentions were.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and here are some questions for the class:

Do you think the comparison of the characters and tone to a Tim Burton movie is valid? Also, for those who read Agostino, I’m curious to know why you decided to choose that book instead!

 

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Bombal, Shrouded Woman, Week 4

A Shrouded Woman’s Wake

Although it may be premature since we’re not even half way through the reading list, I personally really enjoyed reading María Luisa Bombal’s The Shrouded Woman and can see it being a text that I’ll remember this course by. With the combination of having a faster pace and being a short read, I was able to finish the book in just one sitting, in about two hours or so.

With every page read, I was excited to move on to the next to learn about the different relationships that the narrator, Ana María, had with the individuals present at her funeral. In addition, as the narrator takes on different roles (ie. as a mother, wife or lover) in each of her relationships, it was interesting to see how those positions affected how she interacted with the people around her. This gave a lot of depth to Ana María as a character which was refreshing to read (especially since the last reading had a protagonist who would objectify women)!

On the course site, the songs listed for this week are “Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads and “It’s the End of the World” by REM. However, while reading this text, I also couldn’t help but think about the song, “My Tears Ricochet” by Taylor Swift instead.

There are many parallels between the story that the novel and the lyrics of the song are telling with the most obvious similarity being that they both feature a deceased woman who’s looking around at attendees to her funeral and recalling memories that she’s had with them. In particular, many lyrics of the song draw comparisons to the relationship that Ana María had with her husband, Antonio. For instance, I found that the lyrics in the chorus,  “And if I’m dead to you, why are you at the wake?/Cursing my name, wishing I stayed/Look at how my tears ricochet” really similar to passage about how Antonio “buries his face in his hands” and is “crying at last” when he is near his deceased wife’s bed (229)(230). This undoubtedly  comes to a surprise to Ana María as Antonio had a “lack of love” for his wife when she was alive (227).

I had this song stuck in the back of my mind the whole time I was reading this text so I’m wondering if anyone else in the class can relate to associating certain readings with songs! If you do, do you find yourself finding similarities that the story has with the lyrics or the overall “vibe” of the song instead?

 

 

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