Month: March 2026

Categories
Luiselli

You take the man out of the city, not the city out the man – Joe Keery

With our narrator saying “It all began in another city and another life” makes me think of how many people grow up in a place that shapes them, and may end up moving away to a place that suits them better (p. 1). “…in that apartment, in that other city” (p. 5). Choosing an environment — or, another city — can seem like a fresh start, but most of the time, the place that shaped you stays with you. Joe Keery, who plays Steve in Stranger Things, wrote a song “End of Beginning” that has the lyrics “You take the man out of the city, not the city out the man,” referencing how he moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, but lives with the influence of Chicago everyday. This is relevant to our narrator because she is writing a book in Mexico City but reflecting on her time in New York, perhaps even reminiscing, like her apartment with many holders of keys and the people who carry them. “Reciprocity, not generosity,” since she didn’t like to be alone (p. 7). Moby, Dakota, Pajarote, and even plants with a silent presence (p. 12).

However, our narrator tells her son that the story she is writing is a ghost story (p. 13). Are these people real? “Moby exists. Or perhaps not” (p. 8). Perhaps the title of the book references ghosts more directly; supposedly, Ezra Pound had seen his dead friend Henri
Gaudier-Brzeska in a large crowd (p. 14). The first time we see a “face in the crowd.” I often got the sense that somethings may have happened, or not. Perhaps everything was true, or made up, or exaggerated. The notes we see throughout the book about Owen; are they true, or are they based on Zvorsky our narrator could convince White to publish him? (p. 38). Perhaps she is also trying to convince us, and herself, that he was real.

I’ll answer the question from the lecture video: what other similarities did I notice between the main characters: the woman, Owen, and even the woman’s husband? Some correlations or repetitions I noticed was reflection in general; they loved to think back to their youth in New York and talk about the people they met. “… I thought I saw Owen’s face among the many other faces of the subway. It was only for a second. But I was sure he had seen me too” (p. 37). Another example of seeing a face in a crowd; perhaps we see who we want to see among many. The subway seems to be a meeting place between times, where Owen and our narrator can see each other.

My question: is this really a ghost story? Or is it a metaphor? I’d love to discuss what is fiction and fact – much like our narrators husband.

Categories
Agualusa

Fragments of Lies: The Book of Chameleons

I quickly realized why José Agualusa’s “The Book of Chameleons” was titled as such: many character’s take on different colours, changing based on their environments. Even the first-person narrator isn’t a chameleon, but a gecko. As stated in the lecture, the Portuguese original title means “The Seller of Pasts,” referencing the albino, Felix Ventura. The titles of the chapters are good examples of change too, correlating with the changing environments and characters of interest; “The House,” for example (pg. 7), then “The Foreigner” (pg. 13).

The perspective of the narration changes too, from first perspective, to second, to third: “I was born in this house…” (pg. 3), “A wide doorway takes you from the library into the corridor” (pg. 9),”Felix Ventura studies…” (pg. 15), and continues shifting perspectives throughout the book. Playing with perspectives is another example of “changing colours” (like chameleons), where our brains as readers can shift alongside the grammar and linguistics included in the different anecdotes.

The fragmented chapters puzzled me at times, however, making me confused, alongside the multitude introductions of characters. I think this correlated will with Eulálio’s day to day life where he slept all day (except when interrupted, like the scorpion appearing), and dreaming of conversations.

“Lies,” he explained, “are everywhere. Even nature herself lies. What is camouflage, for instance, but a lie? The chameleon disguises itself as a leaf in order to deceive a poor butterfly. He lies to it, saying. Don’t worry, my dear, can’t you see I’m just a very green leaf waving in the breeze, and then he jets out his tongue at six hundred and twenty-five centimeters a second, and eats it.”

 

He took my pawn. I was silent, dazed by the revelation and by the distant brilliance of the sea. I could only remember someone else’s phrase:”I hate lying, because it’s inexact” (Dream No. 5, pg. 122).

My question relates to this quote, as it’s the only time actual chameleons are mentioned: is Agualusa suggesting people can really change? Or are they putting on a mask, a face, lying to themselves and others, and regress to their old selves after they’re tired of blending into different versions in different environments? (Or can’t help it, since their past always seems to catch up to them.) It seems like this is the overall message, but I’d love to hear more people’s thoughts on this.

