Reviews

Macunaíma by Mário de Andrade

kaitkatsu's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

hercules if he was evil and on acid and in brazil

moo_nyx's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

muribr's review against another edition

1.0

Ai que preguiça desse livro..

brenommk's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

eni_iilorak's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

[English below]

Die Übersetzung von Curt Meyer-Clason verdient einen Preis. Das muss eine echte Herausforderung gewesen sein. Auch in der Übersetzung hat das Buch einen ganz besonderen Rhythmus, und das ist der wesentliche Grund, weshalb es sich toll liest. Für vieles in diesem Buch fehlt mir der kulturelle Schlüssel. Aber das ist in Ordnung. Ein echtes Hindernis ist die konstante Gewalt gegen Frauen, an deren fehlender Einordnung das Alter des Buchs deutlich wird.

[EN:]
Impossible to rate with stars. I don't doubt that this is an important book, but many details are hard to appreciate without the right cultural and/or academic background. That's fine, though! It wasn't written primarily for me.

What kept me going was the book's unique flow and the interesting language. Hats off to the translator!

There are lots of etiological myths (stories that explain why a certain thing exists or is the way it is), which I love. The development of a jaguar into the first automobile was my favourite.

The constant (sexualised) violence against women is hard to bear. I understand the book is based on myths and folktales, and European myths are no better. But more recent myth-based novels tend to deal with this aspect in some way. This book doesn't. It just reproduces it, which truly makes it feel 100 years old. Also, most other myth-based novels I have read were written by women, which goes to show that it really matters who tells a story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Alcohol

Minor: Gun violence, Slavery, Pregnancy, and War

david_wright's review against another edition

5.0

Preeminent Brazilian modernist Mário de Andrade’s audacious 1928 saga gets a brilliant new translation from Dodson. Andrade’s narrative follows the protean exploits, sexual and otherwise, of Macunaíma, an outrageous trickster who emerges jet black from the virgin forest, only to turn white as his journeys take him into industrialized São Paulo. Macunaíma’s antiheroic catchphrase “Ah! just so lazy…!” is belied by the magnitude of his misadventures, a rollicking rush of trickery, transformation and offhand cosmological creation. In a decided improvement over the prior translation’s Britishisms, Dodson renders Andrade’s staunchly vernacular Brazilian Portuguese in a slangy, folksy American diction that captures the story’s orality. Andrade’s omnivorous, polyglot style is liberally seasoned with Indigenous terms, snatches of song, nonce words and nonsense, combined in a vigorous and often incantatory “primitive” mode. This is offset by parodies of European elaboration, such as breasts that “do indeed serve in numerous and arduous labours of excellent virtue and prodigious excitation.” It’s a huge amount of fun. Dodson’s smartly curated endnotes gloss a selection of unfamiliar terms and references, without the distraction of footnotes or scholarly paraphernalia. It’s been said that Macunaíma put the magic in magical realism. Whatever its progeny may be, Andrade’s weird and wondrous tour de force is that rarity: a truly original masterpiece, and one deserving a place in any library of world literature.

w0carolina's review against another edition

4.0

A prosa é simplesmente incrível! Existe muito de absurdo e nonsense, que não pode ser exatamente chamado de fantasia, pois não tem lógica! Tem muito folclore, mas não parece muito acurado, fica simplesmente como divertido e irreverente. 

Mas ah, é difícil. Torci contra Macunaíma o tempo todo. Esse negócio de anti-herói pode ser cômico, mas não gera simpatia. Menos simpatia ainda, gera a extrema misoginia de Macunaíma e seus irmãos. Mas não estou descontente com a leitura, apenas ciente de que muitos (definitivamente não todos) autores homens tem essas percepções horríveis sobre os relacionamentos entre homens e mulheres.


É compreensível porque Macunaíma é um personagem clássico, todo mundo conhece um ou mais Macuinaimas. E bom, a prosa tentou criar algo novo, de acordo com o movimento modernista, e conseguiu. Várias técnicas de linguagem, figuras e escolhas estilísticas que eu nunca tinha visto usada antes. Definitivamente, divertido para de ouvir, ou ler em voz alta.

seatrein's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

nsfoliveira's review against another edition

funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

vinireadsbooks's review against another edition

3.0

??????????
3 stars???? i guess??????