My Brilliant Friend

I picked this book because I saw that one of the main themes was friendship and recently I’d been thinking about friendship a lot and my own relationships with some of my friends and this was very interesting to read.

I feel like ever since I was a little kid, friendship is always shown as something that’s always super simple, easy to navigate and everyone just wants to support each other. I still hold that viewpoint no matter how naive it is, but as I grow older I feel like it isn’t true. It hasn’t been true for a while I think. My little pony lied to me</3

Lenu and Lila’s friendship is extremely confusing and messy, there’s a lot of envy involved. Especially on Lenu’s side, she has a slight inferiority complex when it comes to Lila. In academics and then a little later when it comes to looks. I quite relate to her character although I know it’s not a good thing! Sometimes it just sucks that your friends might be better at something than you even though it seems to you like they aren’t putting in nearly as much effort as you. A few years back I was extremely jealous of some of my friends because it seemed like no matter how many classes they’ve skipped and no matter how much I studied they just outperformed me. It wasn’t just in academics either but also social life as well. It’s interesting that Lenu simultaneously seems to sort of put Lila on a pedestal, in my opinion. It’s also hard to believe that she still considered Lila her friend after she tried to sabotage her so she wouldn’t be able to take the test. 

I feel bad for Lila, her family doesn’t want to support her and what she wants to do. Her brother Rino seems to be the only one advocating for her education. Her intellect could have taken her far in life but she’s constantly held back because of her family and her dada especially. Like who the hell throws their own daughter out the window??? Just a horrible guy. She’s jealous that Lenu has the opportunity to go to school and Lenu’s jealous that Lila can just wander around and live in her own world, even though that’s not the case at all. Lila is a much bolder and braver character than Lenu and I understand why Lenu would look up to her.

Question: Do you think this is a realistic depiction of what friendships tend to be like in real life?

identity crisis whilst reading this book 😭

I feel so confused 😔 I’m not entirely sure what just transpired in the book!! Something about identity I guess.

It’s really interesting to think about how much Jose gets wrapped up in this lie. At times it felt like he truly became the identity that was invented for him, and how much did he feel like it was true to his identity? Although by the end he seemed to have remembered his past, but his reaction to things and how easily he seemed to soak up all this knowledge he almost seems like clay, super malleable! But then he seemed to be aware of his past and of Angela possibly being his daughter. I’d imagine that would break the immersion quite a bit. He claims that this was all mainly a plot for revenge against Edmundo, but then why’d he get so sucked up into the identity of Jose? IDKKKK MAYBE I JUST DON’T GET IT!! 😭

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When people change their identities, do they still feel like they are still who they used to be or do they strictly identify as their new selves? I feel like when people change their identities its normally because they’ve witnessed a horrible event of some sort, or they are extremely rich and powerful therefore having the ability to do so. Since I would assume it would be extremely difficult and costly! I don’t know. How often do people typically want to change their identity?

I guess similarly sometimes I think about reincarnation in a similar sense, I’d assume you’d be born into a different body and be a completely different person. It always makes me sad when I think about it, mainly because I’d be losing the relationships I’ve had with people. My mum would no longer be my mum, and I wouldn’t know any of my friends and whatnot. Maybe it’s childish!! It’s not the same but it's still regarding identity I figure.

It’s also strange that people would want a very interesting or rich background, I mean once I remember that the people doing this are rich it makes more sense. Logically, the more common it is, it would be easier to get away with! Literally no one would bat an eye, but if its such an extravagant backstory I feel like a lot of people would be suspicious or maybe curious. One bad lie and it’s kinda over isn’t it?

Question: How can one know which aspects of yourself are really true?

should I burn my loonie?

The book started off very suddenly, in media res. Descriptions of characters and details of the heist. Introducing the characters, names and nicknames. It was all very confusing here, I found it hard to keep track of who was who and what exactly was happening which I imagine what a bank heist must feel like. Confusing and hard to keep track of, maybe it was just me because I found it difficult to understand the first chapter of the book. I thought the heist was a bit clumsy and disorganised! There were a lot of names being thrown around, even near the end of the book, they’d tell me all the names of the officers who went into the building and whatnot.

It was a very interesting read though, I like the way it was written, switching between narration to text that’s almost written like a report. Giving specific timestamps of what had happened and the policemen who had lost their lives! It was very unique. Though at times I felt myself wanting to gloss over some of the action towards  the end because I really just wanted to see the characters interact and speak to each other. 

