“Faces in the Crowd” by Valeria Luiselli was definitely a difficult book to follow because of the narratives that uniquely intertwine with each other through different time, space, and vagueness between reality and fiction. This narrative structure deviated from providing a straightforward plot and offered an experience where readers are piecing together various fragments of memories and creative imaginations. The unnamed protagonist, a young mother and writer living in Mexico City, reminisces about her past life in New York which was filled with excitement and social interactions. She is also obsessed with Gilberto Owen who is a Mexican Poet from the 1920s. The narrative frequently shifts between her present life, her past life in New York, and her imagined connection with Owen. As a result, it becomes pretty hard to follow what is going on with the story in a linear fashion, and perhaps it is done on purpose. 

The fragmented narrative also reflects the protagonist’s internal struggle between being a writer and a mother/wife. Her desire for creative expression is constantly compromised by the demands of daily life(in her current life). The only time she can write is when her baby is asleep, and even then, she needs to be really careful so that the baby doesn’t wake up and start crying. She mentions “Novels need a sustained breath… 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”. The perpetual contrast between different lifestyles of the present and past emphasizes the mundane nature of her life now compared to the stimulating life she had in New York. 

The use of the subway as a setting is also an element that ties the different narratives together. In the subway, Owen spots the woman in the red coat who is supposedly the protagonist. Whether this is real or not, the subway functions as a space where different narrators/storylines intersect momentarily, where the boundaries between the living and the dead, the past and the present, blur. Such a point of contact was kind of mysterious and confusing, but again, I guess this was deliberately done. I also think the subway as a place represents the temporary and unstable nature of our lives. People constantly drift in and out of the subway and our lives are also in constant motion like the subway. 

Regarding the book’s metafictional nature, I remember “Hours of the Star” also had a lot of meta reflection within the novel. I feel like in “Hours of the Star”, the narrator talked a lot about the limits of the narrative and storytelling. In contrast, I think this novel illustrates how free the narrative and storytelling can be. The novel mentions a lot about the exciting yet demanding nature of the writing process. Moreover, the non-linear structure of the novel itself, juxtaposing past and present, memory and imagination, serves as a testament to how unique and creative writing can be. 

Discussion Question: What do you think Luiselli wanted to emphasize by those connections between different storylines?