As for the psychology in this book, it seems to touch on false memories. It’s commonly known that people’s memories are unreliable, influenced by biases and heuristics. After-all, the world seen through our eyes shapes our truth. When Ventura gives the foreigner a new name and past, and it’s revealed “true” after Buchmann does some digging, suggesting his stories were not false at all. (Of course, the plot-twist was it was, which I enjoyed.)

The Book of Chameleons eBook : Agualusa, José Eduardo, Hahn, Daniel: Amazon.ca: Kindle StoreThe Book of Chameleons | Book by Jose Eduardo Agualusa, Daniel Hahn | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster Canada

Two different title pages of “The Book of Chameleons.” I like the cover page with the silhouettes of people because it foreshadows how people “change” too.

Sarah

Categories
Uncategorized

Money to Burn – Who knew giving gunmen a love plot would make me like a book?

Piglia must have done extensive research to complete this book, especially publishing it 12 years after the robbery happened. However, this impacted my engagement while reading. At times, I felt like the monologue was saying: “This happened at this time, this happened here, this happened there…” and recaptured my attention with the details of the characters.

I enjoyed this biography-esque based book that blended fiction and truth. I learned this was based on a true story where Argentine author Ricardo Piglia wrote something closer to home for him: a robbery done in San Fernando, Buenos Aries that left many dead, and money never recovered. Writing a novel with events such as The Battle of Liberaij is smart; it’s engaging, and feels more real and tangible.

I loved how each character had a nickname, including”Crow” Mereles’s girlfriend: Blanquita. I know “blanca” can be white in english, and “-quita” as a way to say “small.” AKA little white. Ironic considering the last book I read for this class, “The Lover,” had a nickname for the nameless French girl: petite blanche. Her nickname addressed her social and race class alongside power dynamics, and I think this applies and Blanquita where she’s 15 when she first meets the supposed gunman (pg. 14). However, I’m not aware of Mereles age, and Blanquita is middle-class (pg. 70). Even so, I think including people’s names and even nicknames points out how labels are powerful and hold meaning. “They call him the Gaucho, because he lived in the countryside for a long time, out in Dolores…” (pg. 91).

“Another Queen of the Night taken prisoner for disobeying the rules of trade” (pg. 80). I think this quote captures the rebellious feel of the book entirely. While this particular quote was addressing “the lad” who dressed like a queen who wore a lot of makeup was arrested, I think it also can be applied to the group of gunmen too. While they aren’t Queens, they are different, each with a trouble like a nervous disorder, OCD like symptoms, schizophrenia, and/or addiction, etc… and society tends to punish those who go against the norms, or “the rules of the trade.”

“The Kid might be powerful but he was kneeling there on the ground” (pg. 84). I liked this depicted contrast because it has hints if internal homophobia. At times, the Kid would leave the flat to meet other people, particularly men. When he met Giselle (but her name is Margarita), he also said, “1 like men, from time to time, ’cause when I’ve spent a long while without going out, I get bored.” Blaming his sexuality on boredom may be a coping mechanism through denial, especially when he’s been known to be sensitive when talking about his masculinity (pg. 91). I was sad when the Kid died in the Gaucho’s arms 🙁

My question: where did the Kid and the Gaucho’s hate for the police come from? (There doesn’t seem to be one answer, which I like.)

I would love to explore the idea of justice in this book more in class.

Sarah

 

Categories
Duras

“How could I know everything at 18, but nothing at 22?” TSwift and The Lover

“Never again shall I..” “From now on I’ll…” “I shall…” “I’ll always have…” (pg. 34). I miss the childlike naivety of knowing everything. While this paragraph seems to be the narrator reflecting on her life, it can also be a manifestation of the young girl determined to be with a man who is majorly, inappropriately, much older than her, but has money. The narration feels disconnected between reflection and description, so sometimes I found it puzzling to understand who’s voice was in focus.

“He’s weak, probably a helpless prey to insult, vulnerable” (pg. 38). I mean, yeah, a pedo is likely to have these characteristics because weak men prey on who they think is weak: children. “He’s twelve years older than I, and this scares him” (pg. 49). This man knows it’s wrong, even crying while having sex with her. “[He could] penetrate the other woman with his desire for her, the white child” (pg. 115). GROSS.