I found the relationship between Kid and Guacho to be very touching. Their closeness being described as needing no words to understand each other, is very sweet. Something like a comfortable silence, not feeling the need to converse for long amounts of time but rather just enjoying each other’s presence. It was super heartbreaking that Kid died in Guacho’s arms!! Then after Guacho’s thought are all longing for Kid again</33333

The opening quote is a quote from The Threepenny Opera. The main message of that play was that under capitalism everything becomes a commodity. The founding of a bank does way more harm than a robbery, that thousands are going to be exploited. The crowd’s reaction to the burning of  the cash was extremely interesting. I had thought that because this all happened due to money, they’d assume “oh money is the cause of all this chaos” but no! They claim that the money was innocent. The action of them burning the money was what set in stone for these people that these criminals were never to be redeemed. Do we as a society tie our worth to how much capital we can generate? In The Threepenny Opera, Macheath’s crimes are a result of capitalism. The corrupt system lets him out time and time again, no one cares about justice or humanity under capitalism. He grows up poor and he comes to the realisation that through the exploitation of others he can generate wealth. In Piglia’s novel some of these characters are from well off families (Kid) so it really makes me question their motives. I’m under the assumption that they’d been cast out and so they turned to a life of crime.

Question: Can we imagine a life outside capitalism anymore? and what would it look like?

we are all one bad day away from becoming conspiracy theorists

This entire weekend I've had a horrible headache, so some of the writing might have escaped me. The way the characters acted in the book sort of reflected what people in my grandparents and parents days used to be like whilst under Soviet intervention. Avoiding talking about politics and such out of fear that someone would be listening, and would get them in trouble.

In the story we see that the characters only seem to have extremely surface level and shallow conversations. Ioana shows up because she feels like it's required rather than to form a genuine connection. She reflects on the lack of community in her life, the paranoia that the people you know might turn against you is prevalent during these times. Government surveillance is extremely isolating and you can only truly depend on yourself and maybe your partner. The state surveillance tears communities apart, at every turn and interaction it could be a trap. In Mongolia, it was the same, you could accuse your neighbours and get rewarded so it only increased the number of innocent people suffering at the hands of the government. My dad told me a story a while ago of when he was a kid. He was playing outside and he called a politician stupid or something, no deeper meaning behind it really because he was just a kid and didn’t really understand what was going on. My grandparents hurriedly came outside, sat him down and told him to never say things like that again. If they had been caught perhaps they would have lost their jobs and been unable to take care of their children or even worse, thrown in jail. I think about that sometimes.

The trenchcoat showing up in Dina’s home just made me think how deep the paranoia and surveillance goes, even in your own home you might not feel safe and comfortable. Even nowadays, I am always super paranoid that my devices are used for surveillance. Although I guess it's not too far off, I love giving my private information to billionaires! The trenchcoat might not even represent the secret police but maybe the presence of it being a source of anxiety and paranoia is the point. IDK!! 

It was interesting seeing how some of the characters don’t have names, just “the kid”, “the learned one” and whatnot. Why is that? These characters are stripped of any sort of characteristic that would make them seem like actual people, they are just reduced to whatever purpose they serve in this story. Or maybe to the state, they aren’t really people at all? Maybe I am making things up!!!

What do you guys think the trenchcoat represents? and what do you think about the characters not being named? :0

fool me once, shame on me, fool me 5 times, also shame on me

    

Currently writing this blog on the skytrain back after spending 70 dollars on legos💔😿

    I lowkey got clickbaited by the title, it sounded really beautiful. After finishing this reading I can say that this book by far has been my least favourite ever and I wish I could go back and pick the other option. Calvino has a very unique writing style and I fear it is just not for me. The beginning of the book already sort of ticked me off for no good reason, sit down get comfortable whatever💀. Maybe it felt like I was being told what to do, the entire thing was just super quirky in a bad way. In the first chapter it forced the reader into the perspective of the main character which was fine. I still struggled to think of it as myself though, I do not know what exactly made it so I was unable to connect with the narrator but there was a large distance between us. The narrator also constantly did things that I probably would not have done, this perspective was being forced onto me 😭😭🙏🙏. Like I think sometimes when they told me how to feel it was actually kinda cool, it felt like a warning as to what’s to come because I’m an absent-minded person.

    Although I did like that the stories that the narrator, or rather we, read had no endings! It kept me on my toes, but near the end it did get a bit frustrating. It was interesting to see, I don’t know how much this happens in publishing or like “formal literature” but sort of made me think of fanfiction and how often it goes uncompleted even though a lot of the ones I've read were quite enjoyable. Or even shows on streaming websites that get cancelled before they can reach a conclusion, but that’s a different concern. I think you can still enjoy things that are incomplete, honestly it leaves a lot of room for imagination and creativity, but I do understand the frustration. I don’t know why time after time I let myself get into the different stories only for it to end abruptly.

