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gusstavo's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
vizz_'s review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
guitourinho's review against another edition
4.0
Machado de Assis é surreal, um dos maiores brasileiros de todos os tempos.
Confesso que mais para o final (não sei o motivo explicitamente) fui perdendo o fôlego, logo na questão crucial. Adiantando aqui... não acho que tenha traído, na verdade, Bentinho é bem histérico. O que eu gosto desse livro é por mais que o narrador tenha influenciado a gente a acreditar em certas coisas, a experiência de vida é extremamente crucial para chegarmos a conclusão sobre esse relacionamento. Ou seja, pessoas frustradas tem uma queda para achar que a Capitu é uma traíra, e pessoas acostumadas com fortes figuras femininas tem a tendência de apoiar a menina.
E aqui tem muito de Brasil também, desde a promessa antes mesmo de Bento Santiago nascer, mas até mesmo no jeito brasileiro de se safar de uma divida divina.
Confesso que mais para o final (não sei o motivo explicitamente) fui perdendo o fôlego, logo na questão crucial. Adiantando aqui... não acho que tenha traído, na verdade, Bentinho é bem histérico. O que eu gosto desse livro é por mais que o narrador tenha influenciado a gente a acreditar em certas coisas, a experiência de vida é extremamente crucial para chegarmos a conclusão sobre esse relacionamento. Ou seja, pessoas frustradas tem uma queda para achar que a Capitu é uma traíra, e pessoas acostumadas com fortes figuras femininas tem a tendência de apoiar a menina.
E aqui tem muito de Brasil também, desde a promessa antes mesmo de Bento Santiago nascer, mas até mesmo no jeito brasileiro de se safar de uma divida divina.
roxanaosman's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
karinlib's review against another edition
4.0
Dom Casmurro is looking back on his life, trying to tie the beginning and ending together, so he starts writing his memoirs. He states that he has a terrible memory, yet he persists. The memoirs start at age 15 when he begins to realize that he has fallen in love with the next-door-neighbor girl, Capitu. At age 15, Dom Casmurro's name is Bento Santiago. A family retainer Jose Dias, very influential with Bento's mother Gloria, puts seemingly innocent ideas into Bento's head, that have lasting consequences.
Bento has a problem, he has been destined for the priesthood. He shouldn't be falling in love with anyone. Bento and Capitu devise a way for him to not become a priest. Deciding to confide in Jose Dias about his wish not to go to seminary, asks for him to intercede. Bento ends up going to seminary anyway, long enough to become friends with Escobar, who remains a friend with Bento a long time.
In the end, Bento and Capitu marry, then it becomes interesting.
Bento has a problem, he has been destined for the priesthood. He shouldn't be falling in love with anyone. Bento and Capitu devise a way for him to not become a priest. Deciding to confide in Jose Dias about his wish not to go to seminary, asks for him to intercede. Bento ends up going to seminary anyway, long enough to become friends with Escobar, who remains a friend with Bento a long time.
In the end, Bento and Capitu marry, then it becomes interesting.
narkissah's review against another edition
O Machado é um gênio, mas não posso dar nota porque foi pura tortura estar na cabeça do Bentinho.
ayami's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 rounded down.
This classic of Brazilian literature is hard to rate. The set up (honestly, the 2/3 of the book) was a chore to get through. And yet, the discussion I had with my friends about the book afterwards was extremely satisfying and left me itching to pick the book up again and revisit everything I might have missed the first time around.
The real fun of the book lies in its intriguing structure - the narrator often breaks the fourth wall, decides to leave conversations half-finished or tries to distract you by quickly changing the topic. What is it that he doesn’t want you to see?
Can’t really comment on the translation as I’ve listened to this one in Portuguese (audiobook is available for free via Spotify). I did get an English copy from my library hoping to get some additional insight from the Introduction and the Afterword - unfortunately both were pretty useless, failing to give any extra details about the author or the times he lived in and instead waxed academic about the „meaning of a truth”.
This classic of Brazilian literature is hard to rate. The set up (honestly, the 2/3 of the book) was a chore to get through. And yet, the discussion I had with my friends about the book afterwards was extremely satisfying and left me itching to pick the book up again and revisit everything I might have missed the first time around.
The real fun of the book lies in its intriguing structure - the narrator often breaks the fourth wall, decides to leave conversations half-finished or tries to distract you by quickly changing the topic. What is it that he doesn’t want you to see?
Can’t really comment on the translation as I’ve listened to this one in Portuguese (audiobook is available for free via Spotify). I did get an English copy from my library hoping to get some additional insight from the Introduction and the Afterword - unfortunately both were pretty useless, failing to give any extra details about the author or the times he lived in and instead waxed academic about the „meaning of a truth”.
sofiadidonato's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
vandarpapi's review against another edition
4.0
To be honest, I'm not even sure if I like his character that much, but it is mainly through his narration that I can not hesitate to be entertained by him...