Yet no one intervened directly. Her mother of course did shame and hit her with the coaxing of the older brother (pg. 58 – 59). Although the elder brother is an asshole, the girl’s “desire obeys [her] elder brother, rejects [her] lover” (pg. 53). However, if the girl was seeing a white man, would her brother behave the same way?

Early on, the lover’s father said he “won’t let his son marry the little white whore from Sadec” (pg. 35). So it was definitely frowned upon, but it seems like the young child was punished more than the adult male, regardless of their race. This difference in punishment emphasizes an interesting dynamic: the girl has the privilege of being white, but the oppression of being a woman, while the man has the privilege of being a man, but the oppression of being Chinese. “From the first we knew we couldn’t possibly have any future in common” (pg. 49). Is this because they are both aware of their class difference, or race difference? Both? Something else? I think this text demonstrates the complexity of intersectionality and oppression well.

The dinner scene is sour. “We all treat my lover as [my elder brother] does. I myself never speak to him in their presence” (pg. 51). “…[my lover] could take any sort of treatment from me and still go on loving me” (pg. 51). These quotes show another layer of racism in this book where a white family, though impoverished, has the entitlement to ignore and dismiss a man paying for their meal because he is Chinese. Quote two takes it a step further, suggesting a rich Chinese man will romanticize white people despite how he is treated. Crazy entitlement from white people shown here (I say as a white woman).

As for my title, it seems as though our white french girl knows everything. She knows she uses her lover for his money, and he will always love her anyway. She knows what is expected of her as a white girl, and follows rules in public, especially around her older brother. However exploited, the narrator seems to know that, therefore knowing “nothing” at an older age.

My question: what would our French girl’s life look like if she had a father in her life?

Categories
Lispector

The Hour of the Star – YOLO

In the dedication by the author (actually Clarice Lispector), she wrote: “And—and don’t forget that the structure of the atom cannot be seen but is nonetheless known.” This poetic sentence seems to demonstrate a theme of the book where the narrator attempts to capture the unseen: Macabéa. “And my duty, however artlessly, to reveal her life” (pg. 5).

I didn’t like how the narrator wrote about how a male writer could only capture this story in a clear and meaningful way “because a woman would make it all weepy and maudlin” (pg. 6). Ironic as the author is female. I would think Lispector included this in the narrator’s perspective because a man would think this particularly in the time it was written. Perhaps even some men would think this now… which is why I appreciate reading books like this because it reminds us that problems and perspectives back then are still relevant today.

This book made me think of Vancouver and the experiences of the impoverished. With the cost of living increasing, and living paycheque to paycheque as a working student, I’m very aware of my privilege of having a family to fallback on worse case scenario. It makes me sad to think of Macabéa having shitty people in her life that she can’t rely on anymore after her aunt passed, and therefore anyone else.

I liked how we weren’t introduced to Macabéa’s name until about halfway through the novel; it felt as though we were learning who Macabéa was alongside the narrator, which I’m sure is purposeful (pg. 35). Landing on a name for a character — who’s “creator” claims to love this character alone — alongside him is quite fun (pg. 21).

I found it puzzling and uncomfortable how the narrator cared so much about Macabea’s “sex:” “mute but unexpectedly covered with thick and abundant black hairs— her sex was the only vehement sign of her existence” (pg. 61). This passage was sudden and surprised me. It seems to emphasize how the narrator is critical of her, however obsessed with creating her. As if to make his story successful, he talks about her as if she is living and breathing person, not someone who he has created in his head – in this way, I think it makes writing easier for him; however, he suffers from writing block and even gets tired of his characters (pg. 61). I love that detail.

And of course, with the full circle of “yes” makes this story seem very satisfying to end (pg. 3 and pg. 77). The ending feels like closure, even when it’s also open ended as the narrator points out we’re all going to die someday, and our stories continue until then. Since he played God the whole book, it felt like a poke at readers to remind us we don’t have a lot of control over our time of death. YOLO!

My question: “The girl did not know that she existed, just as a dog doesn’t know it’s a dog” (pg. 19). Why wasn’t Macabéa aware she existed/was unhappy?

Sarah

 

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