Hello, welcome to this weeks blogpost, and technically the last post about an actual book, this week I read “Faces in the Crowd” by Valeria Luiselli. I had some pretty high expectations for this book, partially for being one of the last ones of the semester, but mainly because it was written by a Mexican woman, and as a Mexican woman myself I though I would surely understand the novel and could even appreciate it on a deeper level, but I was quite sad when I kept trying to connect with the book in some way and came up empty handed, perhaps it is on me for putting that many expectations on a single novel but what I thought would be one of my favourite novels in this course ended up being the most confusing one in my opinion. I found the style of writing to be complicated and hard to keep up with, the idea of novels within novels and toying with time sounded interesting to me but I kept having to go back in the book to (attempt) to understand what was happening.
There are aspects of this book that I found interesting, I think this whole novel was made to bend our comprehension of linear things, mixing the past with the present, bending reality and fiction to points where you are unsure if they are separate things. But again as much as I tried to enjoy the book, a new passage would come along and I would have 3 different questions about what was happening, like for example I was both surprised and even more confused about the thought of the book we are reading being the “stolen” idea that Gilberto had. And I have to admit, I never fully understood why the woman became so obsessed with Gilberto and why it was so intense.
I kept telling myself that I would like this book more if I just had a better memory to keep up with the different plots and their points of convergence but I think its more than that, when I read “If you give them a pen, they write you a horribly boring novel in which each line is there for an ultimate reason: everything links up, there are no loose ends. ” I realized the novel just wasn’t for me, apparently I like my books boring, with more linear timelines and a little less reality bending, still I do not think it’s a bad book it just simply not for me, and I think that is okay too.
My question for this reading is, how did you perceive the book? was it like bits and pieces combined? or more like a story within a story? where they happening at the same time? (asking because I genuinely feel a bit too lost on this one)
Hello, hello,
I was also thoroughly confused by this book. I personally did not like the fragmented structure too much as it made the book rlly hard to follow.
Nice blog post!
Ximena, I’m sorry to hear you couldn’t connect to the book! The style is defintely something that can be seen as complicated. And it does require quite a bit of going back and re-reading. Very interesting quote you picked about writing as novel! I totally dind’t see that one. But in a lot of ways it is also very telling of what the author tries to do/achieve.
Thanks for your comment!
– Tesi
Thanks for sharing your perspective on this novel! I think you are in the majority on this one– most other blogposts I am seeing are from others who did not resonate with this book. Personally, I perceived the structure of this book similarly to you– with it’s complex and fragmented nature. However, I actually didn’t really mind it. I found it a little hard to keep up with the changing perspectives but eventually I got the hang of it.
^– page pioneer
Hi Ximena, at first, I also found this novel confusing. There were times when I had to re-read several scenes just to get a full picture of what was going on in the novel. To answer your question, I perceived the novel as fragmentations of both characters’ memories, though I am not confident enough to determine whether the novel is a work of fiction or not, especially after reading the lines where the narrator’s husband questions the validity of the novel. Toward the ending, I began to realize that the two storylines finally emerge as one. As the narrator’s son plays hide and seek, he “seeks” Owen, who exists in the same space as the narrator’s son.
– Janae
Hi Ximena, I feel like we always like books more when we can connect to them, I’m sorry you didn’t get that chance! My perception of the book was like an author reflecting/ having flashbacks!
Ximena, “but again as much as I tried to enjoy the book, a new passage would come along and I would have 3 different questions about what was happening”, is an absolute banger. This this this this perfectly summarizes how I felt the entire time and just made me sad. I wanted to understand this book so bad and I’m happy I found someone who could relate.