Dom Casmurro is a fitting description for Bentinho Santiago's alter ego: a reserved person of hatred and jealousy filled with aristocratic airs. He's a man with a world on his own, and only through his wit and knack at writing did he attempt 'to tie together the two ends of his life' starting with his childhood adoration with Capitú, leading to his distant life in the present. In his own account is where we embark on Bentinho's expansive imagination and closely assess his natural inclination towards a slowly declining relationship because of his green-eyed vision that he would never get past.
It is to be noted that in the course of its reading, it has almost half of the entire pages as its separate chapters (two pages per chapter on average). The plot and narration meanders every single time but in the best way possible as he put his caricature in the front, giving special nods to some literary references on the way (the best example would be the chapter about the opera, which clearly encompasses everything you are about to read from the start). This is a display of the narrator's writing prowess as he wouldn't also be bothered in landing some comical phrases in between, even though at times, I admit, that I can't pinpoint what he's saying. But then I just laughed for the sake of my stupidity, Bentinho is a dense person anyway.
Now, for the material itself, it is surprisingly an easy fluid reading with the narrator as the captain of the ship that sails us through the depths below his submerged thoughts. There were some nuances that he even dared to interpolate further to avoid leaving his readers some ambiguity, resulting in a peculiar mix of twisted fantasy and overriped phrasings. This is pretty apparent to some chapters where he went ballastic to certain scenes, which then shows the narrator's fragility in pouring his heart out to the following paragraphs. It was as if he created various journal entries, assuring that we would read every single one of it, though admittedly aware that it was contradicting to some.
To sum it all up, Dom Casmurro is a very convincing piece of a classic adaptation of another tragedy classic. The prose it conceives is in itself more poetic in its overall message. Machado de Assis' insane storytelling with effective foreshadowing of scenes has made it entirely possible that you kind of imagine that this is more like Bentinho's story than his very own.
If you made it this far, I'm very glad of your reading of it. But I just wanted to straighten up some details so spoilers ahead ⚠️
———————————————————————————
In the closing moments of the book, Bentinho's final conviction of his son being the spitting image of his best friend Escobar and that his wife Capitú cheated on him, could only be some sort of delusion from the narrator. After all, we only heard the perspective of Bentinho and not his wife. It could be completely possible that Ezekiel looks like the seminarist without being its father. Bentinho, on the other hand, has been living within his mind rent-free ever since his first suspicion that his wife has become disloyal to him about the contracts. His mind went fuzzy that, at times, he dreamt of killing them both, but he can't.
———————————————————————————
4 ⭐️ (10/27/2023)
Dom Casmurro is a fitting description for Bentinho Santiago's alter ego: a reserved person of hatred and jealousy filled with aristocratic airs. He's a man with a world on his own, and only through his wit and knack at writing did he attempt 'to tie together the two ends of his life' starting with his childhood adoration with Capitú, leading to his distant life in the present. In his own account is where we embark on Bentinho's expansive imagination and closely assess his natural inclination towards a slowly declining relationship because of his green-eyed vision that he would never get past.
It is to be noted that in the course of its reading, it has almost half of the entire pages as its separate chapters (two pages per chapter on average). The plot and narration meanders every single time but in the best way possible as he put his caricature in the front, giving special nods to some literary references on the way (the best example would be the chapter about the opera, which clearly encompasses everything you are about to read from the start). This is a display of the narrator's writing prowess as he wouldn't also be bothered in landing some comical phrases in between, even though at times, I admit, that I can't pinpoint what he's saying. But then I just laughed for the sake of my stupidity, Bentinho is a dense person anyway.
Now, for the material itself, it is surprisingly an easy fluid reading with the narrator as the captain of the ship that sails us through the depths below his submerged thoughts. There were some nuances that he even dared to interpolate further to avoid leaving his readers some ambiguity, resulting in a peculiar mix of twisted fantasy and overriped phrasings. This is pretty apparent to some chapters where he went ballastic to certain scenes, which then shows the narrator's fragility in pouring his heart out to the following paragraphs. It was as if he created various journal entries, assuring that we would read every single one of it, though admittedly aware that it was contradicting to some.
To sum it all up, Dom Casmurro is a very convincing piece of a classic adaptation of another tragedy classic. The prose it conceives is in itself more poetic in its overall message. Machado de Assis' insane storytelling with effective foreshadowing of scenes has made it entirely possible that you kind of imagine that this is more like Bentinho's story than his very own.
If you made it this far, I'm very glad of your reading of it. But I just wanted to straighten up some details so spoilers ahead ⚠️
———————————————————————————
In the closing moments of the book, Bentinho's final conviction of his son being the spitting image of his best friend Escobar and that his wife Capitú cheated on him, could only be some sort of delusion from the narrator. After all, we only heard the perspective of Bentinho and not his wife. It could be completely possible that Ezekiel looks like the seminarist without being its father. Bentinho, on the other hand, has been living within his mind rent-free ever since his first suspicion that his wife has become disloyal to him about the contracts. His mind went fuzzy that, at times, he dreamt of killing them both, but he can't.
———————————————————————————
4 ⭐️ (10/27/2023)
qtcarolyn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25