Conclusions

Hi everyone, we made it to the end of the semester! The number of books I chose to read for this class seemed daunting at first. But after getting over the learning curve of reading Combray, I started to get into the hang of reading and reflecting on the readings. The in-class discussions were very helpful and I appreciated the flipped classroom format so we could spend most of the class discussing our thoughts on the novel. One class I particularly enjoyed was the class for “Black Shack Alley” where we looked for different portrayals of ‘bodies’ in the book. Hearing what my classmates thought were significant moments of the book that I would not have thought of was a great opportunity to see the book from different viewpoints.

My favorite book this semester was “The Book of Chameleons”. I liked the surprising twists about Angela’s past and the fantasy aspects. There were some lines in this book about life that stood out to me (that I have forgotten after deleting the notes I made while reading) and I would like to reread it at some point. I also thought “Agostino'' was really well written. While it was an uncomfortable read, the book portrayed Agostino’s complex emotions and had a sense of suspense that kept me interested. My least favourite book was “Faces in the Crowd”. Like a lot of others said, I found it too complicated and hard to keep up with. 

Overall, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the older novels because in my daily life I only ever reach for contemporary books. I mentioned in my first blog that I was looking forward to reading books that I would otherwise have not chosen and I definitely accomplished that. Something else I said in my first blog was that I hoped to become a more careful reader who could identify connections between the readings. One common theme I see looking back is class. Many of the books were about main characters in the lower class and attempting to succeed while facing the struggles of being poor, such as “Black Shack Alley” and “Mad Toy”. The harsh reality of how people in poverty cannot always thrive is featured in “The Hour of the Star” and the group of boys in “Agostino”.

One last question: Besides your personal favorite, which book do you think was most well-written?

Have a great summer everyone!