The ending of this novel was not what I expected in many ways. Once again I was disappointed by the lack of excitement in the action of the present for the main characters of the book. Remember that big dillema that I described in my second post? Well if you don't, the dillema was that if just one of them revealed the name of their leader then they all would go free. In the novel, this was the big ending that I had been preparing for the whole time. I was so excited to find out what would happen, but Buffalino decides that this wasn't all that important now that we have tons of development on every single character and ends that problem with one sentence. Not nearly what I expected. I won't reveal what happened for those of you who still wish to read this after hearing of all my disappointments.
This novel, overall, was a pretty big waste of my time. I did not enjoy the read and the ending was so boring it makes me sick. The writing style was one that bored me, the content of the book was minimal, and maybe not even that if you don't count telling stories as action, and it left me, in the end, wanting nothing else than picking up a different book and reading to try to forget this one.
I would only recommend this book to people who enjoy reading but learning nothing at all but character development, if those people exist.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Third Section Thoughts
This novel has grown in my inerest a little since the last section. Thanks to BerthoffFever1793's comment I was able to see that even though my expectations for the book weren't exact, the way the book actually turns out isn't actually that bad. The stories that the main character's tell do have some interesting facts to tell about each of the characters which, in the end, helps us reason why the character's act the way that they do. For example. On page 97 Bufalino writes, "'You will find therein a piece of cloth containing the trifles that came with you fifteen years ago...'" This is from the soldier's story. He tells us that he was dropped off at a monastery as a child, and fifteen years later he is given the belongings that were dropped off with him. The belongings contained a dagger that a note told him to kill his fater with. He continues the story to tell us that he followed through with this task. This father that he nevewr had explains to us his loyalty to the baron. The baron is one of the closest people he has to a father and he attached himself to him with such loyalty as to never go against him. These assumptions can be made with the other characters as well.
In the real-time of the story, rather than each stories time, there is but an hour left for the prisoners to decide what to write on the ballet. If they write the name of God the Father, their boss, they will go free, but if they don't then they will continue to their death. One can only imagine the stress this is putting on each of the characters at the moment. In one of the scenes between stories, the student freaks out at the baron because, as the leader, he is supposed to stand firm on each of his decisions but on this one he is weak. The student now feels all of the stress from his doomed fate with no one to help him out. He is cracking under the pressure and becoming more and more unpredictable.
I am looking forward to seeing how this book ends. At the moment, this book has filled my mind with predictions as to the point where i have no idea what will happen. The most probable ending, I believe is that Narcissus will write God the Father's name on his ballet. My reasoning behind this prediction is that he is connected to the devil by his last name. The devil's enemy is God. Though God the Father and Narcissus Lucifora may not be enemies in this novel, the betrayal of Lucifer to God has to connect to this book in some way. I am excited to let you all know how this plays out.
In the real-time of the story, rather than each stories time, there is but an hour left for the prisoners to decide what to write on the ballet. If they write the name of God the Father, their boss, they will go free, but if they don't then they will continue to their death. One can only imagine the stress this is putting on each of the characters at the moment. In one of the scenes between stories, the student freaks out at the baron because, as the leader, he is supposed to stand firm on each of his decisions but on this one he is weak. The student now feels all of the stress from his doomed fate with no one to help him out. He is cracking under the pressure and becoming more and more unpredictable.
I am looking forward to seeing how this book ends. At the moment, this book has filled my mind with predictions as to the point where i have no idea what will happen. The most probable ending, I believe is that Narcissus will write God the Father's name on his ballet. My reasoning behind this prediction is that he is connected to the devil by his last name. The devil's enemy is God. Though God the Father and Narcissus Lucifora may not be enemies in this novel, the betrayal of Lucifer to God has to connect to this book in some way. I am excited to let you all know how this plays out.
