“I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William.”
Protagonist and narrator Lucy Barton commencing her story with this casual claim about what’s to come sets the tone for a stream-of-consciousness type of intimate novel.
“I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William.”
Protagonist and narrator Lucy Barton commencing her story with this casual claim about what’s to come sets the tone for a stream-of-consciousness type of intimate novel.
Luna Kwon and Logan Lee
NoViolet Bulawayo sets Jidada, a reflection of Zimbabwe, as the setting of her story. In her narrative there is no space for human beings – there are only animals (mals and femals to be specific). This might remind you of Orwell’s Animal Farm, but stop that thought, because Bulawayo warns you from the start of her work of satire – “This is not an animal farm but Jidada with a -da and another -da! . . . And if you have any ears at all you’ll heed my advice because what you’re doing is swallowing all manner of big rocks, and very soon it shall be seen just how wide your asshole is when those very rocks will need to be shat!” Bulawayo, NoViolet. Glory (p. 33).
What We Enjoyed
Tholukuthi this word also makes a frequent appearance. Meaning indeed, you find that, only to discover, and really anything along those lines, this Ndebele word gives the book a whiff of the culture of the setting.
There are also other words that introduce themselves during the story; here are some examples:
Questions
Overall Impression/Tips if you choose Glory as your next read
Here are some articles to read beforehand- they will give you background knowledge on the setting of the story and keep you in the loop. To fully understand what Bulawayo would like to say through this story, skim through these first.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/voices-of-zimbabwe-on-noviolet-bulawayos-glory/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/03/06/glory-noviolet-bulawayo-book-review/
After just finishing Small Things Like These, I most definitely agree with Ron Charles’s opinion that Claire Keegan has “carved out a profoundly moving and universal story.” Each chapter reads so quickly with simplistic prose and lines that flowed from one to the next, blending into a tale very reminiscent of A Christmas Carol. The beginning chapters led me to contemplate one’s consciousness through day-to-day life, as Bill Furlong seemed to drift from one day to the next without much thought of change. I perceive the ending where Furlong saves the young woman from the laundry center and walks her all of the way home in the snow to be the quintessential Christmas ending as one of compassion, kindness, and hope. The historical references to the Magdalene Laundries was very interesting, and I interpreted the ending as a subtle manner in which to criticize Ireland’s attempt to hide such institutions, as well as condemn the Catholic church for facilitating the imprisonment of fallen women.
Our #Smallthingslikethese #litcircle did a deep podcast discussion on the themes and inspirations of the #ClairKeegan novel. Listen to us break down the main ideas of this Christmas Carol retelling and share our meaningful insights on the message of empathy in a patriarchal and poverty-ridden society.
Signed, BANJ.
This podcast produced by KEA elaborates on the injustices and discrimination found in the Booker Prize nominated novel The Trees by Percival Everett. Even though we have not finished the book, we dug into the themes of racism and stereotypes by elaborating on the fitting book title which encompasses the diverse forms of injustice. The stereotypes mentioned in this podcast help to highlight the discrimination and misogyny that is prevalent in society today. Percival Everett’s satirical angle functions to stress how normalized and problematic racism is in our culture.
How can we measure academic growth among students regarding their four years journey of reading, thinking, and writing through their high school English class assignments? How can we create a capstone assessment at the top of a 9-12 vertical design that demonstrates their literary skills? Perhaps more importantly for their future reading life and college course selection decisions, how can we ask students to consider carefully what makes a novel meaningful, engaging, and literary? More specifically in each work of fiction, how do we locate a novel’s literary qualities? How can we ask students to apply the literary skills learned in AP Lang and AP Lit for authentic purpose and meaning? In the spirit of our school mission, how can a project encourage opportunities for life-long reading? The answer: #HQPBL We will again leverage this year’s Booker Prize short list novels to create a project-based learning landscape in our curriculum at least two times this year. We will embrace the dynamic power of literature circles, aka #LitCircles, and give everyone an opportunity of choosing a Booker Prize Shortlisted novel from the exciting 2022 list. We will then offer everyone the powerful #VoiceandChoice opportunity to use student-centered discussions to blaze a path for their reading pleasure. While you will have the same fun you had in your middle school #LitCircle, this Senior Honors Course will ask you to begin literary conversations with journalists who write book reviews of your authors and hopefully have you connect directly with your novel’s author. Last year’s class made meaningful connections with all six shortlisted authors. It will be fun to see what happens this year! The first writing topic will have students recall from the last four years of reading their favorite opening scene from any novel and compare that to the opening pages of their new Booker Prize Shortlisted novel. Then students will write about an important theme for theme from their novel, and this will provide a great building block for their collaborative challenge of creating a podcast. Follow our fun literary conversations on Instagram and Twitter to learn more. https://thebookerprizes.com/
Suleni Sabio-Arzu (SEL Scholar)
This podcast will describe the relationship between Richard Powers’ Bewilderment and the presence of Social/Emotional Learning in the classroom. Bewilderment is a novel bringing to light the issues that Special Needs Families face on a daily basis. As a Widowed father, Theo Byrne is faced with navigating school relations all on his own. Here is my take on Bewilderment by Richard Powers in relation to the movies Inside Out, a film exploring the social and emotional depths of childhood.
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