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A review by lakmus
Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis
4.0
1. When I was told de Assis is peak Brazilian classics, studied in high school, 19th Century, etc. – I did not expect this writing style. At all. Combined with the story, it's somehow like a very chill and succinct Dostoyevsky (??? idk, it reminded me of "The Idiot" for some reason, although kind of inverted).
2. Culture shock moments – here you sit, reading about teenagers doing teenage things, and then it's like "oh and there were some slaves passing by" (not a literal quote). But then I remembered how classic Russian literature casually mentions serf men and women and no one (who I know) bats an eye and carries on discussing the meaning of the blue curtains and whatnot, and things just... looked different.
3. If you are looking for other painfully unaware characters: "When we were orphans", Ishiguro.
4. No but really, the main character is oblivious, sure an unreliable narrator if there ever was one – I am sure I did not pick up on everything, it'd be interesting to read other people's analyses. There are about a dozen characters at most, and somehow I can probably tell you more about the inner world of the boy with the leprosy (brief side character) than about Bentihno's mother, or cousin, or especially Capitu. After 250 pages I honestly have no clue what her mind was on all of this, which I guess is the point.
2. Culture shock moments – here you sit, reading about teenagers doing teenage things, and then it's like "oh and there were some slaves passing by" (not a literal quote). But then I remembered how classic Russian literature casually mentions serf men and women and no one (who I know) bats an eye and carries on discussing the meaning of the blue curtains and whatnot, and things just... looked different.
3. If you are looking for other painfully unaware characters: "When we were orphans", Ishiguro.
4. No but really, the main character is oblivious, sure an unreliable narrator if there ever was one – I am sure I did not pick up on everything, it'd be interesting to read other people's analyses. There are about a dozen characters at most, and somehow I can probably tell you more about the inner world of the boy with the leprosy (brief side character) than about Bentihno's mother, or cousin, or especially Capitu. After 250 pages I honestly have no clue what her mind was on all of this, which I guess is the point.