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Julia_98

Julia_98@bookwyrm.world

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Written in stream-of-consciousness style with multiple narrators, the story follows a journey wherein the family …

Voices in Motion: My Uneasy Pilgrimage Through Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying

Reading William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying was like trying to follow a chorus where every voice sings in a different key. At first, I was disoriented by the shifting perspectives—each chapter told by a different member of the Bundren family, and even by those around them. But slowly, I began to feel the rhythm of their fractured storytelling, and it drew me in.

The novel follows the Bundrens as they journey to bury their matriarch, Addie, in her hometown. On the surface, it is a story of duty and family loyalty. Yet, for me, it quickly became something much deeper: an exploration of grief, pride, selfishness, and the strange ways love and obligation collide.

What unsettled me most was how raw and unfiltered the voices were. Some spoke with bitterness, others with confusion, some with heartbreaking simplicity. I felt closest to Darl, whose eerie sensitivity made me uneasy, as …

William Tell (German: Wilhelm Tell, German pronunciation: [ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈtɛl] ) is a drama written by …

Freedom, Arrows, and Courage: My Journey Through Schiller’s William Tell

Reading Friedrich Schiller’s William Tell felt like stepping into a landscape painted with both beauty and danger — towering mountains, quiet lakes, and the tense air of oppression. I knew the broad strokes of the legend: the expert marksman forced to shoot an apple off his son’s head. But Schiller’s play gave me more than just that moment of high drama; it gave me the heartbeat of a people longing for freedom.

William Tell is not a rebel by nature. He is a man who loves his family, his land, and a quiet life. Yet, when the tyranny of the Habsburg governor Gessler crosses a line too far, Tell becomes an unlikely symbol of resistance. Reading his transformation, I found myself asking: when would I draw my own line? When would I be willing to risk everything?

The famous apple-shot scene gripped me with its unbearable tension — not just …

"In the Penal Colony" ("In der Strafkolonie") (also translated as "In the Penal Settlement") is …

Ink, Screws, and Silence: My Uneasy Witness to Kafka’s In the Penal Colony

Reading Franz Kafka’s In the Penal Colony was like watching a slow, methodical nightmare unfold in broad daylight—horrifying not because it was loud, but because of its stillness. From the first page, I felt a cold pressure building, an invisible weight pressing down as I entered this remote island where justice is no longer debated, only executed.

The story centers around a bizarre machine used to carry out punishments by inscribing the condemned man’s crime into his flesh. I was disturbed not just by the grotesque detail, but by how calmly it was all described—clinical, almost reverent. The Officer, who worships the old brutal order, explains the machine with the pride of a museum curator. I felt trapped in that moment, caught between fascination and revulsion.

What affected me most was the silence of the Condemned Man, and the passive discomfort of the visiting Traveler. He represents, perhaps, us—the reader, …

John Steinbeck: Le poney rouge (French language, 1985, Éditions Gallimard)

The Red Pony is an episodic novella written by American writer John Steinbeck in 1933. …

Innocence, Dust, and Death: What The Red Pony Taught Me About Growing Up

Reading The Red Pony by John Steinbeck was like watching the sky darken on a summer afternoon—you think it’s still light, but suddenly, everything changes. What starts as a simple story about a boy and his pony quietly unravels into a series of quiet, devastating lessons about life, death, and disappointment.

Jody, the young boy at the center, reminded me of the version of myself that used to believe grown-ups had all the answers. When he’s given the red pony, his pride and excitement are almost palpable—I could feel that thrill, that hope, as if it were mine. But Steinbeck doesn’t let us sit with comfort for long. The pony’s sickness, and eventual death, hit hard—not because it was shocking, but because it felt real.

There’s something deeply raw in the way Steinbeck writes. No melodrama, just hard truths tucked into plain language. Each section—whether about the pony, the old …

Ernest Hemingway: Mort dans l'après-midi (French language, 1972)

Death in the Afternoon is a non-fiction book written by Ernest Hemingway about the history, …

Blood, Sun, and Stillness: My Reckoning with Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon

Reading Ernest Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon was not what I expected. I went in thinking I’d get a dry, historical account of bullfighting. What I got instead was a meditation on life, art, death, courage—and a brutal honesty that left me uncomfortable, fascinated, and oddly moved.

Hemingway uses bullfighting as more than subject matter; he treats it as a lens through which to examine everything he values: grace under pressure, the meaning of bravery, the aesthetics of violence. I didn’t expect to care about the rituals of the corrida, yet I found myself drawn in by the stark beauty he saw in it. The way he described the matador’s poise, the crowd’s silence before the final thrust—it made me think about how rarely we confront death directly anymore.

At times I resisted him. His admiration for the spectacle felt alien, even disturbing. I questioned the ethics, the cruelty. …

Hermann Hesse: Narcissus and Goldmund (1971)

First published in 1930, Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of two diametrically opposite men: …

Two Roads, One Soul: My Reflections on Hesse’s Narcissus and Goldmund

Reading Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse felt like watching two parts of myself walk in different directions. On one side, Narcissus—disciplined, cerebral, a monk who lives by order and intellect. On the other, Goldmund—wild, sensuous, always chasing life’s beauty and sorrow. I couldn’t help but feel torn between them.

Their bond begins in a monastery, but soon Goldmund sets off to wander, abandoning spiritual discipline for a path of instinct, art, and love. I followed him through his joy and ruin, feeling the pull of freedom and the cost it exacts. Every encounter he had—with lovers, landscapes, and death—felt deeply human, painfully fleeting.

Meanwhile, Narcissus remains rooted, faithful to thought and structure. When their paths cross again, years later, I saw not just a reunion, but a mirror—each man incomplete without the other. That struck me hard. We all crave meaning, but we chase it in such different ways. …

The Road Back, also translated as The Way Back, (German: Der Weg zurück) is a …

When the War Follows You Home: My Sobering Journey Through Remarque’s The Road Back

Reading The Road Back by Erich Maria Remarque was like walking through the ruins of a familiar dream—one shattered not by fantasy, but by history. I had read All Quiet on the Western Front and thought I understood the trauma of war. But this novel showed me the deeper, quieter devastation that begins when the fighting ends.

We follow Ernst Birkholz and his fellow soldiers as they return to Germany after World War I. But home is not what they remembered, and neither are they. The true battle is no longer with weapons, but with silence, misunderstanding, and the inability to rejoin a world that no longer feels like theirs.

What struck me most was the emotional restraint Remarque uses. There are no dramatic breakdowns, no patriotic climaxes—just numbness, confusion, and the slow erosion of spirit. I felt that numbness seep into me, paragraph by paragraph. It’s the kind of …

Charles Baudelaire: The Flowers of Evil (1989)

Charles Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil (Les Fleurs du mal, 1857) stands as a cornerstone …

Perfume and Ashes: My Descent into Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil

Reading The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire felt like wandering through a cathedral built from shadows and perfume. Every poem seemed to whisper something forbidden, something beautiful wrapped in rot. I didn’t just read this collection — I fell into it.

From the first lines, I was struck by Baudelaire’s refusal to flinch. He doesn’t hide from decay, lust, guilt, or despair. He confronts them head-on, then distills them into verses that feel both classical and defiantly modern. The beauty of his language clashes with the darkness of his themes — and that contradiction is where the poems become unforgettable.

I was especially moved by the way Baudelaire treats suffering not as something to escape, but as a gateway to deeper insight. His explorations of sin and redemption, love and death, made me feel uncomfortable in the best way. I found myself questioning my own ideas of beauty, of …