February 2026 – catsfeelingsaboutliterature

Time of the Doves

I’m feeling a frenzy of emotions right now, I don’t know what to write about. Maybe because I’m in forestry where they don’t believe in heating??? My hands are frozen but I’m kinda sweating too? And I’m hungry. Really craving baby octopuses right now but I’ll settle for some Tims hash browns.

First thoughts were please, please don’t marry this guy, he is clearly bad news. Would he be considered abusive? Or just toxic and manipulative? I hate him. Maybe that’s harsh, he did do some providing but he just freakin sucked with his imaginary leg pain and refusal to do hard work and leaving it all to her. His selfishness was appalling. Do you think she would she have had a better life with Pere? A lot of later sadness and hardship came from the death of Quimet and being left with no way to provide due to the war but much began with his mistreatment when he was present. I was rooting for her and Mateu from the start. Maybe I was reading too much into that, but you know Natalia is into someone when she starts raving about their eyes, as we see it’s one of the first things she notices and remembers about Quimet, “He had little eyes like a monkey” on page 16. She later cannot sleep as she fixates on Mateu’s eyes after his visit, “I thought about Mateu’s eyes which were the same color as the sea.” on page 109.

Rodoreda made me feel like I was going crazy right alongside Natalia. The section “I heard was doves cooing. I was killing myself cleaning up after the doves. My whole body stank of doves. Doves on the roof, doves in the apartment. I’d see them in my dreams.” on page 100, captured me and gripped me tight. I felt like I was spiralling in circles, surrounded by a flurry of doves, suffocating in reeking feathers. As Natalia’s hate of the doves grows, and she is made to clean up after them and feed them, even after long days at work, while her husband and children simply enjoy the pleasure of them as pets and as a ‘business’, further emphasizes the selfish nature of Quimet and his character sinks even lower in my esteem. Surely if the doves were his stupid business plan, he should be looking after them??

I have so much sympathy for this woman. I cried with happiness when Antoni Sr gave her a lifeline because the hydrochloric acid bit was terrifying me. To answer a question from the lecture video, on whether I judged Natalia for these plans; I did not judge her at all. She was in a heartbreakingly difficult situation, watching her children and herself slowly starve to death, she simply wanted it over faster for them, so their suffering could end.

I really enjoyed this book.

Note: I’m not sure if some pages were missing from this book, a few were mysteriously blank.

Black Shack Alley

This book left me feeling quite despairing. I knew we were going to lose M’man Tine as soon as things started looking up for José but it still devastated me. She fought so hard for that boy, and he in turn was kept going with the hope of making her life better when he finished school. I think I’m going to focus on M’man Tine for this blog because she deserves some appreciation.

Her story is depicted through the lens of a young boy, at the time, unaware of her sacrifices, as she labours all day, barely making enough to scrape them by, while he frolics with his friends, causing mayhem around the Alley. José as a child was pretty infuriating, just as a reader, nonetheless to poor M’man Tine who fed, housed, and clothed the boy her daughter left her to deal with, while he broke her bowl, and tore his clothes to shreds. Admittedly, I was a little wary of her to begin with, she seemed extremely strict, however unfortunately that was a necessity of raising a child in that environment, it seemed. We also recognize fairly early on that M’man Tine intends better for José than the other children of Black Shack Alley. The perspective of his carefree attitude during his time at Black Shack Alley, compared with how hard we know M’man Tine was working shows how oblivious children can be to the world, but also perhaps how well José’s grandmother sheltered him from certain hardships, as she wanted to create a better life for him. Do you think José would have had a similar path if he had been with his mother his whole life?

As José grew up, and began to understand his position in the social, and financial hierarchy. To me, much of this realization came when his grandmother fell ill, and he fell out of the bubble she kept him in. No longer under the care of M’man Tine, José is hungry and dirty, struggling to concentrate in school. Even when she returns to him, we seem to see a new side of the poverty affecting his life, Previously they got by well enough, but now money for education, suits, and shoes is needed. The death of Mr Médouze also seemed a catalyst for change, perhaps an event which spurred M’man Tine to provide a different future for her grandson.

I didn’t want this book to end, I so wanted to read a happy ending for these characters who have all worked so hard and sacrificed so much for each other, in hopes of a better future for their family. But I know it doesn’t work like that, and the feelings of hopelessness and unjustness this book leaves me with are proof of a book well written.

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