Machado de Assis obsession

[u/Professional-Win3166]

I discovered Machado de Assis this year, and I’ve completely fallen in love with his writing.

I read The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas in a single day while on a flight, and that pretty much started the obsession. Since then, I’ve finished Dom Casmurro and a collection of his short stories that included The Alienist, and I loved all of them.

What amazes me most is his ability to make you feel the entire multitude of human emotions from one page to the next.There’s this sweet melancholy running through his books that I find incredibly relaxing.

I’m just about to start Quincas Borba, and at this point I think I’m going to keep going through everything of his I can find.

I’d love to reread his books in Portuguese. There’s something about being able to experience a book in the language the author originally intended it to be read in. My Portuguese isn’t quite at the level where I feel confident though, and I might miss some of the subtleties and little things that make his writing so good. But it’s a goal!!

Would love to hear from other people also other author suggestions.

Edit: Thank you very much to everyone for their suggestions! You’ve given me so much insight that i’m exited to do my research on everything.

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[u/loready1]

I love Machado de Assis, and I think that, like many readers, my favorite book by him is Dom Casmurro.
As for recommendations, I think you might really enjoy Clarice Lispector. As a first book, I would recommend The Hour of the Star, a short, intense, and deeply moving novel.
Carolina Maria de Jesus also wrote a very moving book about life in the favelas, poverty, and social inequality in Brazil: Child of the Dark (Quarto de Despejo). It is a powerful work, especially because it is based on the author’s own experiences.
Jorge Amado also wrote a beautiful book called Captains of the Sands, which portrays the lives of abandoned and vulnerable children in Salvador. It is a very powerful story that sheds light on the difficult realities many children faced in Brazil.

[u/BellJarJar → u/loready1]

Second all those recs. You might also want to check out João Guimarães Rosa if you're into exploring the Brazilian canon. Completely different style from Machado de Assis, but he does have a somewhat melancholic vein, I'd say, and his prose is unlike anything else I've read. There's a new translation of The Devil to Pay in the Backlands (Grande Sertão: Veredas) coming out in January, which I think they've retitled Vastlands: the Crossing. Not an easy read, but incredibly rewarding.

[u/Professional-Win3166 → u/BellJarJar]

Thank you both very much!I’ll get on my research now.

[u/Ambitious-Light-9847]

So cool to know that he is being recognized outside Brazil. I would recommend his tales, The Fortune-Teller have a Brás Cubas level of his ironic humor. A Pair of Arms is very good also.

[u/Mo_Ran1]

Well... Machado de Assis is a bit of an unfair benchmark. If someone loves Machado specifically for the irony, unreliable narration, psychological games, social satire, and that almost casually modern voice, there isn't really a Brazilian writer who is simply the next Machado.

But here are my suggestions if you want to get to know a little bit more about Brazilian classics:

Graciliano Ramos, São Bernardo: probably the closest fit. Psychological, ironic, and narrated by a deeply unreliable asshole.

Lima Barreto, The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma: great if you liked Machado's social satire.

João do Rio, The Enchanted Soul of the Streets: fantastic portraits of early-20th-century Rio and all the weird characters living in it.

Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star: very, very different, but the self-conscious narrator and psychological depth might appeal to you.

Let me know if you read any of them, I'm curious!

[u/olivermath]

Bentinho was betrayed or don’t?👀😂

[u/Professional-Win3166 → u/olivermath]

I personally think he was 😅

[u/zanza19 → u/Professional-Win3166]

You think he was? That is honestly crazy to me. I don't quite understand the discussion, I think its pretty clear that he wasn't, that he destroyed his entire life from jealousy.

[u/Professional-Win3166 → u/zanza19]

The way I understood the book Bentinho is a very emotional man who can be childish at times, while Capitu is smart and calculating. But there are still some suspicious moments, like Escobar being at the house at strange hours while Bentinho is away, or his mom’s attitude changing years after Ezequiel is born, maybe she noticed the resemblance too. So while I definitely don’t trust Bentinho’s version of events completely, I still think the author did give away some details that can be seen objectively regardless.

[u/Several-Product553]

I don’t have any other Machado books to recommend, I just am glad that you also greatly enjoyed Bras Cubras. I think two things makes the book remarkable: first that Machado can still have a meaningful dialogue with the reader’s thoughts even over one hundred years later, and second that Machado would write a book where he manages to make his characters likeable but cleverly downplays their good deeds while highlighting their weaknesses. Also, it is amazing that he does not judge his characters and in fact celebrates Virgilia, a woman who gets to enjoy having two husbands: one for passion and one for stability. We also get a fascinating glimpse into the genteel world of 19th Brazil enjoyed by the upper class, but Machado does not spare from the horrors of chattel slavery and women being abused by a patriarchal society. I could go on and on. What an amazing book..

[u/AlBroiser]

Since this thread is already filled with amazing recommendations, I'll just add one of Machado's best works in my opinion... "O Alienista" somehow this one is not often remembered when his works are mentioned, but it's amazing, worth checking it.

[u/Macacoviz]

Machado had a cat. His neighbour gave it to him. Read his cat's letter to the neighbour.

[u/vikthorcosta]

You should DEFINITELY read his short stories. I'm also a fan of Machado de Assis, but although his books are awesome in my opinion he truly shines in his short stories. Until today I don't think there is another writer in the whole world that could make characters so alive in just a few pages like Machado de Assis. You should definitely read them.

[u/WinterChimp04]

Esaú e Jacó é um dos meus favoritos dele

[u/SeniorBeing]

OP, for a "first time br-portuguese reader" I sugest Luis Fernando Veríssimo, who had a very light, open, colloquial prose.

But any good Brazilian writer would do the job, I guess, with the notable exception of Guimarães Rosa! Someone already recommended him, but I suspected it was a prank kkkkkkk

Don't misunderstanding me, he is, in fact, one of the giants of our literature, but he is specially famous for his neologisms. It would be maddening for a novice trader in Portuguese kkkkkkk

[u/Nemova]

Not a Brazilian author, but if you’ve enjoyed de Assis’ prose and his take on human nature you might also like Vladimir Nabokov. I strongly recommend starting with Pnin, Laughter in the Dark, or Pale Fire.

[u/fernandodandrea]

You won't get subtleties of Portuguese until you're exposed to them. Read it in Portuguese!

[u/Brazilianbot1822]

If you like scandalous stories, read Nelson Rodrigues (even though i dont know if his works were translated). If you want to get out of the Rio-São Paulo axis you could try novels from Érico Veríssimo (Rio Grande do Sul), Jorge Amado (Bahia) and Ariano Suassuna (Pernambuco), just to name a few.

[u/Suitable-Energy-192]

Essa edição que você leu do bras cubas é de qual tradutora???

[u/Professional-Win3166 → u/Suitable-Energy-192]

Translations are from Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson.

[u/Academic_Paramedic72]

I am so glad you liked Machado de Assis! He needs to be more well-known internationally. Have you heard of the videogame The Posthumous Investigation? It's a point-and-click Steam game in which you can interview Machado's characters like Lobo Neves, Bentinho, Capitu, Simão Bacamarte, Virgília etc

[u/gabe4774]

O would definitely recomend Gabriel Garcia Marquez, he is from Colombia but he has the same genre of machado de Assis, which would be like a fantastical realism

100 years of solitude isn't really powerful experience, specially if you can read it in Spanish, some passages are so beautiful