This week’s reading was The Trench Coat. The book takes place in Romania under the communist regime and to be frank, I did not enjoy reading it. I was on the treadmill while reading the beginning section and what I captured was the copious amounts of drinking such as whisky and vodka, which coincidentally, is also the drink of choice for this week’s lecture. Aside from the drinking the phrase, “yes, yes” seems to permeate through the beginning and midsections of the book, which makes me wonder what the intent behind the double yesses mean. A possible interpretation I have is that it is either a way to convey a message (whatever it is) in the translation or an emphasis that the author is making, but again, I am not sure. I do not really understand this book.

Interestingly, the front page title of this book says Compulsory Happiness. I would not say  that this title would resonate nor correlate with the book, but it also makes me wonder, did I read this book “correctly?”  This book obviously does not make you “happy” and it was overtly not my cup of tea. Arguably, being on the treadmill at a high incline while reading this could be one of the reasons why I did not particularly indulge it, but also I found myself bored early on. It felt like there was not enough entertainment or heated moments in the book, so it was like I was reading a story of almost pure dialogue with a hint of mini-events. In addition, the characters were hard to like or feel connected to, but I did feel like Dina should have been treated better.

It is notable that thematic elements such as politics would not usually be made for entertainment, but rather to highlight particular matters for example, political upheaval or its effects. The book itself is short, but I like a lot of what I was reading projected as either borderline confusing or up to interpretation. The ending of the book was somewhat of a cliffhanger, further exacerbating the confusion. For example, I could not interpret what the raincoat or trench coat symbolizes in the book, and I’d thought the author intended for the readers to think about what the trenchcoat really means. I had only imagined the trenchcoat to be an enigma or a roaming spirit in which the readers are subjected to think about what it symbolizes.

For this week’s question:

How did you all approach this book?