Mosaic
Night's Lies by Bromania
This is a mosaic that I composed on mosaically.com. It has many pictures that describe each of the four characters and their backgrounds. For example, the devil is supposed to relate us to the fact that the students last name is Lucifora. This is a direct connection to the devil so I thought that a picture of a devil would represent that part of a character well. Also, the dagger was one of the belongings that the soldier recieved as a child. This dagger was meant to be used to kill his father, of which he followed through with. This developed his character a lot because the way he shows regret for that event shows what kind of person he is.
The main picture of this mosaic is the guillotine which every picture is put together to create. This shows two things. It shows each of the characters past backgrounbds and experiences led them to the same fate of the guillotine. This is interesting because of how different each backround was and how different each charachter was. It also shows that no matter what past event they were talking about at the moment, the doomed fate to the guillotine still lingered in their minds. They try to disguise their fears of the guillotine as past experiences, but if we take a few steps back, we see that these past experiences come together to make the same doomed fate for each character.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Second Section Surprising Disappointments (Video)
This video gives a lot of insight into the reasons that the French Revolution of 1848 occured. He also connected this to Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. This helped me understand what he was saying more when he talked about the unfair enprisonment of people like Jean Valjean. This could be a reason why the revolution occurred. Also, this could show that these prisoners in Night's Lies could have an unfair punishment for the crime they committed. Since this was such a big part of the Les Misérables and takes place in the same time as Night's Lies, This could be an aspect of Night's Lies as well. We wouldn't know unless he told us what it was that the criminals did.
Second Section Surprising Disappointments
The majority of the second section in the novel was the story of the student and the story of the baron. We already know a lot about the characters, we don't need to learn much more about them. I wish that something would actually happen instead of the prisoners telling their stories. I thought that the stories would be the prisoners pleading their cases and throwing each other under the bus in each one, but to my disappointment all they did was tell their life story from when they were growing up and something they learned from it.
For example, the student, Narcissus, told a very long story aobut how he found out what love truly was. He started with talking about how he rarely saw his father and made his way through his life all the way up to when he met the girl of his dreams. He found that he would do anything for this woman that he was madly in love with. His story ended with them running away with each other. This occured from page 39 to 55. This does reveal some different intell about this character, but we already knew enough to understand him before and now the information is just becoming boring.
I haven't been delight by much so far in the novel. It also scares me to know that I have to read two more dreadful stories from the accounts of the soldier and the poet. I was hoping for way more from this novel and was utterly disappointed by it. It still has a chance to redeem itself, but the chance is slim and is closing ever so slightly as we progress into this novel. I really do want this book to catch my interest in some way but it hasn't so far. Maybe when we finish the life stories of each and every character, we will finally be able to have some real action take place and catch my interest and prove itself worth reading.
The website, http://www.buzzle.com/articles/causes-and-events-of-the-french-revolution.html, gives great intel into why the French Revolution of 1848 happened. This revolution is what France is heading into in the time of the novel. This means that some of these causes could also be the reason why the prisoners in the novel did the things they did (which Bufalino still hasn't told us by the way...). The website says that Louis Phillipe tried to please all of the political parties of France, but by doing so angered 3 of the 4. This could be a reason why the prisoners committed their crime. They could have been part of 1 of the 3 angered parties and wanted him, out of the throne so they commited a crime. This website gives other possible reasons like this.
For example, the student, Narcissus, told a very long story aobut how he found out what love truly was. He started with talking about how he rarely saw his father and made his way through his life all the way up to when he met the girl of his dreams. He found that he would do anything for this woman that he was madly in love with. His story ended with them running away with each other. This occured from page 39 to 55. This does reveal some different intell about this character, but we already knew enough to understand him before and now the information is just becoming boring.
I haven't been delight by much so far in the novel. It also scares me to know that I have to read two more dreadful stories from the accounts of the soldier and the poet. I was hoping for way more from this novel and was utterly disappointed by it. It still has a chance to redeem itself, but the chance is slim and is closing ever so slightly as we progress into this novel. I really do want this book to catch my interest in some way but it hasn't so far. Maybe when we finish the life stories of each and every character, we will finally be able to have some real action take place and catch my interest and prove itself worth reading.
