Alex's RMST Blog

 Hello to everyone reading this blog, I hope you all enjoyed your reading week. This week's mandatory class reading of "The Time of Doves" by Mercè Rodoreda. The novel is set in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, spanning from the mid-1930s to the early 1950s. The main character and narrator of the story Natalia, or Colometa  ( colom  is the Catalan for  dove ), is trying to support herself and her family.  At the beginning of the novel, Colometa is a naive and innocent girl working as a seamstress. She is engaged to a man named Pere who works as a cook, that is until she meets and falls in love with Quimet, a "handsome" (19) and ambitious young man. Quimet is a carpenter who has layers to his character. He comes off as reckless, a bit of a tyrant, and controlling, which is first seen on page 22 “To be his wife [she] had to start by liking everything he liked”. This was the start of a relationship that was heavily controlled by Quime...

Joseph Zobel's "Black Shack Alley," originally the French work "La Rue Cases-Nègres," translated into English by Keith Q. Warner, offers readers a deep insight into the harsh realities of post-slavery Martinique through the eyes of its protagonist, José. Set against the backdrop of poverty, oppression, and resilience, the novel paints a real picture of life in the shanty towns and sugarcane fields of the French Indies. "Black Shack Alley" is primarily an autobiographical story that follows the journey of José, a role model for Zobel, and M'man Tine, his grandmother, and guardian. Through their stories and the stories of other black people living in poverty, Zobel sheds light on the hardships, customs, and spirituality of a group of people who were once slaves of the rich French during this sad and desperate time period. The distinctive quality of Zobel's work is his inventive storytelling approach. Zobel deeply explores the lives of the oppres...