LOVE BOMBING?! – The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda

Hi everyone:)

I hope you all had an amazing reading break. I can’t believe we are almost at the halfway mark of the term; man, does time fly!

So let’s talk about “The Time of the Doves” by Mercè Rodoreda. I had many thoughts while reading this book – the first one being, umm… are we ever going to read a book that’s rainbows and sunshine? Like, why is all the content so sad?!:( And then this got me thinking, most shows/movies I’ve watched recently, that are considered to be trending and popular, are also extremely depressing. So basically, media overall tends to focus on stories which make us feel not the happiest emotions LOL. This got me thinking about some of the questions asked at the beginning of the course – what makes a good book – and perhaps this is a key part of it. Books that bring out emotions, and make you feel something. IDK, that was a side tangent this weeks reading spiralled me into.

Okay, now on the actual book, the last few books I read in this class were written from a male perspective, so I found it refreshing reading from Natalia’s point of view, especially being a woman myself. Furthermore, I found it quite interesting to read a piece that is set during war and revolution, but focused on how it impacted a female living through it. This book touches on love – Natalia and Quimet; however, as I read more and more I began doubting this love story. I think this relationship highlights how we can be blinded by love in the beginning, when our partner says and does all the right things; however, things can quickly turn south.

Towards the beginning of the book we see Natalia get caught up in Quimet’s charm, and fall madly in love. She leaves her current partner and quickly gets married and moves on with Quimet. Things seem perfect, Quimet seems perfect; however, over the course of the book he becomes controlling and possessive, getting angry at things like Natalia being alone with other men.

I feel like this can be seen as a universal experience for some women. I know girls who have been in somewhat similar situations, the relationship starts off perfect – you finally find a man who is funny, kind, caring, charming, AND madly in love with YOU. It seems like you’ve found our very own princess charming! But as time moves on, you start noticing little things, comments about your outfits (you shouldn’t dress a certain way), they get weird about who you hangout with, they try to change the way you act/do things. Since you’ve become attached and they were once perfect, it is hard to leave the situation. This can be seen as manipulation, through love bombing, and you begin to question if any of it was ever real…

Discussion Question: Do you think Quimet was using loving bombing as a way to manipulate Natalia to fall for him?