The website, http://www.buzzle.com/articles/causes-and-events-of-the-french-revolution.html, gives great intel into why the French Revolution of 1848 happened. This revolution is what France is heading into in the time of the novel. This means that some of these causes could also be the reason why the prisoners in the novel did the things they did (which Bufalino still hasn't told us by the way...). The website says that Louis Phillipe tried to please all of the political parties of France, but by doing so angered 3 of the 4. This could be a reason why the prisoners committed their crime. They could have been part of 1 of the 3 angered parties and wanted him, out of the throne so they commited a crime. This website gives other possible reasons like this.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
First Section Findings
The first forty pages of this novel move very slowly. Bufalino spends a lot of time on description of a prison and of the characters in the novel. Though this is good for our understanding of the text, it gets a little boring when aall we hear is description with no action and no excitement. His thorough description of each character left me with a lot of necessary information for understanding out main characters. The main characters all took part in conducting a massacre of some sort, we do not know of what yet, and they were captured. After appealing before a court, these men were punished to be sent to the guillotine to be decapitated on the same date.
The baron was worthy of Bufalino's first description. The baron's full name was Conrad Infagù, though he was known to close friends as Didymus. Bufalion writes, "To all appearances of a gentle character, beneath the surface he is prone to the most monstrous and inquitious designs." (Bufalino 9). This quote shows that the Baron seems like a very nice person in the beginning but on the inside he is very dark and mysterious. I'm sure this aspect of him will be developed further into the novel.
The next character that Bufalino described was the poet. This poet's full name is unknown as he is only known as Saglimbeni. In the first senc\tence of his description he is said to be mysterious and the unknown full name shows that characteristic. When Bufalino tries to tell the background of this man, all he says is that some people think he is from somewhere and others from somewhere else, even his profession is uncertain. Bufalino writes that he has a "suave and copius way with words." He also says that the man is skilled at persuading people into wrongdoing. This, in my prediction, determines that he will turn out for the worse at the end.
The soldier was next. His full name is Agesilaos Delgi Incerti. He was raised as an orphan because his unknown mother, after having him in bastard birth, decided to leave him at a convent. As he grew up he was seen to be destined for the church, but when he was sixteen he decided to get up and leave. He ran off to the military where he proclaimed he was a little older, so he could fight, and also under a new name. He is said to be moody and has a short temper. This will affect the way things play out because with his short temper we never know what will happen.
The last to be described is the student. He name is Narcissus Lucifora. This name caught my attention when i first read it. After some research I found that in Greek mythology, Narcissus was a man who fell in love with his own reflection in a lake. He fell into the lake and drowned. If this name is symbolic, then this shows us that the student is a conceited man and doesn't care much for others. Lucifora, his last name, has to be a connection to the fallen angel, Lucifer, who we all know as satan. This tells us that he has bad intentions and had the potential to be good but turned out bad. Aside from his name, Bufalino tells us that he is outspoken. If he does not conceal some of his oppinions than he will end up offending one of his comrades and lose the respect of others.
The main conflict in the novel is that a man that is called God the Father leads these four men on missions that go against the law and the government. This man is unknown to the police, but they see a way to get it out of the four men they have in custody. They offer to the four men their lives in return for the name. They say that if just one of them tells them the name, then they all will go free. First reactions of the prisoners told us that they weren't interested, but with an entire night to think about it, no one knows what will happen. I was surprised that the rate that the novel progresses is so slow, I though it would move more quickly. I predict that one mant will give the name, and they all will go free. But that will not be the end of the story, the four men will realize there is a traitor amongst them and then they will seek out to find who the traitor is.
