A review by applebottomjean
Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis

4.0

i have NEVER read anything like this before and am definitely going to reread it at some point in the future because i feel like my opinion will develop once the initial shock of the writing style wears off. the narrative voice is so distinct and i find the sppeaker so unlikeable and weirdly endearing in the way he reflects on his life. he's funny, really dark, blunt, morally questionable, and simultaneously self-loathing and self-obsessed?!? and so tangential. the chapters are short, and always go in the direction you least expect - one moment you're reading about the beauty of a woman he loves and in the next you're reading from the perspective of a butterfly he kills, or caught in one of his delusions where he's riding a hippopotamus. at other times, he decides the chapter is too long and simply cuts off whatever anecdote he is recalling. this novel breaks so many rules both in structure and in the moral complexity of the protagonist, so if you're looking for something experimental, unsettling, semi-abstract, and thought-provoking, this is it.

p.s. i read the Costa & Patterson translation