A review by lit_terary
The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition by Fernando Pessoa

5.0

Honestly, this is simultaneously a 1-star and a 5-stars rating, no in-between. This has been a frustrating, painful and insufferable reading experience that has taken so much from me all through-out. Being so immersed in another human being's pain and struggle is not easy nor fun (especially when you're not doing so fine your self), and that's really all this "book" is about. 300-pages of introspecting, self-indulgent reflections on the meaning (or lack there-of) of life and not being able to find a way live it. Enjoyment-wise this has to be one of the worst books I've ever had, to the point where it gave me physical pain reading it. So many times I wanted to put it down and shove it out of my life, but something about it just had me stuck with it, because never in my life have I ever felt so acknowledged, understood, seen. A lot (more than I care to admit) deeply resonated with me and my current state of mind; a lot of it brought me to tears. Not trying to be too emo over here, but reading this was straight up like pouring salt over knife-cuts, and that wasn't pretty. Some part of me just wants to hate this book, give it a 1-star and call it quits, but I can't punish a book for hitting me too hard. Isn't that what we all should expect from good books?

+Also, the writing was the perfect amount of lyrical, poetic and luscious, and overall extremely pleasurable.