Anne Moore’s life is completely unbelievable. I believed after reading each page, she was always in a different country or at least a new event was happening in her life. At the young age of 10 years old, after seeing her boyfriend’s parents murdered , she grew up immediately. I never see myself going through what she has when I was ten years old. I found it amazing that Anne went to UC Berkely as well as her sister. In her life, she goes through so many relationships, in every state or country, she almost always had a new beau by her side. “Not long after this, Anne met Paul, a painter, the grandson of Russian-Jewish anarchists, and move in with him.” For me, moving from California to Mexico and staying with different people most nights would have been exhausting. I found it so surprising in the middle of the story that she finally got married to Tony. I believe that Anne was living in the moment of life, she was a free spirit and went with the flow. Although there was something going on in her life, Anne seemed like she had everything under control, or at least everything fell in it’s place. When I was reading her life, I realized that the Holidays aren’t mentioned except for twice, Christmas with Bill to Great Falls, and Christmas time with the narrator, Alexei. When her sister got married, you can imagine the difference in their lives. Susan was married to a pharmacist living in a stable homestead, while Anne was hop scotching around the globe. “She went to Mexico a couple of times….drove a station wagon down to Guatemala…went to Canada about five times..later the years Africa.” Towards the end of the novel, the narrator mentions that Anne has a diagnosed illness, but never reveals what it is. Eventually, the narrator last recalls Anne in Girona, Spain. The end of the story was short and unexpected. Anne sends the narrator a postcard, written in her handwriting, “dear Alexei to look after himself and eat every day, of only a little.” And Alexei agrees. I believe Anne was telling Alexei to live life one day at a time, just how she has been.
“Varabond in France and Belgium” was an interesting story to me. The main character Bhas loves literature and everything about it. He goes into a bookstore and finds an old copy of the magazine Luna Park that includes writings from literature writers, one of which makes a huge impact on this story: Henri Lefebvre. He mentions something about each of the writers in his magazine, whether he liked them or not, or whether their Literature was considered actual “Literature.” Bhas, who is referred to as “B” in the short story is a drifter. “So B buys the magazine and loses himself in the streets of Paris, where he has gone to precisely lose himself, to watch the days slip away.” In the middle of the story is seemed as if Bhas was living vicariously through Henri Lefebvre. With each new person B met, it mirrored Lebvre relationships in his life. He has a new friend, M. At first she doesn’t recognize him, which made it kind of like an awkward situation, but soon after she does. “Then M remembers him and smiles, though not because she is particularly happy to see him.” It seemed soon after they met with each other, they spent much time together. They went to dinner, cemeteries, the movies, and restaurants. “I’ll come and pick you up and then we can go somewhere.” I seemed that after while B starts to get bored or annoyed with M. Even after a few years, they are still friends. “He clenches his teeth and an involuntary grimace tenses his face. But M doesn’t hang up.
Words to define:
1.) envisaged- to comptemplate; visualize
2.) imperceptibly- very slight, gradual, or subtle
3.) barbiturate- any of a group of barbituric acid
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