Olivia Thaler blog 1

This novel is very peculiar, yet very interesting. At the commencement of the novel I was very interested in the narrator’s reference to a “black bird singing.” At first I thought he was talking about death, but as I read along (and after he referenced it for a second time) I started thinking that the black bird may help display his very passionate mental state. He feels all of his emotions very deeply and intensely, and they are often times on the opposite ends of the spectrum. He even mentioned that a person can have something that makes them feel so happy, but when that thing disappoints them in a way we tend to forget it makes us happy. We let the present unhappiness make us forget that.

Michael’s relationship with Hanna is another interesting topic. I feel like she is using him, manipulating him, and simply wants him for her own sexual desires. On the contrary, he seemed genuinely in love with her. It is hard to judge because it is his first love and his first sexual encounter, so we are not sure if he really loves her or if she is just a great manipulator. She is very controlling. I have a feeling that she is not as psychologically stable as we think. When Michael left her in the morning to go get breakfast and she cried hysterically I realized that she must have had something in her past to make her act this way. This may be why she is doing something that is not accepted at all in society: having relations with a minor. Sometimes I feel like there is some part of the story that we are missing. At the beginning I thought that Michael had been dreaming of her as he was sick in his hospital bed, and that it was all his imagination since he felt he was near death. Then it became clear it was real life. Overall, I am interested in the novel and hope the second part clears some ideas up.