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Title: The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Joaquim Maria Machado De Assis, Gregory Rabassa ISBN: 0-19-510170-7 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Joyful Masterpiece
Comment: Machado de Assis! What can a say??? I was born in Brazil after all. It is really a shame that my comrade and also a reviewer: Leonardo Motta, a disciple of David Hume and Sigismund (C.S. Lewis' satirical nickname of Freud in the "Pilgrim's Regress" ) previously said "Corruption, frustrated love, cheats: this is what this book is all about." . Well Mr., that's YOUR way of looking at things, YOUR world view. You sound just like Carl Sagan and all those skeptics who are skeptics about everything except THEIR OWN skepticism (and there lies the first contradiction). Well of coarse, this philosophical debate is out of the scope of this review.
Now, about Machado de Assis? what could I say. He was born into extreme poverty, his mother was sort of portuguese and his father sort of black (I apologize for my vocabulary limitations :-). Despite of all his health problems and the inferiority complex he had, (he was about 2.5/8 black - that meant prejudice expressed outward and inward) He came to be the greatest Brazilian writer of the 19th century. His writing style differs from the hall of fame writers such as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky (who could articule the complexity of human nature describing feelings that even I wasn't aware of their existence) in both prose and point of view (perspective). His works certainly stand on their own (just like Fernado Pessoa). That's why he is regarded as great and certainly he could easily cast shadow on all the Brazilian Mordenism writers when compared with them. And I really mean ALL!!!
Rating: 5
Summary: A strange and wonderful book
Comment: "The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas" is a landmark of 19th century Brazilian fiction. The original Portuguese version by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis has been rendered into an engaging English by translator Gregory Rabassa.
The book's hero, Bras Cubas, is a sort of lovable loser who narrates his own life from beyond the grave. The book is divided up into 160 short chapters, some less than a page long. As the story unfolds we meet a colorful cast of characters: Bras Cubas himself, his beloved Virgilia, the slave Prudencio, the strange philosopher Quincas Borba, and many more.
Throughout the novel, Machado de Assis (through his fictional narrator) continually plays games with the conventions of fiction and autobiography. Whether he is instructing the reader to insert Chapter CXXX "between the first and second sentences of Chapter CXXIX" or critiquing his own writing style, Cubas/Machado de Assis is full of surprises that make this novel a literary house of mirrors.
And throughout the novel the reader encounters passages of poetic depth and psychological insight. Despite being more than 100 years old, this book has an amazingly modern feel to it. This is a major work in the great tradition of South American fiction.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wanna know about life after death? Wrong way!
Comment: The story begins by the end, literally,by showing the end of the narrator's life. From this moment on we are compelled to see how his life had been, his evaluations, regrets and happy moments. Read to whom (or "which") he dedicates the book. There's a movie version that is perfect and hillarious! A must read if you like dark, but still extremely intelligent, humor.
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Title: Dom Casmurro (Library of Latin America) by Joaquim M. Machado de Assis, John A. Gledson ISBN: 0195103092 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Quincas Borba (Library of Latin America) by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Gregory Rabassa, Joaquim M. De Assis, David T. Haberly, Celso Favaretto ISBN: 0195106822 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $21.50 |
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Title: Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado ISBN: 0380012057 Publisher: Avon Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Hour of the Star (New Directions Paperbook, 733) by Clarice Lispector ISBN: 0811211908 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation Pub. Date: 01 February, 1992 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Rebellion in the Backlands by Euclides Da Cunha ISBN: 0226124444 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1985 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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