moby has a shrimp dick

Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli depicts a woman living in Mexico City with her husband and children, writing a novel about a woman living in New York City. It is not clear whether this story is the past life of the writer, or if these memories are just fictitious creations. Just like the woman living in Mexico City, the character which very well may have been her past self, is writing about a Mexican poet, Gilbert Owens. The lines between what is real and what is just the writer’s creation become blurred when portions of Owens’s own writings are parallel to what the narrator is choosing to commit to paper.

The first detail that interested me about this novel, was the meaning of the * and paragraph divisions. At first, I thought it had to do with the separation of ideas or time skips, but then eventually realized it was the switch between the writer and her work. I was impressed with the author’s ability to maintain a cohesive and clear depiction of both stories, despite the switching back and forth. At no point was I getting lost between both narratives.

The narrator seemed to be escaping into this previous life of hers (maybe real life?) by escaping sleep and time with her family to write about the memories and characters of her past life. She seemed almost envious of the time and excitement that was her past, which is in great contrast to the boring and habitual nature of her current life in Mexico City. The author barely has the time to get away from her children and husband, to spend on her writing. She depicts the time with her family (in my eyes) to be boring, and repetitive. Unlike the story she is writing, which is filled with socializing and exciting stories at bars or having sex with characters of the past.

The big question in my mind is if the story she is writing is real, or how much of it is? I find it hard to believe that it is either entirely not real, or completely real. The unlikely coincidence that what Owen wanted to write about happens to be exactly the life of the narrator, leads me to believe that this story cannot be 100% real. At the same time, the hiding of the true nature of her characters like Moby from her husband, shows me the narrator has some truths she wants to hide. So I believe the narrator is creating a mixture of truth and fiction.

Discussion Question: Do you think the coincidence of what Owen wanted to write, and the life of the narrator is just luck? Or do you think there is a twisting of truth to perhaps make the story more cohesive?
-Rhys