The baron was worthy of Bufalino's first description. The baron's full name was Conrad Infagù, though he was known to close friends as Didymus. Bufalion writes, "To all appearances of a gentle character, beneath the surface he is prone to the most monstrous and inquitious designs." (Bufalino 9). This quote shows that the Baron seems like a very nice person in the beginning but on the inside he is very dark and mysterious. I'm sure this aspect of him will be developed further into the novel.
The next character that Bufalino described was the poet. This poet's full name is unknown as he is only known as Saglimbeni. In the first senc\tence of his description he is said to be mysterious and the unknown full name shows that characteristic. When Bufalino tries to tell the background of this man, all he says is that some people think he is from somewhere and others from somewhere else, even his profession is uncertain. Bufalino writes that he has a "suave and copius way with words." He also says that the man is skilled at persuading people into wrongdoing. This, in my prediction, determines that he will turn out for the worse at the end.
The soldier was next. His full name is Agesilaos Delgi Incerti. He was raised as an orphan because his unknown mother, after having him in bastard birth, decided to leave him at a convent. As he grew up he was seen to be destined for the church, but when he was sixteen he decided to get up and leave. He ran off to the military where he proclaimed he was a little older, so he could fight, and also under a new name. He is said to be moody and has a short temper. This will affect the way things play out because with his short temper we never know what will happen.
The last to be described is the student. He name is Narcissus Lucifora. This name caught my attention when i first read it. After some research I found that in Greek mythology, Narcissus was a man who fell in love with his own reflection in a lake. He fell into the lake and drowned. If this name is symbolic, then this shows us that the student is a conceited man and doesn't care much for others. Lucifora, his last name, has to be a connection to the fallen angel, Lucifer, who we all know as satan. This tells us that he has bad intentions and had the potential to be good but turned out bad. Aside from his name, Bufalino tells us that he is outspoken. If he does not conceal some of his oppinions than he will end up offending one of his comrades and lose the respect of others.
The main conflict in the novel is that a man that is called God the Father leads these four men on missions that go against the law and the government. This man is unknown to the police, but they see a way to get it out of the four men they have in custody. They offer to the four men their lives in return for the name. They say that if just one of them tells them the name, then they all will go free. First reactions of the prisoners told us that they weren't interested, but with an entire night to think about it, no one knows what will happen. I was surprised that the rate that the novel progresses is so slow, I though it would move more quickly. I predict that one mant will give the name, and they all will go free. But that will not be the end of the story, the four men will realize there is a traitor amongst them and then they will seek out to find who the traitor is.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The Preread Analysis
Night's Lies by Gesualdo Buffalino is a historical fiction novel set in the time of the Bourbon Monarchy in France. Though I did not know when this time was, after wikipedia-ing I found that the Bourbon Monarchy took place in 1830 and ending at the start of the french revolution of 1848. I know from reviews that this book is the stories of four prisoners who are senteced to death. These prisoners were all sentenced to death for plotting against the Bourbon Monarchy. The prisoners are a student, a baron, a soldier, and a poet. They are told that if they reveal who is the leader of their group then the rest will go free. They tell stories to try and prove their innocence. The stories told by the criminals conflict, and the reader is forced to make assumptions on who is the leader.
This information allows me to make many predictions about this text. I predict that because the people are coming up on a time of revolution, none of the prisoners will be spared. The people are getting aggrivated with the way they are living and want change, their anger gives the prisoners less of a chance for the guards to feel compassion for them and they most likely wouldnt want to deal with the problem of sorting out all of the lies so the simplest solution for that time period would be to send them all to the guillotine. I also predict that none of the prisoners will want to reveal the identity of their leader. I think this because everyone knows that everybody hates tattletales. And because no one wantes to be hated, no one would be a tattletale. This story is sure to be interesting with the mystery of who is the leader. The reader will be forced to make their own assumptions and answers to questions.
My reading schedule is to read to page 40 by March 4th, to page 80 by March 11th, to page 120 by March 18th, and by March 25th I will finish the book.
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