    I think the book overall was way too meta for me 😔, at times it was confusing and I just hated the way he wrote, I’m sorry Italo Calvino. I also think due to that I wasn’t able to understand this book like at all or at least enough to give interesting commentary💀.

    Question: Were you guys able to fully immerse yourselves into the role of “you”? And if so drop your tips and comments down below cause god knows I need it💀

Quimet dies, who else cheered?

I enjoyed the time of the doves. I thought the writing was nice and although I don’t typically enjoy stream of consciousness, Natalia’s narration was wonderful and incredible. I felt like I was there, along with her to witness her life.

For the entire first half of the book, I spent the entire time being pissed off at Quimet's behaviour and general existence. I can’t stand this guy, everything he says and does annoys me. I hate this guy so much. When he got mad at Natalia because he THOUGHT he saw her hanging out with her ex, genuinely made me question his sanity. Is he ok? Is he having hallucinations? He was never concerned with whether Natalia was okay or not, just always looking out for his own selfish interests, being the doves of course. LIKE MATE YOUR WIFE IS MISERABLE, SHE’S GOING INSANE BECAUSE OF THESE DOVES BRO. LOCK IN. Like honestly I’m surprised Natalia stayed with this buffoon, even after the story his mum told her about when he was a kid ruining the mum’s garden (I think, I don’t remember the details). It was so frustrating, girl you are married to the literal devil. Truly number 1 empathetic guy of all times. He never cleaned up after himself, and he made his friend and wife do all the work when they were fixing the house up??? Also made his wife who gave birth paint the dovecote???

The scene where she bumps into Pere and he actually calls her by her name made me incredibly upset. No one was calling her by her given name but by the nickname her husband gave her after the doves he mistreats must have felt so dehumanising to her. She barely even felt like a person, but like a husk of her former self. It was so 🙁. I’m glad he died, but that left her and the kids in such a difficult situation.

At night when she contemplated and even decided on taking her kids lives along with her own, it was genuinely heartbreaking. The descriptions of how thin the kids were and how she had to send Toni away for a bit. It served as a reminder of how cruel war truly is, and how she had gotten to the point of stealing chlorine to kill her kids. I’m glad she was able to get out of that situation with the help of Antoni. He was so sweet, he truly cared for her and her kids. I was so glad he stepped in!!! He’s also the father that stepped up😭!! Shout out goat!! He also didn’t treat her like a maid or like an object, fuck you Quimet.

I also want to briefly mention Mateu because I really liked him, he was nice to Natalia and they were quite close. He was quite sensitive, and he was also a real yearner!!!

Discussion: with all the things Toni did as a kid, did anyone else think he’d be a little fucked up when he grew up or are all babies evil like that?

Black Shack Alley

There were many aspects of this book that made me extremely sad. The discussion regarding colonialism and segregation was important, it was used to paint a picture to show what growing up under a setting like that was rather than to make a point (?). I mean there was obviously still a point being made.

In the very first part of the book we are introduced to M’man Tine and Jose’s relationship. It’s very sweet, we see just how much M’man Tine cares for Jose and how tirelessly she works to be able to provide Jose with a good life or rather to provide him the tools he will need to get ahead in life. Jose’s guilt he feels when it comes to M’man Tine’s workload and sacrifice is something I can understand. Obviously I am extremely privileged to even have the opportunity to be here, but my parents have worked their entire lives for me to even get to this point and sometimes I wonder if I can ever truly pay them back. Filial piety has always been important in my culture and has always been the ultimate goal of my life in many ways. The work that I am doing makes me feel like I am not doing nearly enough as I could be. I’m sure this is a common sentiment for people.

The chapter that dealt with Medouze’s death was also interesting. Being a kid at that age not knowing or rather not fully understanding and seeing the wildly differing reactions from other people, not knowing how to react or which is the appropriate reaction was also something that was relatable. I’ve had the gift of never having to experience when I was young enough to not understand what was going on. I think after this point Jose was at the point where his situation forced him to grow up. Especially because after this M’man Tine falls ill and he realises just how much her presence in his life meant to him. 

 Another topic I wanted to talk about was discipline and love, and beatings as a form of punishment. Discipline is different culturally but beatings being used as discipline never sat right with me, even though it was engrained into my culture. However recently I saw a video of a white guy talking about how it was the only thing that white people did right which was like I guess just not taking it and cutting off your family, which struck a cord with me? I don’t know, it made me feel a certain way. While reading this book and reading about all the injuries and beatings Jose took was really heartbreaking.