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Showing posts from February, 2022

Week Seven: Clarice Lispector, The Passion According to G.H.

To be honest, I got really sleepy as soon as I started reading the first page. I was already kind of tired when I sat down to read this book and the way it was written literally lulled me to sleep. Although the process of getting through this book was slow, I did think that the voice of the author was interesting. It was a style of writing that stands out as one that I don't often come across.  The passage that stuck with me the most is the description of the cockroach's features that the narrator gives after closing the closet door on him. She comes face to face with this thing that grosses her out so much, and she really stares into him. I'm also terrified of bugs and this close up description was not something that I ever needed or wanted to read.  "It was a face without a contour."  "The long and slender whiskers were moving slow and dry." "Its black faceted eyes were looking." "... had cilia all over. Maybe the cilia were its multiple

Week Six: Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse

This week, the book I read was Bonjour Tristesse. I have to say, out of all the books that I have read thus far in this class, this was one of the ones I enjoyed the most. It was a very easy, fun story to read and I believe that had something to do with the relatability of the main character’s age and personality. I honestly truly enjoyed reading Cécile as a character. She is a naive, young, negligent and intense girl. As she made her plans and plotted against Anne and her father, it seemed as if she was pretty careless with her actions. She kept changing her mind on whether or not she wanted to continue carrying out her plan, and because of her indecisiveness, she kind of neglected the consequences that resulted from her actions. She would leave Cyril and Elsa in the dark by not giving them an update on the plan for days if she felt like it and just used them as chess pieces in her game. She seems to represent the very essence of a seventeen year old girl who has been spoiled with the

Week Five: Alberto Moravia, Agostino

This week, I chose to read Agostino over the other option based on a brief summary of this short book. I thought that Agostino sounded more interesting. This story explores the idea of virginity (both sexually and in terms of being young and inexperienced in life), awakening, love, identity, sensuality, adolescence and adulthood. I think I would have had a very different experience reading this text if I was younger or even the same age as the narrator, but reading it now as an 18 year old, I feel like an adult observing the moment of awakening of a new teenager and I honestly secretly felt relieved that I've already passed that phase of my growth. What I mainly got from him was confusion - and the teenage years are definitely some of the most confusing times of our childhoods. Emotions and hormones run high and new doors are opening, and it's when kids start to realize how much deeper life goes than the simple pleasures of children's play.  18 isn't even that old, an