Memorie postume di Bras Cubas (1881)

The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Brazilian author Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis was originally published in 1881, but its wit and style stands up well in today’s modern world. Machado de Assis is remarkable as an author as he produced poems, plays, stories, articles and novels and he is today considered Brazil’s greatest writer. The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas is an unusual yet fun story as the main character, Bras Cubas tells his life story from his grave. He dedicates his memoirs to the first worm to gnaw the cold flesh of his corpse.

The story unfolds with plenty of irony and caustic wit, after all he is a corpse with nothing to gain or lose from the telling. Bras Cubas was born wealthy and with high expectations, but success eluded him all his life. He never marries, and his biggest disappointment seemed to be that he didn’t leave any children behind. He tells his story over the course of 160 short chapters, revealing incidents from his life that gives the reader insight and knowledge of his character. At times he interrupts his story to make snide comments or observations directly to the reader about the human experience.

Although it felt rather experimental in nature, I quite enjoyed The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas. The author provided an interesting, slightly odd story, anchored in the history of the day that both amused and educated me. This has the feeling of a timeless classic due to his fresh writing style and witty observations. ( )

A clever way to tell a story, but I never really related to Bras Cubas. I am probably missing quite a bit in translation or by not unravelling the copious endnotes, but there just wasn't enough of a hook to make me go deeper here. ( )

This most unique novel is very well known and well regarded in Brazil, but is largely unknown elsewhere. Every once in a while it's "rediscovered" (most recently, due to a new translation) by someone who wonders how a novel from the late 19th century can be so modern.

This is my second reading (first time was back in high school), and it remains one of the most hilarious, most radical and most puzzling (in a good way) novels I've read. Like Pale Fire, which I read earlier this year, it plays so much with the form of the novel that it's hard to say what the novel is. It could be called postmodern, except it's not recent enough for that.

Part of it is a straightforward love story; part of it is social critique, and part of it is about philosophy and the human condition. The structure of the novel consists of hundreds of very short chapters, which means that it's constantly switching gears. Despite that the author of the memoirs is supposed to be dead, which means that he's not bound by time constraints or fear of public opinion, which would allow him to write an honest history of his life, his writing is full of twists and turns, never settling into a conventional narrative.

It's so full of energy that it's not surprising that people think of it as very current. It doesn't feel like a 19th century novel at all. Although, it might show a bit of age in the references it makes--and the book makes many, both to itself and to other literary works: a lot of them are references to 18th and 19th century works that might not be familiar to modern readers. (Some of them were not familiar to me, to be sure.) Otherwise it's as current as ever.
( )

An excellent read, both humorous and insightful. A wonderful tale told in a style that is engaging, witty, and a pleasure to read. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Such fun commentary on society that has many similarities to society today. ( )