Its Joever

 Hi everyone, since this is the last blog post I will justify the updated tier list for all the books I have read in this course. I included it in my last post (I thought the last one was the last blog post for some reason). Note that this list is very biased and was solely based on how much I enjoyed the book.

S : The Time of the Doves

A : Money To Burn, The Shrouded Woman

B :  Agostino , Death With Interruptions, Mad Toy, Faces In The Crowd

C : The Trenchcoat, Deep Rivers

D : 

...

Z: Combray

Combray:

Wasn’t really a fan,  usually when the plot is uninteresting, interesting characters and how each character interacts with each other can usually make up for a mediocre\non-existent story but I found neither to be the case in this one. The only character I kinda wanted to learn more about was Mr. Swann but even then I wasn't really inclined to.  Also, I found the writing style to be difficult but not in a good way, if a novel challenges you by making you think more in that it forces you to connect what you are reading with someone you have read previously, I don’t necessarily think it's a bad thing but in this novel, the sentences just end up being very dense and boring to me. But, I can see that if someone enjoys dense sentences and likes very vivid descriptions they could enjoy this novel a lot more than I did.

The Trenchcoat:

This one was hard to read (and not very satisfying) and since I lacked the context necessary to understand it completely. The novel's themes were pretty interesting though, as it touched on dealing with boredom, loneliness, and unending suspicion caused by living under a surveillance state. Also, the ending left me with more questions but honestly, I am not sure that I care if they get answered or not. I could see how someone could like this one though just was not for me.

Deep rivers:

I wanted to like this one, the troubles in identity that Ernesto faces make you feel for him by him having connections to two worlds but not belonging to either. But overall I was not really able to get really immersed in the book, especially in the first part where Ernesto and his father wander in the jungle or something for what felt like 100 pages, but after reaching the catholic school I enjoyed it a lot more since the characters there had lots of depth to them.

Agostino:

Honestly, apart from being a hard read (In a different way from the rest), I found myself invested in the novel until the end where I was like “that's it?” but maybe the ending was unsatisfying on purpose like the conclusion that Agostino reaches in the end with the ending line being “But he wasn’t a man and many unhappy days would pass before he became one”.

Death with Interruptions:

The idea behind this one was very interesting and the fact that Death was an actual character was cool and not just some heartless entity that only knows how to kill, but rather is very human and capable of showing emotions and goes as far as being empathetic to humans. I also liked how the book goes into great detail describing what would happen to society if death were to end and some of the things were so outlandish (such as the funeral business somewhat revolting) that it gave it some sort of realism to what was happening politically in the country as our politics in our world are also very absurd. I only just thought of this now but it’s pretty ironic that Death’s job is to kill people for all of eternity, unable to die herself, and one of the main points of the novel is to explore the consequence of the suspension of death (poor death).

Mad Toy:

I liked this one as it explores the journey that Silvio goes through from his time committing robberies with his two friends to his attempts to change and do the right thing despite everything going wrong for him and reaching new lows each time. I found myself rooting for him and wanted everything to turn out well for him because of everything he went through.

Faces in the Crowd:

Faces in the Crowd was probably the hardest read we had in the class but once you are able to connect the multiple subplots it becomes immensely rewarding and I can’t say I have read anything like this before.

Money To Burn:

I don't really have much to say about this one, but lots of actions =  fired dopamine receptors

The Shrouded Woman:

The Shrouded Woman deals with memories similar to Combray, but I liked the way Anna Maria looked back at her life compared to how the narrator in Proust's novel does. I read Proust’s novel as an old man with lots of regrets who spends his time thinking about his childhood when he was much happier. I don't know there's just something sad about spending all your time longing for the past and contemplating what you could've done that I didn’t like. In this novel, Anna Maria looks back at her life but comes to terms with everything that happened to her, and while the novel is sad in nature you realize how lonely and mistreated she was but in the end, even though I wouldn't call it a “good ending”, there is some notion of closure which I liked.

The Time of the Doves:

I really liked the story in this novel, (I will also refrain from talking about Quimet). The story kept me interested for the first half because of the characters but suddenly the novel turns itself upside down and you witness how cruel war can be as it affects all the characters you have grown attached to. In the end, I was happy for Natalia because she chose to let go of her past and things seem to be looking up for her.

From taking this course I have read more books in the past three months than I have read since I was in elementary school up until before this course. For me, the hardest part about reading is choosing which book to read so I am glad that this course forces you to choose from two choices most weeks. Overall, I enjoyed most of the books I read this semester and while I haven't gained a newfound love for reading I will definitely consider reading more.

My question for everyone :

What are some of your favorite courses/electives you have taken at UBC (other than this one of course), I'm looking for some interesting classes to take so I don't end up only just taking CPSC and Math classes for my entire degree.

Reflection : Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli

 I don’t want to say I disliked this book as it would make it seem like I can’t recognize or understand innovative/experimental literature (For the record I cannot) but I have mixed feelings about this one. There were multiple things I did like about it though, some of the shorter paragraphs were very effective in shaping your perspective on what to make out of what you are reading, like the line “All novels lack something or someone. In this novel there’s no one. No one except a ghost that I used to see sometimes in the subway” (69). Also, the fact that I wasn’t sure when/if a subplot would be brought up again made the lines that ended a paragraph that much more impactful, like when the author (I think?) is talking about the (potentially fake) deterioration of her marriage “It was a single gesture that broke me—that finished breaking me: his cry of joy when he had closed the front door” (80). 

The main thing I did not like was that some of the subplots were in the same locations (New York, Philadelphia), and since both the author and Owen write as an occupation it was very hard to tell which person was experiencing the events or whose thoughts we are reading. It is possible that the author relates to Owen and some of the other characters in some ways and that could contribute to the similarities between the multiple plots and what the different characters say. This quote in particular stuck out to me,  “It was a perfect story that begged an ending, which I would perhaps have written that very night if another story hadn’t completely distracted my attention” (116). Even though this is presumably Owen speaking, I can’t help but wonder if the author struggles with the same thing as she creates a novel with many plots, unable to solely focus on a single one. “But what the hell am I going to write? I know I want it to be a novel set both in Mexico, in an old house in the capital, and in the New York of my youth. All the characters are dead, but they don’t know it” (142), or maybe like in this quote from Owen, it is a more stylistic choice and the author would rather create a story that focuses on multiple people and different timelines. 

I also liked the sort of feeling of melancholic yearning or "Saudade" (I learned this Portuguese word from a youtube video recently lol) that is present throughout the novel, like the multiple characters are all reminiscing over a time that is long gone. Like Owen and his time in New York, and maybe even the author herself who felt free at one point in her life who left her apartment open to multiple people, and who lived a very chaotic lifestyle. I guess this also relates to the connection between the author and the characters she writes about in that they are connected in multiple ways. In some ways, the yearning for the past felt somewhat similar to the narrator in Combray (except I really disliked that novel).

Since this book is the last one we read together as a class so I made a tier list for the books I chose to read (I realize that the ratings may be a little inflated):

S : The Time of the Doves

A : Money To Burn, The Shrouded Woman

B :  Death With Interruptions, Mad Toy, Faces in the Crowd

C : The Trenchcoat, Deep Rivers, Agostino

D : 

E:

...

Z: Combray

My question for everyone: Now that we have reached the last book in this class, which was your favorite? (Or maybe if you want to you can make a tier list as well :) )