I found The Time of the Doves interesting, and I liked Natalia’s narration throughout. I feel like I am slowly but surely overcoming my bias towards the first-person perspective. In fact, in this novel specifically, I believe that only the first person could have made me so infuriated about Quimet. In this blog post, I want to discuss how Rodoreda’s storytelling excels through its symbolism and lively narrative style
Quimet irritated me so much throughout the whole book. He was as annoying as the fly constantly buzzing in your ear on a sunny day, or as the fire alarm when it’s on low battery. My rage cannot be condensed into one blog post; as a result, I will focus on Rodoreda’s symbolism regarding Natalia and Quimet. The following quote (65) discusses Quimet’s thoughts about a dove:
“Quimet said we should keep [the dove], that he’d make a cage for it on the balcony so we could watch it from the dining room: a cage like a mansion, with an iron balcony, a red roof, and a door with a knocker. And how that dove would be the boy’s pride and joy.”
Quimet’s desire to keep the dove in captivity as his “pride and joy” showcased what he thought of Natalia, considering that he calls her Colometa (his little dove) (18). Perhaps, his infuriating treatment towards Natalia can be explained by him wanting to keep Natalia in his control?
Another notable aspect of the novel was the “diary-style” narration, which highlighted the gaps in the storyline. I really liked how Natalia’s raw, unfiltered recounting of events unfolded in each section; her storytelling truly made every scene feel alive and interesting. For example, Natalia’s version of the scene describing the worm’s appearance (which was gross TT) was semi-entertaining. I think this may be attributed to her dismissal of the expected combined with her making connections to common real world things (78):
“We’d never seen one. It was the color of spaghetti made without eggs, and we kept it in alcohol in a jam jar.”
However, despite the entertaining nature of her journal entries, I found that they left me questioning the “in between.” For example, the jump from her pregnancy announcement to giving birth was extremely abrupt as a significant amount of time had passed between chapter. This brought me to question the nature of such entries: do they only mark special occasions, or are they are just randomly written (such as, whenever Natalia got a moment of rest). All the entries have at least some extent of crazy mixed into them, but a lot of the time it seems like it’s Natalia’s bizarre and lively narration that gives the somewhat mundane stories (more so in the first half of the novel) this appearance. That makes me believe that the novel is a collection of emotionally jarring moments in time, rather than physically exciting. Now, I leave you with the same question: how do you think these specific journal entries were created?
6 replies on “Quimet is a D1 Ragebaiter”
“That makes me believe that the novel is a collection of emotionally jarring moments in time, rather than physically exciting.” Well, this is debatable… quite a few physically exciting things happen throughout the novel, both in the foreground and background. But it’s true that the emotional weight doesn’t lie in the “real history”. And yes, nobody likes Quimet.
Hi Zara! Thank you for sharing your blog. I also enjoyed Natalia’s narration throughout the story. It felt like a real person rather than a character out of a book.
LOL love your title! He is got me at least a little irritated. Such a sleazy character so controlling and despicable.
I love your fly anolagy its very accurate. I also really enjoyed the ‘diary-like’ writing style of the book.
he was SUCH a ragebaiter I agree. I noticed the gap in the entries too, particularly in how fast her kids were growing up- I definitely didn’t think Rita was of marriage age, and pictured a little girl still.
Your title says it all. That guy genuinely pissed me off so much, I don’t get how Natalia let herself get married to such a shitty guy. You bring up awesome points about the storytelling of the book, and I especially agree with Quimet wanting to keep control of Natalia. That idea gets reinforced a little later in the book, when they are thinking of opening the dove cages for the first time, and Quimet is panicking because he thinks the doves are not coming back. In a way, him being scared of the doves leaving when given their freedom is the same thing he feels towards Natalia, and in both cases, the doves and Natalia keep coming back and staying with him. Great post :))